Bush turns to an old punching bag...

John Kerry.

Story.

Kerry told a group of college students that they had better do well in school, or they would find themselves "stuck in Iraq."

Now Bush is right, its not the time or place to take a shot at those who are brave enough to serve our country in a Iraq.

On the other hand, Kerry made it clear immediately thereafter that he was making a joke about the President, not about the troops.

He was making a statement about our job market.

He was making a statement about our education system.

He was making a statement about the limited options our youth have today.

He was making a joke about the President's domestic and foreign policy.

And Bush turned it into Kerry being un-American.

"The senator's suggestion that the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and shameful," Bush said. "The men and women who serve in our all-volunteer armed forces are plenty smart and are serving because they are patriots -- and Senator Kerry owes them an apology."

I'm confused because, if I remember the facts correctly, John Kerry served our country in a time of war.

George W. Bush did not.

Wow, I just had an flashback to this time 2 years ago.

What does it say about the President that he is still busy taking shots at John Kerry instead of working out any number of our major crisis?

I'm not saying that Kerry's joke was in good taste, or even funny, but I don't understand why President Bush is involved in this discussion.

Former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia defended Kerry:

"John Kerry is a patriot who has fought tooth and nail for veterans ever since he came home from Vietnam. He has stood with his brothers in arms unlike this administration, which exploits our troops to make a political point and divide America,"

Same old shit.

Stay Tuned...

Criticism -- an Integral Part of Democracy.

Justice Stephen Breyer and retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor say criticism is part of a democracy.

Both a current and former Supreme Court justice told CNN they are not unaware of the criticism aimed at them, but they said such criticism is an integral part of life in a democracy.

Story

This is a feel good story, as 67% of Americans polled have said that elected officials should not have more control measures over federal judges.

Only 30% said they should.

41% of Americans felt that federal judges had the proper political balance and influence, where 34% felt they are too liberal, and 20% said they were too conservative.

This looks like one of the primary "battle cries" of the conservatives has failed to find an audience.

No one is buying the "activist-liberal judge" crisis.

Now we just need some of these people to show up and vote.

Stay Tuned...

“A world without walls is the only sustainable world. . ."

President Bush, in one of the most weakly veiled political misdirections of recent memory, signed into law the "Secure Fence Act of 2006." The plan calls for a 700-mile fence to be constructed along approximately 1/3 of the United States southern border with Mexico.

Mexican President Vincente Fox is outraged.

We've seen other countries put up fences and walls.

Israel has had to construct walls to protect itself from a "tough neighborhood".

Israeli concern is that if they don't protect themselves, they will be flooded with Islamic Fundamentalist who wish to blow themselves up in crowded areas, killing hundreds of Israelis.

China has a wall.

They built it to keep out the Mongolian invaders, who had been kicking Chinese ass for a long time.

The Germans fortified their country in about...1936.

That was a sign of positive things.

North Korea and South Korea are divided by all types of protective walls.

Most of them are in the form of land-mines.

Fences aren't good for International Relations.

Take a look at what the OAS had to say:

The Organization of American States released a statement Wednesday from Mexico and 27 regional countries expressing "deep concern" over the fence measure. The statement further called the proposal "a unilateral measure that goes against the spirit of understanding that should characterize how shared problems between neighboring countries are handled and that affects cooperation in the hemisphere."

CNN.com

Fear not Canadians...we've not forgotten you!

The legislation included this little gem:

(a) In General- The Secretary of Homeland Security shall conduct a study on the feasibility of a state of-the-art infrastructure security system along the northern international land and maritime border of the United States and shall include in the study--

(1) the necessity of implementing such a system;
(2) the feasibility of implementing such a system; and
(3) the economic impact implementing such a system will have along the northern border.

Its a P.R. disaster.

This country is being run like Ford Motor Co. but with a greater deficit.

This doesn't do much to endear us to the world, or quell International Concerns that we are a bunch of nationalist zealots.

There is nothing wrong with Patriotism.

But there is nothing inherently patriotic about building a fence.

There is something inherently patriotic about questioning your governments decisions, and speaking up if you disagree.

I know I'll be tagged as a super-liberal for this quote, but:

“A world without walls is the only sustainable world. . . . If the world is dominated by people who believe that their races, their religions, their ethnic differences are the most important factors, then a huge number of people will perish in this century.”
-- Bill Clinton

The biggest problem I have with this law and that the GOP claim to have "made a significant step towards correcting our immigration problems", is that they didn't fund its construction.

The act provides no funding mechanism for the fence, though a $1.2 billion appropriation was approved as part of a bill the president signed this month. There are no concrete numbers, but estimates suggest the fence would cost twice that amount. The earlier bill, however, stipulates that the $1.2 billion could be used for a fence, lighting, vehicle barriers and high-tech equipment.

CNN.com

Thats right.

Its nothing but another unfunded mandate.

Something that looks good in the GOP trophy case, but is totally fraudulent.

Kind of like No Child Left Behind.

The President and Congress did this with the big "conversion from analog to digital broadcasting" bill too.

Story.

Its a ploy by Bush and the GOP leadership in Congress to make it look as though they have accomplished one of the goals they set forth.

It would be one of the first.

And it makes them look less incompetent to the voters.

It makes the GOP look like they can make good on their word, and address one of the issues that Americans have identified as a serious problem in coming years.

So good for them, they passed the bill.

Now who's going to pay it?

There is no fence.

Don't expect to see construction begin anytime soon.

But hey, the headlines are just what they need, unless the Media pays attention and makes an issue of the funding.

Is that so much to ask?

Stay Tuned...

Damnit Geoff Calkins...

I love Geoff Calkins.

I read everything he writes for The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

He is a Harvard Law grad who, after a few years of practice, decided that he really wanted to be a sports writer.

