Trying to negotiate with Jell-O.

• 

As of the writing of this post, the American government is still officially shutdown. 

Both sides are pointing the fingers and playing the blame game, but I think that Stevie Wonder can see who is at fault here. Of course it's the man who says that he is the greatest deal- maker of all time.

His deal making skills clearly leaves a lot to be desired, because those in his own party have no clue what he wants, and those on the other side of the table declared that dealing with him is like trying to negotiate with Jell-O.  Let's face it, all trump knows how to do is play us versus them, and demonize his opponents.

The latest example of this is the trump campaign ad being played around the shutdown. Instead of coming to the table with dems and trying to find real solutions, the president is running a misleading ad that implies that democrats are complicit in murders committed by illegal immigrants.

Go figure, it's the latest in a long line of political scare tactics that is used by republicans and those on the right to scare their mostly white base into voting for them. As if somehow their tougher laws will shield white Americans from the black and brown bogeymen out there. 

The sad part about all of this is that the facts and statistics speak to a totally different reality:

Trump has repeatedly sought to paint immigrants as dangerous, talking about transnational gangs, such as MS-13, and implementing a travel ban on travelers from some countries in the Middle East and Africa over what he said were concerns about terrorism.

But some studies have shown that immigrants, including those here illegally, commit crimes at lower rates than do native-born Americans.

For example, a March 2017 study by the pro-immigration Cato Institute found that “all immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than natives relative to their shares of the population” and that “even illegal immigrants are less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans.”

As The Washington Post’s Fact Checker reported in 2015, one study showed that between 1990 and 2013, “the foreign-born share of the U.S. population grew from 7.9 percent to 13.1 percent and the number of unauthorized immigrants more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million.

“During the same period, FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48 percent – which included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder. Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41 percent, including declining rates of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary,” according to the American Immigration Council.

The violent crime rate was cut nearly by half during a period in which unauthorized immigrants tripled, according to the council."

Facts are wonderful things. It's a shame that they are antithetical to our president and his minions.

(Dear white people living in America, you are more likely to be hit by a meteorite than you are to be attacked by a MS-13 gang member.) 

I am almost finished with my post and the government is still shutdown. I feel bad for the folks who will be affected by this, and I hope that the politricksters in Washington can work something out in a reasonable manner.

Wait, did I just say that? Sorry folks, for just a minute there I forgot that Donald trump is the president of these divided states of America.  Reasonable and that guy just does not go together. 
 





 

White unity.

   I have to give it to old white men of a certain age, they sure know how to stick together.

Add Mitt Romney to the growing list of republicans who seem to have forgotten their morals and common decency after Donald trump defeated Hillary Clinton to become president elect, trump.

Romney called trump every name in the book, and declared to anyone who would listen that he is not unfit to be president, and yet, amazingly, he is considering taking a position in his administration. I mean he called the man a "danger to democracy" for crying out loud. And yet, he would still choose to work for him and carry out his policies.

I can't believe that the trumpets are excited about this move, either, After all, wouldn't Mitt Romney be one of those folks in the swamp that trump wants to drain? We can go ahead and add people like Bob Corker, Jeff Sessions, and Newt Gingrich to that list while we are at it. There is a lot of garbage in that swamp.

Anyway, thank goodness for my peeps who continue to give me hope that there are voices of decencyber and dissent in this country. Not only are they out there, but they are writing eloquently about it.

h/t to my law school classmate, Amy, for turning me on to the following story. 

"It is time for the country to heal, time for us come together.

Or so people have been telling me since last week when democracy laid the biggest egg in American history. Well, here is my response: I have no interest in seeing this country heal. And I refuse to come together.

Understand: If this were just about politics, I’d never say something like that. No, I’d do what you’re supposed to when the candidate you favored is defeated. Suck it up.

But my anger is not about any given policy of the new president. No, it is about him, about the election of a fundamentally unsound, unserious and unfit man, a misogynist who brags about sexual assault, a bigot cheered to victory by the Ku Klux Klan. I have no idea how to “heal” woman hating and no desire to “come together” with the Klan.

