Even though, the Republicans on the House floor had hardly a word of complaint about Pete Stark (D-CA) accusing the president of having no conscience about the deaths of the thousands of valiant troops he sent to Iraq, while at the same time stealing medicines from children, (including soldiers children), the right wing noise machine has now decided to condemn him.

How about we condemn the Republican leadership for mercilessly obstructing every congressional action of merit, including the SCHIP program that has 81% national approval?

How about we condemn the Republican leadership for resorting to filibusters at a historic record pace, since they lost the majorities in Congress?

How about we condemn the Republican leadership for doing nothing to hold the White House accountable for their lies, mismanagement and shredding of the Constitution?

How about we condemn the Republican leadership for using our troops as political props?

How about we condemn the Republican leadership for their cynical hypocrisy by saying they are righteous, while being the most corrupt group who have ever held national office?

How about we condemn the Republican leadership for seeking to hold others to a standard of decorum that they themselves repeatedly violate with hateful and false negative attack ads.

In 2000, Frank Luntz, the important Republican pollster, advised the Bush Administration to make sure the public felt there were still questions about global warming.   If the public learned that the facts on global warming were final, Republicans would loose in the next election.  He advised them to find global warming deniers and bring them in to debate and question the validity of the science.   The Administration complied, (going so far as to change scientific papers being released to the public), even though Luntz now says publicly he believes man-made global warming exists.  Exxon Mobil is still paying deniers, even though other gas companies are seeing dollar signs and branching out into alternative energies.

The Ken Burns PBS TV documentary on World War II makes the point that when the war started, there weren't enough tanks and planes.  What did President Roosevelt do?  He brought in the Chicago car manufacturers and told them he needed them to make these machines immediately.  They said they would do their best to fit them in while making cars.  He told them that they didn't understand, that he needed those tanks and planes immediately.  So he issued legislation that stopped them making cars until the war was over.  And that is what happened.  Those factories built tanks and planes 24 hours a day and we won the war.  We need the same sort of determination from our Administration now.  It would be a wonderful bonus to our economy.

After watching the wonderful new PBS series by Ken Burns, The War,  I was impressed by how American's pulled together in the 1940's to support the troops and the war effort.  

It seems that all we have been asked to do for this war is go shopping, so how about going shopping for the war. 

I just heard this today.  How about we create a flat tax and every American puts $100 towards the war in Iraq?   $100 for each man, woman and child would help fund this supplemental. 

Because, like our own bills, we are paying for the war on credit, we don't feel it.   But like our own bills, we will have to pay for it some day.  I think we should be responsible adults and pay as we go, instead of borrowing from China and leaving it to our grandkids.

Dear Editor,

What do you think of this Congress?  Are you amongst the 11% who think it is doing a good job?  That could be because the art of using obstructionism to defeat or delay an opponent's agenda is reaching all time highs in Washington.

Senator Webb's bill to give the troops equal time at home passed by 55 votes, but due to procedural tactics, it now takes 60 votes or more to pass. Since the congress passed to the Democrats, there is almost three times as much political
gridlock happening.  This year only 89 bills have made it to the president - does that obstructionism make the Democrats look bad?

Even with so much important work yet to be done, there was still time to limit free speech by censuring comments on the military.  This was because of the MoveOn.org ad that asked the question; Did General Petraeus betray us by
twisting the facts?  In the hoopla, the body of the ad wasn't discussed.

It said: In August and September, the GAO, NIE, Jones CSIS, AP and L.A. Times reports all say the situation on the ground since the surge is worse.  The NY Times says car bombs aren't counted. The Washington Post says deaths only count
if a person is shot in the front of the head, not the back.

There have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths in the past three months than in any other summer. Neighborhoods that are quieter have already been ethnically cleansed.  Don't let the withdrawal of a few thousand troops confuse you into thinking they are bringing troops home, the army can't maintain the rotational numbers. Are we being betrayed?

Interestingly enough, the Democrats weren't able to pass an amendment condeming the 2000 & 2004 personal attacks on military Senators Max Cleland and John Kerry.

Will you believe the non-partisan Government Accountability Office (GAO), the CIA, the National Intelligency Estimate (NIE) and the Defense Intelligence Agency OR the Administration and it's senior officers in Baghdad, who say that reductions in violence proves that their war strategy is working.

The GAO, CIA, NIE, DIA along with the Washington Post, the Associated Press and the New York Times all call the military's findings into question.

Watch Gen. David Petraeus say that sectarian deaths are down 75% since the beginning of the 'surge' so that we stay for another 10 years.  To get that 75%, they are cherry-picking facts and re-writing reports and using misleading data to claim progress, rather than show the facts that the escalation is not working.  

While being the bloodiest summer for American troops running at double the pace of last year, Iraqi sectarian violence is also doubling in the north as people leave Baghdad. 

As for counting Iraqi deaths, they are only counting if someone is shot in the back of the head, not in the front of the head.  They are not counting deaths by car bombs or Shiite-on-Shiite and Sunni-on-Sunni violence, except in certain instances. 

The AP counted 1,809 civilian deaths in August, making it the highest monthly total this year.  This year Iraq has double the war-related deaths over last year.  Daily totals were 33 in 2006, they are 62 so far this year.  The number of displaced Iraqis civilians has more than doubled from 447,337 on Jan 1st to 1.14 million on July 31st.

If the president wants to connect Iraq with Vietnam and his administration cares so much about the killing of Iraqis if American troops were to draw down, then how come we have only let 700 Iraqi refugees into this country since the begining of this war and occupation.   There are thousands who have helped the Americans and whose lives are now in danger.  There are also millions of Iraqis who have had to flee their homes due to this religious civil war.  Why aren't we helping the countries that have opened their borders to these refugees. 

If the president wants so much to bring freedom to Iraqis, I'm not sure that we are a very good example for them any more.  In 2002, while giving a speech on our first amendment right, the Freedom of Speech, two dissenters were arrested for wearing anti Bush t-shirts.  We now find that the administration is completely organized about the president or the press not seeing any form of dissent.  It's a shame they can't bring those great organizational skills to such problems as Katrina and broken bridges.

When the Bankruptcy Bill passed in 2005 it asked people to take personal responsibility for their spending and not to binge on credit cards.  As it turns out, most families go bankrupt due to medical bills and divorce.  The government likes to make sure that we are regulated, but doesn't seem to be concerned about the banking and credit card industries.  It's called Free Trade, especially when credit card companies can charge whatever interest they want and payday loan companies can charge our brave service people over 600% in interest. 

Last week's stock market panic bought on by the sub-prime mortgage melt-down and the resultant credit squeeze was a case in point.  Instead of taking responsibility for what transpired, the unregulated hedge funds and banks went straight to the Federal Reserve and World Banks for a bail out.  What did the banks do?  They started the printing presses in Japan, Europe and the U.S.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if when your business got into trouble, you could go to the Federal Reserve for help?  It looks like hedge funds and banks can do anything and they will get bailed out.  It's SOCIALISM for big business, crony capitalism.  It puts a different twist on the term 'FREE trade'.   

Are we living in the World of Oz? 

We have a Vice President that needs a Heart

We have an Attorney General who needs some Courage

We have a President that needs some Brains