He landed in the mid-south, and adopted Memphis as his home.

He's been a great advocate for the city, from a sports writing perspective.

His story has inspired me.

As a law student, its nice to think that maybe one day I will get paid to do something more pleasurable than drafting briefs...

Its his style that inspired mine.

He is quippy, short, witty, and knowledgeable.

But today he pissed me off.

Here is the article

The Memphis Grizzlies are going through a difficult transition.

I don't mean to say that the local sports writers job is to "tow the company line" or anything like that.

He is a journalist first, and has a duty to say what he thinks is the truth.

And I don't disagree with him, in all honesty.

But its bad for the city to be so blusterous towards the pending sale of the Grizzlies.

The generally uneducated readers will come away with nothing but a negative impression of Brian Davis, the new owner.

Maybe the glove fits.

But going out and pushing that attitude on the city is going to lead to even harder times.

Its certainly not good for ticket sales.

It certainly doesn't set up the new ownership group to start off on a positive foot.

It certainly doesn't drum up civic support for a team that, in all honesty, is probably in for a long season.

It certainly doesn't help quell fears that the team might leave Memphis.

It really creates a situation where, the attitude that results from the article (actually, its been a series of articles) may bring about the very end we all fear.

Self-fulfilling prophecies are tough.

Geoff, your job as a writer is to write the truth. I'm not trying to suggest that you failed to do that.

But Geoff...a little less venom might be good for the city you've called home for the last 10 years.

Please?

Stay Tuned...

SPAD Public Service Announcement:

Strangers don't care how drunk you are.

Last night at Sunspot, we were having a pretty low-key night.

We'd all had a long day, and figured a bottle of wine would be a good way to relax.

It was.

It went well for a while.

Then, "Whitney" showed up.

"Whitney" was really really intoxicated.

No one had met "Whitney" before last night.

However, "Whitney" was very excited to see Chrissy and Lindsey.

"Whitney" was awkwardly physical with the girls.

"Whitney" dragged the girls back to her table to talk to her other drunk friends.

"Whitney" couldn't look you in the eye.

"Whitney" wouldn't shut up about how drunk she was.

"Whitney" was the most obnoxious thing I've seen at Sunspot since...well...last week.

Its one thing to walk up to a friend and say "Hey, (insert friends name here), I've had a lot to drink. I think I'm drunk."

Its another thing to just walk around a bar, telling strangers that you're intoxicated.

No one cares.

And you're only embarrassing yourself when you walk around the bar, making a big public issue of your drunkenness, and then get yourself forcibly removed from the bar while everyone you talked to watches.

Awk-ward!

The moral of the story?

Tell your friends, they care.

And if you don't have friends, you probably don't need to be in the bar drinking on a Wednesday.

But that is a public service announcement for another day.



Oh, just in case, Good Morning Your Honor!




Stay Tuned...

Things that are wrong with America v. 5

"Anti-Piracy Badges" for Boy Scouts in California.

The Music and Movie industry has successfuly gotten a new badge added to the Boy Scouts of America list of awards.

What does one have to do to get this merit badge?

Troops will choose from a number of activities that qualify them to earn a "Respect Copyrights" patch. Activities include creating a public service announcement demonstrating the importance of copyright protection or visiting a movie studio to learn about people, time and costs required to make a movie, as well as the economic impact the movie industry has on the state of California.

For more information on this...click here


Stay Tuned...

The "Very" End...

I was ranted to recently by someone who took issue with the phrase "at the very end".

He felt that if its "the end", then there is no varying extent.

There is no "very end" only an "end".

President Bush made a similar statement (in theme) today.

President Bush said Wednesday that the U.S. will win the war in Iraq "unless we leave before the job is done."

No shit?

You mean, if we stay until the job is done, we will win?

Is that what that means?

And anything short of that is losing right?

Losing American lives.

Losing Iraqi lives.

Losing American money.

Losing Iraqi confidence.

Losing control.

President Bush said Wednesday that the U.S. will win the war in Iraq "unless we leave before the job is done."

You don't say.

So, the week the White House backs off the "stay the course" tag as the "company line" the President comes back out a few days later and basically says the same thing.

"unless we leave before the job is done."

Maybe what we really want is for "the job" to be defined.

Does that mean that when there is a sufficient Iraqi security force?

Does that mean when we don't face a civil war in Iraq?

Does that mean that when the Iraqi's have to have a functional Democracy?

Does that mean that when there are no more Iraqi citizen's dying in the crossfire?

Now its over 100 Iraqi's per day.

What number of Iraqi's per day would be a "job" well done?

80?

40?

Dare I say, 0?

If "unless we leave before the job is done" is the company line, then define the job.

Thus far, the powers that be have claimed to have a plan they are ready to start executing to get out of Iraq "with the job done".

They just wont tell us until AFTER the American people have gone to the polls in what the President has described as "a referendum on security and the economy."

I think that most Americans believe our "security" begins and ends in Iraq.

If we quell the insurgency, protect the Iraqi's, and successfully instal a democracy, it is supposed to kick-start peace and democracy throughout the region.

If we fail to do those things, we've done nothing but create "Afghanistan circa 2000...on STEROIDS"

A nation that will ultimately train and pump out thousands of fundamentalist that seek to do the American people and the American way of life harm.

So, President Bush said Wednesday that the U.S. will win the war in Iraq "unless we leave before the job is done."

Lets get to the point George...what is the job?

The American people deserve to know what your criteria are before we go to the polls to decide if you and your G.O.P. "crew" get to hold all the cards for the next 2 years.

Be upfront with us.

Be honest with us.

Let the American people make an informed decision about the direction our country is going.

Let the American people have all the facts before they decide what is right for our nation.

Stay Tuned...