I am similarly impatient with those who say we must give the new president a chance to lead and hope for his success.

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inRead invented by Teads

Is that what Republicans did for Barack Obama when they gathered on the night of his inauguration and plotted a conspiracy of obstructionism to cripple his presidency? Is it what Donald Trump did when he spent years questioning the veracity of an ordinary birth certificate?

More to the point, the call to let Trump lead and hope for his success fails to address obvious questions: Where is he leading us? How are we defining success? Should we applaud even if he “leads” us into another unnecessary Middle East conflagration? Are we expected to be happy if his “success” comes in criminalizing abortion?

Frankly, I won’t cheer him even if he is not a disaster. In the unlikely event the man who considers global warming a Chinese hoax took action to stem that threat, I’d be happy, yes. On the improbable chance the man who swore to repeal the Affordable Care Act crafted something better, I would be glad, sure.

But at the end of the day, the man who did those things would still be a misogynist and a bigot.
Forgive me — or don’t; I really don’t care — if that remains a deal breaker for me. I refuse to participate in this process of organized amnesia, to cooperate in normalizing a man who stands for everything America should not". [Read more]

I think Leonard Pitts, Jr. has done a pretty good job of summing up my feelings.

Of course, now that the usual suspects are rallying around our president elect, all the racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic things that he said in the past will be forgotten. It's kind of typical of how we treat bad actors and acts here in America: We try to purge everything from our memories and pretend that it didn't happen.

That, of course, will be a  little harder with president trump, because for the next four years, no matter how hard we try, we will not be able to escape him.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article114982043.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/leonard-pitts-jr/article114982043.html#storylink=cpy

1942 or 2015?

I wish I could take credit for this, but I cant.

"


"

That's a classic piece of irony, because Americans are freaking out at the thought of 10,000 Syrian refugees coming to our very Christian land just weeks before Christmas.

Today, thanks to the help of 47 democrats, republicans in the house voted to restrict the "resettlement" of Syrian refugees to this country. Something about security concerns after all those Syrians attacked innocents in Paris. Oh wait....those weren't Syrians, they were Frenchmen and Belgians. Oh well, but they looked like those people. Close enough.

Hey, I am all for a little background checking of the refugees who come here. We would be doing that if they came here legally on visas. So there is no need for refugees not to be treated the same. But some of the measures that right-wingnuts are suggesting is just flat out insane, and, quite frankly, Un-American.

The wingnut governor of Indiana turned back a family of refugees and told them that they are not welcome in his state. (Good for Connecticut for taking them) Other states like Alabama and Michigan vowed not to take in any of the refugees as well. The republican mayor of Roanoke, Virginia, used the Japanese  internment camps to justify his bigotry. And Ben Carson compared the refugees to rabid dogs. Can you believe that? A man who swore to save lives, chooses to demonize and turn his back on women and children as they flee certain death in their own country.

These will be remembered as some of America's darkest days in American history. The terrorist must be dancing in their caves and in their flats in the ghettos of the Middle East and Europe.  They have won. They have exposed all of those American ideals as a lie.

"Defeating terrorism should not mean slamming the door in the faces of those fleeing the terrorists," said Rep Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York. "We might as well take down the Statue of Liberty".

Or just give it back to the French. I bet they are sorry that they gave it to us in the first place.















   

Rand vs. the hawks.

And now a few words from Rand Paul:

"I would say it's exactly the opposite.... "ISIS exists and grew stronger because of the hawks in our party who gave arms indiscriminately, and most of those arms were snatched up by ISIS. These hawks also wanted to bomb [Syrian dictator Bashar] Assad, which would have made ISIS's job even easier."

Thank you Mr. Paul. It's nice to see that there is at least one GOP candidate who understands the nuanced and complicated reality that is the Middle East.

We just can't bomb and fight our way out of this problem. At some point we have to find a political solution. Clearly the military option has not been working.

Memo to our current president: You drone program is not the answer, either. 

