ELECTED DEMOCRATS PROVE TO BE SPINELESS
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistIt’s a sad, sad day for the American people.
The Democrats that we helped push the Republicans out of power in November, now have proven to the American public that their party lacks the balls to stand up to the President–over his Iraq war policy.
In essence, they’ve rolled over and showed their stomachs when the going got tough.
First they tried a “non-binding” resolution which lacked any teeth–pushing one measure through the House, but hopelessly failing in the Senate; twice.
Now they won’t even embrace a plan which will scale back Bush’s authority over the war, or even consider withholding the war funding from the next budget.
Whatever happened to the tough talk belonging to the once invigorated and
powerful Democratic Party?
The one that promised to hold the Democrats accountable for their promises to hold an out-of-control White House accountable?
Apparently, when the tough got going, the going got
squeamish and decided to play it
safe.
Hate to break it to these political hacks, but if I must, I will:
YOU CAN’T GO THROUGH LIFE WITHOUT BREAKING A FEW EGGS YOU MORONS!
RISK IS PART OF THE GAME! IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE STOMACH FOR IT, THEN DON’T RUN FOR CONGRESS YOU INSUFFERABLE PANSIES!
(1, 2,3...? Take a deep breath and let it out…)
Phew!
To borrow a phrase from
Independence Day:
“They elected a warrior, and got a wimp.”Makes me wish that we hadn’t gotten rid of the Republicans after all.
In a way, they were driven, focused, and powerful. Maybe that’s why they became corrupt in the long term.
But these Democrats have spent too much time in the shadows these last 12 years–bereft of their spines, and utterly useless to the average American voter in this day and age.
It’s sad that I voted for these people–believing that they could deliver.
Guess not.
Time to start over again in 2008. Pick someone who has the guts to stand up to our American tyrant.
If it's not too late that is.Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.com
WHAT SUCCESS? IRAQ IS STILL IN CHAOS YOU DUMMIES!
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistOh, happy days! Basra is a bonafide success! (note sarcasm)
The Iraqis are showering the British with flowers and candy!
Insurgents are laying down their arms and pitching in to rebuild Iraq!
It seems a bit premature to celebrate–don’t you think?
After all, the country is in a state of civil war (no matter what the Bush administration says otherwise), so what little success there is, is 100% guaranteed to replaced by more inroads of failure by both the US and British forces.
Not too long ago, the Brits turned over a base to the Iraqis and almost immediately, the area was quickly overrun by the insurgents. And those same security forces which the US salivated over would help keep a hold of that base–just stood by and let it happen.
(If you’re ever wondering why I am always focusing on the negative aspects of this war and not the
positive, it’s because we need to be reminded that some wars are not worth the costs. Maybe pointing these faults out to future generations, it will remind them of the cost we face today thanks in part to the overwhelming
ignorance by those whom we placed a lot of faith and trust in executing the powers of Office. Maybe, people will realize that waging war will take more than just political rhetoric and political grandstanding by one party or one like-minded President.)
What about Basra? Well, despite our government’s claims that things “are sunny over there and this represents a good news story”, I wouldn’t be surprised if everything went to pot over the next year–after the Brits eventually leave.
However, seeing how only
one town has been successfully liberated (you never hear the Bushbots talk about Fallujah anymore as a
grand success story), you still have acres and acres, miles upon miles, to secure and liberate in Iraq.
The problem is
manpower. We don’t have it. And with our Coalition of the Willing leaving in drips and drabs, it’ll only be us in Iraq before too long.
It’s just sad that we have to keep liberating Baghdad over and over again with more and more troops–while the rest of Iraq continues to seep in chaos.
But isn’t this what the neoconservatives and Bush wanted all along? Endless chaos and zero exit strategies?
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.com
BUSH: IRAQ SOURCE OF DEADLY WEAPONS
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistNot too long ago–4 years to be precise–Bush claimed that Iraq had WMDs and was making nuclear weapons.
Now, Bush is hopping all over some of the recent “evidence” that Iran is the sole provider of some of the munitions found in Iraq–after capturing some arms.
But as before with Iraq, Bush and his administration have very little credibility with this latest claim–because of their lack of the WMD that was supposed to be in Iraq at the start of 2003:
Saddam’s cache piles of biological and chemical weapons. Not to mention his “nuclear” weapons that was claimed by George Tenant as a ‘slam dunk’ in terms of ‘darned good intelligence’.
