Friday, May 21, 2004
A Question of Competence
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi on Thursday sharply questioned President Bush’s competence as a leader, suggesting his policy in Iraq is to blame for the loss of U.S. lives. That assessment drew a furious response by Republicans who called on the Democratic leader to apologize.
“The emperor has no clothes,” Pelosi, D-California, told reporters on Thursday. “When are people going to face the reality? Pull this curtain back.”
“The situation in Iraq and the reckless economic policies in the United States speak to one issue for me, and that is the competence of our leader,” Pelosi said. “These policies are not working. But speaking specifically to Iraq, we have a situation where—without adequate evidence—we put our young people in harm’s way.”
Asked specifically if she was calling Bush incompetent, Pelosi replied:
“I believe that the president’s leadership in the actions taken in Iraq demonstrate an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment and experience in making the decisions that would have been necessary to truly accomplish the mission without the deaths to our troops and the cost to our taxpayers.”
Pelosi charged the Bush administration has proved itself wrong on a number of issues with Iraq, including its initial assertions that Iraqis would welcome U.S. troops and that Iraq itself could pay for much of the reconstruction effort.
“Rocket-propelled grenades, not rose petals, greeted them,” Pelosi said of U.S. troops. “Instead ... of Iraq being a country that would readily pay for its own reconstruction ... we’re up to over $200 billion in cost to the American people.”
Pelosi did not back down, even when asked if her comments would undermine Bush’s abilities as commander in chief.
“His activities, his decisions, the results of his actions are what undermines his leadership, not my statement,” Pelosi said. “My statements are just a statement of fact.”
Monday, May 10, 2004
Chicken(hawk)s coming home to roost
Well, it’s been a disturbing couple of weeks - no, who am I kidding? - how about 3 1/2 years…
Today, Bush told Rumsfeld he was “doing a superb job” as Secretary of Defense. Guess it goes to prove that nobody ever takes a fall for anything in this administration. Nobody has been disciplined for any aspect of 9/11, or lying to get us into war, or grossly mismanaging the aftermath of the invasion. Or any of a hundred other acts of willful negligence or outright malfeasance.
And now this - one of the “worse things to come” that Rumsfeld himself warned about in his testimony last Friday. Photos of Iraqi women being raped by U.S. troops. (note: server now down) Be forewarned, it’s pretty rough stuff. So much for any last vestige of the “moral high ground” and claims of “we’re bringing them democracy”. If this is going to represent the face of democracy to the Muslim world, they’ll fight it to their last breath. As would we.
We’re better than Saddam because he tortured, raped and killed the Iraqi people and left mass graves behind. See, we didn’t get to the mass graves. We got caught before we got to that stage.
What we have seen in the last couple weeks is absolutely sickening and revolting, and is the direct result of administration policy, starting with the declarations that we don’t have to obey international law. Like the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or our agreements with Russia over nuclear weapons or missile defense. Or international environmental agreements, or not being subject to the International Criminal Court. And that was before the so-called “War on Terror”.
After 9/11, Rumsfeld declared that we were no longer going to abide by the Geneva Convention in the conduct of war or in dealing with prisoners. You can see the results of this policy in the paper, everyday. These are war crimes, plain and simple.
But the real concern the administration has is about damage control, to put a lid on this and get things back to “normal” and of course, to hope that this doesn’t turn into a political issue. After all, thank god it isn’t a real item of national importance like the President got a blowjob from an intern or something like that…
Since the administration won’t hold their own accountable, let’s hope the American people do in November.
One thing that gives me hope is that today I finally saw a Kerry ad that said something substantive about him and his values. It’s the first one I’ve seen that has had any impact. About damn time.
Another is this excerpt from a Wisconsin newspaper, begging people to write some pro-Bush letters so that they can appear to be “balanced”, since virtually all of the letters to the editor these days are highly critical of Bush. I wonder why?
Editorial: We need more letters to achieve a balance
Letters to the editor, a staple of The Post-Crescent’s Views pages, are a way to take the political and social temperature of the Valley. A well-written letter allows readers to ponder different points of view, perhaps made more poignant because the author is someone you might know. At best, they should offer a full spectrum of beliefs and topics.
Recently, though, as the race for president heats up, we’ve been dealing with this quandary: How can we balance the perspectives and topics of our letters when many of our submissions have been coming only from one side?
We’ve been getting more letters critical of President Bush than those that support him. We’re not sure why, nor do we want to guess. But in today’s increasingly polarized political environment, we would prefer our offering to put forward a better sense of balance.
Since we depend upon you, our readers, to supply our letters, that goal can be difficult. We can’t run letters that we don’t have.
- Bob Woods
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Bush Fatigue
Today’s bit of ugliness - A report about U.S. soldiers who detained an elderly Iraqi woman in her 70s, placed a harness on her and made her crawl on all fours and rode her like a donkey. She is still traumatized by this treatment, several months later. Just one more example of “your tax dollars at work”...
I read in Maureen Dowd’s column in the NY Times that the only thing that seems to upset Republicans about this long string of bad news is that Jeb Bush would probably not be able to succeed his brother. “By 2008,” a wistful Republican fund-raiser said, “there’ll probably be Bush fatigue.”
I got news for you, pal - the whole world’s got “Bush fatigue” already. Wake up and smell the hubris.
- Bob Woods
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
From the "Excrement In Broadcasting" Network
Just thought you’d like to know what that great windbag Rush Limbaugh thinks about the appalling physical and sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners by Americans…
CALLER: It was like a college fraternity prank that stacked up naked men --
LIMBAUGH: Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the Skull and Bones initiation and we’re going to ruin people’s lives over it and we’re going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I’m talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?
And these American prisoners of war—have you people noticed who the torturers are? Women! The babes! The babes are meting out the torture.
You know, if you look at—if you, really, if you look at these pictures, I mean, I don’t know if it’s just me, but it looks just like anything you’d see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe I’m—yeah. And get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean, this is something that you can see on stage at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City—the movie. I mean, I don’t—it’s just me.
- Bob Woods
Saturday, May 01, 2004
"Mission Accomplished" - NOT!
Remember that lovely little scene one year ago today?
When Bush staged a carrier landing and strutted around the deck in a flight suit, declaring “Mission Accomplished”? That major combat was now over in Iraq? That we would be down to 30,000 troops by the end of the summer? That we would find the WMDs any day now?
Not!
“One year later, despite many challenges, life for the Iraqi people is a world away from the cruelty and corruption of Saddam’s regime. At the most basic level of justice, people are no longer disappearing into political prisons, torture chambers, and mass graves”
Not!
This quote was from Bush’s weekly radio address today, even as we were hearing about the torture and abuse of Iraqi prisoners in the same prison that Saddam used for the same purpose, at the hands of American troops. News that broke at the end of the bloodiest month yet for our soldiers, over 140 dead in April, more than in the initial invasion itself.
Lies to get us into this war, lies during it, lies afterwards.
Lies about Kerry’s record. Lies about his own.
Lies about the economy, the environment, and taxes.
Lies upon lies upon lies.
And he thinks he deserves to be re-elected.
Not!
- Bob Woods