"The thing is that people need to understand the Middle East is complicated and there are no easy answers. We need to do what we do to protect American interests..... The ultimate victory is going to come when civilized Islam steps up and civilized Islam says that this aberration that is ISIS is intolerable."

I am not sure how Rand Paul will do in the republican primary. But if I  had a vote he would get some serious consideration.

Let's take a break from pursuing happiness for a little ISIS 101.

The barbarians otherwise known as ISIS have given yet another American the Marie Antoinette treatment.


I guess there is nothing like calmly taking off another human being's head on the Internet to make a political and religious point and striking fear in the hearts of your enemy.


This is how they bring back the spirit of the early caliphs and bring back the golden age of Muhammad when Islam was spreading all over the Middle East.
This is the first terrorist group to actually build an Islamic state.  


Sadly, from the looks of things, they are achieving their goal.


Americans are now angry and hysterical over the savage beheadings of these two journalists. Failing to realize, of course, that this is what terrorist with no souls, who are driven by a misguided sense of right and wrong, do. They kill people, and the more barbaric and inhumane the better. (We actually have some like minded people who are actually Americans. Nothing like a little religion to make terrorist out of us all.)


Now, all of a sudden, that secular fellow, Saddam Hussein, isn't looking so bad. Even though he did some pretty despicable things to his own people. At least he was the devil we knew. This devil, unfortunately, is unpredictable and scary.


This devil known as ISIS is now "rampaging" across Iraq, and has put fear in the hearts of the leaders over there. Iraq is a country that is rife with ethnic and religious divisions and hatred, and even though you could argue that Saddam himself was responsible for the country being the way it is, removing him and creating this tragic domino effect will go down as one of the largest foreign policy blunders in American history. A blunder made even worse by the fact that we were all conned into believing that there was a need to overthrow him in the first place.


So here we are. And some of the same actors are demanding that we go into Iraq and Syria with American troops and fight those terrorist from the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham with everything we have. If we don't do it over there they say, we will have to do it on the streets of New York and Los Angeles.


Boots will be back on the ground in the Middle East, (because just bombing them is not enough) young Americans will be killed, and we will be told that it is to protect our freedoms from those who want to kill us.

“They’ve got to be destroyed, and you’ve got to have a goal, the president does, and we have to have a strategy to fit that goal and policies that will implement it. We have none of the above,” McCain said on Fox. He called Obama’s recent comments about the “messy” world “one of most unbelievable comments ever made.”


McCain continued his push for war in both Iraq and Syria, saying the fight requires the “full weight of American air power” as well as “some more boots and support on the ground.” He added, “All this didn’t have to happen. We could have left a force behind in Iraq that would have stabilized Iraq. And we are paying an incredible price for the president’s leading from behind, whether it be in Iraq, in Syria, in Libya, or a number of countries in the Middle East. We are seeing the chickens coming home to roost.”


They haven't come home just yet,  but they will. Fortunately for you and your friends in Washington they will not be coming to your homes, because your children will not be fighting them.





  









   


 

The pacifists of convenience.

"Don't pull the thang out, unless you plan to bang
 Bombs over Baghdad!
 Yeah! Ha ha yeah!
Don't even bang unless you plan to hit something
 Bombs over Baghdad!" ~Outkast~

Ok, maybe not Baghdad, but you get the point.

I am not riding with O with these bombs over Syria scenario, although I understand why he is doing it. If you are the most powerful man in the free world and you tell someone not to cross a line and they cross it, you will look like you are just selling woof tickets if you don't act. But hey, maybe you shouldn't have drawn that line in the first place.

I understand that the world community frowns on the use of chemical weapons, but they should frown on mass genocide as well.

Where were we when Hutus were slaughtering Tutsis in Rwanda? (I see you Bill. Monica got more attention than the Akazu.) If America has a conscience and cares about mass atrocities and genocide, what prevented (or is preventing) us from acting in Sudan? (O, that question is for you.)

