About Me

Saturday, February 17, 2007

A Letter To Rosa DeLauro

Dear Ms. DeLauro:

This week’s “non-binding resolution” is not the most insipid, spineless and useless endeavor ever enacted by Congress, but it will do until something more despicable comes along.

To say that this nonsensical and blatant political maneuvering of trying to eat one’s cake and have it too is sickening, demeaning of Congress and an affront to the American people is too polite. It is in a word – or at least should be – unconscionable.

That Congress engages in such craven political grandstanding while American men and women are dying in Iraq, Afghanistan and in the war on terror defiles the institution and contradicts the term leadership.

As a veteran of Viet Nam and someone who has questioned – and continues to question - the war in Iraq from its onset I find no solace in the political gamesmanship and triviality of “Bush lied, people died meme”. I am even less sanguine with the “I did not know that voting to give the President this authority he would screw it up so badly.”

We live in a world that is often fraught with unintended and unforeseen consequences. To now blame the President for such poor foresight while blithely trying to ditch your lack of vision seems dubious at best.

Nor do I find a blind obedience to party loyalty or a President - “stay the course” if you will - a righteous path. Congress has by constitutional fiat the rights that they could have – and should have – instituted during this period of the Iraq war to determine its efficacy and progress. To deny and try that is to be disingenuous and patently ridiculous. Especially in light of Congress’ eternal ability to deliver pork laden earmarks in each and every spending bill that comes down the pike.

Mr. Bush, his administration, the military leaders and the Congress all have been part and parcel to the last four years. There is blame enough for all. And it is time for all to work together on serious solutions and bring out troops home as soon as humanly possible and to preserve, defend and protect the Constitution as they have sworn to do. Something that will not be accomplished by commentary, political rhetoric or passing “non-binding resolutions.”

Sincerely,

A most disillusioned and disgruntled constituent

Monday, February 12, 2007

Too Long A Time Coming

The Chicago White Sox scratched an eighty-eight year itch two years ago by beating the Houston Astros 4 games to none to capture their first World Championship 1917.
Now if only the “new” other team in Chicago - the Cubbies - could conclude their nearly 100 year quest for all the baseball marbles would everything be copasetic in the universe.
Before 2005 the White Sox lost the World Series the last 2 times they played in it. The first loss being the infamous Black Sox series of 1919, the second was in 1959 was to the Los Angles Dodgers - two years removed from being relocated out of Ebbets Field and Brooklyn.
John Kennedy was not yet president the last time the Sox were in World Series… baseball enthusiast Fidel Castro was just assuming power in Cuba and Jack Paar was still hosting the tonight show when the Sox last played a World Series game. Heck the LA Angeles of Anaheim that Chicago had to beat to get to the World Series were two years away from their inaugural baseball game! Chicago manager Ozzie Guillen – 41 years old - wasn’t even born when the Sox were last in the series before 2005. You get the picture.
So, now the White Sox and their fans can savor this Pennant and perhaps even stop apologizing for the 1919 incident with Shoeless Joe Jackson and the "Black Sox Scandal”.
Unfortunately for Cub fans now have the monkey – monkey hell, it’s King Kong -on their backs. Prior to 2005 and the White Sox win, the Cubs were the baseball team in Chicago notwithstanding the futility of their own losing ways.
It was understandable after all the Cubs had gone longer since winning a World Series, never were involved in throwing a Series and bringing shame to the City. Perhaps it was because they played in historic, legendary and endearing Wrigley Field. And besides how can any one root against the Cubs and the adorable bear cub uniform emblem.
Whatever the reasoning, all of that has now gone by the wayside. The Cubs are now a team who last won a World Series when Roosevelt was President. No, not Franklin… Theodore. A team who last won a World Series before the Titanic sank, before World War 1 even started, before Geronimo went to his happy hunting ground!
Hey the Chicago won the series only once during the 20th century – heck even Haley’s Comet orbited the earth twice in the same time period. If George Steinbrenner owned this team his head would have exploded sometime around 1965… hmm I guess there is a silver lining to every dark cloud.
Go Cubs?!

Thursday, February 1, 2007

John F. Kerry Has Memory Problems Or He's A Liar

My money is on him being a liar!
This laughable excuse for a a Senator spoke on the Senate floor (among other venues) about a "seared memory" - not a vague recollection, or somewhat of a hint - but a "seared memory" of sitting on a "Cambodian river" on Christmas Eve 1968 while "President Nixon was telling America there were no American troops there."
Several "OOPS..." are required to be noted here:
First and foremost unless Christmas Eve in 1968 was moved to sometime after January 20 1969, Richard Nixon couldn't have been President; Lyndon Johnson was. Either that or we had two Presidents at the same time. Tricky Dickie indeed!!
Even given Kerry a pass on who was president, there is the troubling recollection (I'm not sure they are "seared recollections") of his superior officers and crew members of his boat that this just didn't happen.
Kerry reluctantly proffers he must have had a "confused" "seared memory" (confusing I know). Or is it just nuanced?! Lest you think I'm being too partisan and tough on poor Ketchup Boy, his own diaries contradict his "seared memory" placing him 50 miles away from Cambodia in Sa Dec, wait for it....Viet Nam.
But then again is Christmas can move from December to January in order to make Nixon president, or if the Constitution can allow co-presidents - after all a seared memory is a serious thing - moving a mere 50 miles at a moments notice is a mere bag of shells!
Now we have Kerry in Davos Switzerland complaining that America has become sort of a "international pariah." Obviously aiming his criticism at the Bush administration Kerry says, "When we walk away from global warming, Kyoto, when we are irresponsibly slow in moving toward AIDS in Africa, when we don't advance and live up to our own rhetoric and standards, we set a terrible message of duplicity and hypocrisy."
Again, Kerry's memory is faulty here. He forgets that it was President Clinton (again confusion with whom was president when) who refused to send the Koyoto Protocol to the Senate for ratification. The Senate voted anyway - 95 to 0 - opposing any international agreement in which China, India and other developing countries would be exempted. Senator Kerry was one of the 95 opposition votes. Again, perhaps it is just nuance to deep for the average American to understand.
My mother used to say - "if you're going to lie, you better have a good memory." Obviously advice Ketchup Boy never got from his mother.