Sadly, Bush doesn’t care. He’s going to milk this one for all its worth–solid intelligence or not. He’s going to keep claiming that another country is the sole provider of arms to the Shiite militias–even if he doesn’t have one shred of irrefutable evidence.
The arms provided by a recent Baghdad briefing to reporters came under fire recently as being ‘too good’ to ignore, but lacking any real points of origin or sources willing to collaborate their authenticity.
So is the military heads using
doctored evidence to try and sell another sheep in wolf’s clothing?
Colin Powell did that.
And look at what it left us–4 years later.
Can we
afford to make the same mistake twice?
Can our stretched and broken military?
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.com
HOW BUSH GOT AWAY WITH MURDER
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistIf you were expecting Congress to find the government at fault for
lying to the American public over Iraq–through its investigations of the pre-war intelligence–expect to be
disappointed.
Through whatever caveat implied, the Bush administration has managed to hide the truth so well from the public, that its buried whatever evidence Congress may have been able to find–through a meticulously orchestrated series of steps which allowed the government to escape the hangman’s noose untouched.
How?
By investigating itself. By not allowing an independent group of investigative hacks to dig up the dirt on this administration’s blatant lies and distortions.
In effect, the criminal was allowed to go back to the crime scene after the murder and conduct his or her own investigation without
a second set of eyes.
Take in retrospect, the Pentagon’s recent investigation of pre-war intel which took in Saddam’s WMD stockpile allegations and connections to Al-Qaeda.
While inappropriate, it wasn’t
illegal. (Nothing really is with the Bush administration.)
So in effect, the Bush administration has taken
lying to be the new standard of
truth.
No intentional misleading, no intentional fabrication. Just a fine line of
exaggeration which just so happens to
not fit the facts.
So in essence, Bush
lied to the American public through a series of
inappropriate exaggerations of our own intelligence estimates–on Saddam’s WMD capabilities and his connections to terror groups like Al-Qaeda.
Would it not be so tragic, this whole affair would almost be a Shakespearean play of comical proportions–where Shakespeare himself holds up the skull of his best friend and declares:
“O’ Horatio…I knew him well.”Think of how many skulls of the dead Bush would be holding–if he were William Shakespeare?
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.com
DON’T BLAME MEDICARE AND SOCIAL SECURITY FOR BUSH’S ILLS
By Schuyler ThorpeAuthor and Political ActivistWhile you can blame soaring healthcare costs and the imminent retirement of baby-boomers in 2008 as the reason why both programs are in danger of collapse–if they aren’t
already–the truth of the matter is in the
budget itself.
Bush is funneling everything he can into the war effort–by requesting as much as $345B for both wars for both 2007 and 2008–in hopes that he can somehow
stymie the out-of-control violence in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq.
So what goes? Well, right now, it’s Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, and education for starters.
The President claims that if nothing is done, the growth of these programs will outpace inflation rather soon, and future generations will face higher taxes, larger deficits (like $8.5T isn’t enough
now?), and huge cuts in future retirement benefits in Social Security.
Once again, Bush is trying the old-fashioned fear alert where we must make careless and rash acts to slice our own future away–and our kids–by giving into more blind recklessness.
After all, Bush tried it once before with his
privatization plan of Social Security–which would’ve given
trillions to Wall Street and the rich; and undercut a security net enjoyed by the elderly, the poor, and disabled for decades.
However, don’t blame Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare for Bush’s financial ills.
Most of the problems faced by the entitlement programs is simple:
Bush is spending himself against a very large wall.
With his precious tax cuts and low taxes to the rich–not to mention his outrageous spending on this war, George is
literally putting all the entitlement programs–and our children’s future education–on the chopping block.
But does Bush care?
No. All he does is make a big stink about how little money he is getting towards his little war ventures, while the domestic side of his nonexistent agenda goes…
poof!As a result, he has nothing to shore up such programs in case something goes wrong.
And it has.
Result?
The poor, the elderly, and the middle-class are expected to pay for King George’s spending mistake for years to come.
However, the only solution to this problem is an easily implemented two-fold idea:
- Stop the war and all war profiteering.
- Shift all the current defense and tax cut spending towards shoring up our entitlement programs--along with education.
This is the only way we can solve our problems at home--seeing how Iraq is such a mess, and the rich are making a killing off this conflict.
But I doubt Bush will go along with these ideas--hence the ignorance towards his overall 'solutions'.
Schuyler Thorpe is an author, a political activist, and a frequent letter writer to The Everett Herald of Snohomish County. He can be reached at: starchildalpha1@yahoo.com