Still, I don't want to hear s*** from all the George Bush apologists and cheerleaders for the war in Iraq. In fact, if you were not as vocal and outraged about the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, you need to shut the hell up now. These folks have the audacity to be outraged that O wants to go all Gap Band on Syria but they were either silent or they supported the war in Iraq.

The wingnuts rationalize their pretzel logic by saying that they trust one commander in chief but not the other. They oppose this guy because they hate him so much, not because they thought it out and it is the right thing to do.

They oppose him for one crass reason: politics.

Some even went as far as to use this crises in the Middle East to do a little fund raising.

 "As your voice in Washington, I will continue to listen and take a stand for you. Donate today to stand with me to strongly oppose military action in Syria," reads a fundraising pitch Grimm sent around to supporters.

An email asks supporters to donate $25 ore more to "stand with" the congressman in opposing "President Obama's plan."
Grimm made headlines Thursday when he shifted positions on Syria. 
Initially in favor of military action, he said that he withdrew his support because Obama "showed his hand when he should have kept it close" in deciding to pursue congressional approval for military action before moving forward with attacks.

"Now that the [President Bashar] Assad regime has seen our playbook and has been given enough time to prepare and safeguard potential targets, I do not feel that we have enough to gain as a nation by moving forward with this attack on our own," he said in a release.

In the fundraising email, he further explained his position and accused Obama of "failing to show strength" on Syria.

"President Obama has failed to show strength at this critical moment in time. While the debate in Congress continues, our nation’s credibility grows weaker and weaker. After much deliberation and prayer, I have decided to withdraw my support. I do not feel that our country has enough to gain by moving forward with this attack," he said.

The chances of a resolution to approve the use of military force in Syria passing the House look slim at this point, with liberal Democrats and conservative Republicans alike expressing opposition." [Source]

For those of us who are morally and ideologically consistent, we opposed the last war and we oppose anything resembling another one. For the rest of the hypocrites and charlatans who are now embracing a dove like persona; we call bull s**t!

*Rwanda pic from EarPluggin.blogspot.com
 

Neocon folly, and Rush's fat jokes.

Muammar Gadaffi would make a great wingnut politician. He is one crazy and delusional dude.
I wonder if this is what W and the Neoconartists envisioned when they invaded Iraq? A wave of protesters sweeping the Middle East and demanding freedom from their leaders. If it is, I am pretty sure that they didn't think this one out to its logical conclusion. I think I will go shopping for a smaller more fuel efficient car this weekend.

With all due respect to Steven Cook, (a man I respect) who wrote about this a year ago, I don't see any stability on the horizon in the Middle East. And, if the region does stabilize, (stabilize being a relative term for that part of the world) and the governments all become more democratic; was it really worth the thousands of American and Iraqi lives it cost us to invade Iraq to achieve that goal?

What is going on in the Middle East now has left my Neocon and conservative friends in somewhat of an ideological pickle: Do you embrace democracy even if it's not exactly the democracy you want? And are some dictators actually better than others? ----How is a secular dictatorship any better than a religious one?

"Sixty years of Western nations excusing and accommodating the lack of freedom in the Middle East did nothing to make us safe - because in the long run, stability cannot be purchased at the expense of liberty. As long as the Middle East remains a place where freedom does not flourish, it will remain a place of stagnation, resentment and violence ready for export."

We will see Mr. Bush. We will see.

Finally, I see that Rush is up to his old reprehensible tricks. My man was actually making fun of the First Lady's weight on Monday, and he joins Andrew Breitbart and other republi-clowns, who have made a sport of taking personal shots at the First Lady's appearance. Nice.

As if those two can talk about someone's weight. I mean honestly; wouldn't that be like Charlie Sheen lecturing us about the dangers of drug use?

Anyway, shake em off Michelle. Don't worry about the haters. Just keep doing what you do and history will be kind to you. Rush and Andrew? Not so much.

O man, it's your war now too.

"Hey Field why haven't you mentioned anything about the mudering[sic] SOBs who are supposedly God's people. "

I take it Phil4Real is referring to the Jews and the Jewish state of Israel.

We all now by now what has been going on in Gaza. The Israelis have launched a bombing campaign supposedly against Hamas which has killed over 290 Palestinians, and as I write this they are preparing for a possible ground assault. Israel blames Hamas for instigating the conflict by launching rocket attacks into Southern Israel. Attacks which Israel claims have killed Israeli civilians. As a result, they seem hell bent on destroying Hamas once and for all.

Now many of you who read this blog know that I am a big defender of Israel. I am one of the few so called black progressives who have constantly defended the Israeli people and their right to be able to live in peace. I won't get into the long history of this conflict because that is not the point of this post. But needless to say that Hamas is funded by the Iranians, and they have vowed to destroy Israel and everyone in it. So I don't blame Israel for wanting to go after Hamas.

Still, there is an issue of proportionality here. It's no secret that some civilian targets have been bombed (Including the Islamic University in Gaza), and that is troubling, even for a supporter of Israel such as myself.

But what is almost just as troubling has been the reaction to this latest Middle East conflict by the President and President elect. Treating it like a hot potato won't help the situation, and it certainly won't make it go away.

The frat boy has a few weeks left before his miserable presidency comes to an end, and he is just trying to ride out his last remaining days at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. The O man isn't much better; he is just praying that this thing goes away before he takes office. Did you hear his boy, David Axelrod, on "Meet The Press"? Talk about moonwalking. "But we've said repeatedly through this transition period that there's only one president at a time, and President (George W) Bush speaks for the United States of America until January 20th, and we're going to honor that moving forward." Translated: We are going to leave this Middle East shit alone, because it is way too hot to handle right now. But I am sorry O man, you can't do that. And how do you look trying to play low key now when you said the following back in July? “If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I’m going to do everything in my power to stop that. And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing.” Sooo does that mean that you believe that Israel has a right to defend itself? Come on man, speak up.

O man you better get used to this stuff. It's not going to get any easier. You can't just put this foreign policy stuff in Hillary's hands and tell her to do her thing. You had better become the world leader that you seem to want to be. You are admired and loved on the world stage, so try and use your bully pulpit to the best of your ability to try and bring peace to that region.

Notice I said "try". Because many of your predecessors thought they could get a handle on this Middle East thing only to be in for a rude awakening. A shaky truce between Israel and Egypt which cost Anwar Sadat his life is the best we could do so far.

Anyway, once again, the Middle East is on the brink of an all out war. And it looks like his O ness will have to deal with it whether he likes it or not when he takes office. Obama has big plans for his domestic agenda, but his foreign policy is going to have to be a priority as well. We don't expect him to save the world, especially not in that region. The division and hatred runs too deep. It's so deep that not even the "Magic Negro" can say abracadabra and make it go away. But he will have to try something. He might not be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but a real cool card trick would be nice.

Stop "whining" and get to work. Don't you want to be rich?

I was going to blog about the frat boy and the A-merry-can congress chipping away at what little freedoms we have left in this country, but I changed my mind. No one else cares, so why the hell should I? Let's just keep pursuing happiness in these divided states of A-merry-ca. You don't have relatives in the Middle East, so why should you care? Oh, and thank you "O" man for keeping it real and standing up for our right to privacy.....change [of position] we can believe in?

No, instead I want to blog....or should I say "whine" about you whining A-merry-cans. Yes, the other Dr. Phil was right, you A-merry-cans sure "whine" a lot. Hey, you pay $4.12 a gallon for gas, get over that shit, at least you have cars. You could be living in a Third World country where you could only dream of owning a car. So what if you can't drive it anywhere, at least you can live in that bitch. With the housing market being what it is, you might have to.

You all are just jealous because you didn't marry up like Mr. Morton. Hey, just keep believing in the A-merry-can dream, and you too can marry someone who can afford to spend $250,000.00 in one month on credit cards. You are bitching about gas prices, how much do you think the poor lady pays to fill up her plane for crying out loud? I guarantee you that shit is not cheep. But don't worry, you are A-merry-can, stop whining and believing. If you believe you can achieve. Who cares about gas prices when you can have a G-4 waiting for you at the airport?

A bunch of whiners, that's what you all are. I drive around this great country and folks seem to be doing pretty well to me. If times were so hard, the restaurants would be empty, and so would the movie theaters. Hell, my "homie" Will Smith brought in over 100 million last weekend with his new movie, Back To The Future meets Jungle Fever. If times are so tough how can you all afford to go to the movies and pay for someone else to cook your meals? I bet in Haiti and Rwanda the restaurants aren't crowded. And they sure ain't dropping $20 to see Will Smith looking for his lost love through the ages, while flying drunk.

Yeah you A-merry-cans are going to have to suck it up, and get over all this recession talk. It is, after all, in your minds. Look, if you lose your job, you can always use good old A-mery-can smarts and that work ethic that we are all blessed with to invent something. (Hopefully something to get us off the Arab tit) You will make more money than you ever would working a stinking nine to five. Start your own business's, work for yourself, and watch your wealth grow. That's the A-merry-can way.

Now stop whining and get to work.

Postscript

I have a few more things to say about last night's election here in "Pistolvania". And I have a few choice words for you Negroes here in Philly. Negroes like the clown who asked me if I voted, and when I told him yes, he had the nerve to brag to me that he didn't because he had to do something with his "old lady."

It's these kind of Negroes that make me wonder if it's really worth it to fight the good fight. I mean why bother? Some folks just enjoy living in ignorance. I will let you all in on a little secret; I happen to have some pretty good connects at our dumbocratic city committee here, and I looked at those Ward results from last night. And guess what, a lot of you Negroes didn't even vote. Not for Hillary not for Obama. Now for Hillary that might not have been a bad thing, because if your dumb asses did vote, it probably would have been for the "O" man. I thought I knew you Negroes but I don't. The other night I gave the "O" man's advisor some bad advise, because I told him to save his WAM (walking around money) and to use it for other shit. "It's a national election I told him, folks are going to come out for this one, they are passionate about their candidates." Well you Negroes here in Philly didn't come out. Thousands and thousands of you stayed home. I guess you will always need your committee person and ward leader to come around and kick your lazy assess in the butt. I bet if they were giving away free T.V's at Wal-Mart your asses would have skipped work to go. But not to go and vote, something that folks died to give you the right to do. Something that new immigrants to this country can't wait to do once they get their citizenship. You want a politician to ignore you? Just keep ignoring the ballot box. Want your neighborhoods to stay fucked up? Keep ignoring the voting booth. No wonder the "O" man is reaching out to white folks, he knows you sorry Negroes don't vote.

So the Negroes in Philly didn't come out in force, althoug the ones that did, came out for the "O" man by a nine to one margin. And I am going to give it to the "Ice Queen", she kept the Montgomery County and Bucks County suburbs close when everyone was expecting an "O" man blowout. A Jewish friend of mine saw this coming, and he tried to warn me. His Mom and his older relatives were strong for Hillary, and she sealed the deal for them when she made her comments about the Middle East the other day. That was "dog whistle" politics for all the Jews in this area; I will "obliterate" any country in the Middle East that fucks with Israel. And for most Jews that's all they needed to hear. Hey, that's smart politics Hillary, the "O" man could learn a thing or two from you. You knew the blue collar Catholics and the ethnic gun toting crowd wasn't going to vote for his black ass, so you went after his Northeastern suburban base.

Now as for the aforementioned blue collar crowd. This could be the most problematic thing for the "O" man in the general election. He needs states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, or Michigan to become President, but all of those states have a significant population of "Negro fearing" folks. And even if the "O" man went in to everyone of their homes and gave them a check for $1,000, they still wouldn't vote for his ass. I told you all that at the start of this nomination process and it's still true.

I love how all the pundits and pollsters like to beat around the bush on this issue of race, as if it's so hard to believe that everyone in these divided states don't share our Yankee doodle idealism. They will beat around the bush to find anything except the real reason these folks won't vote for the "O" man. "Well, he is too young. Well, there is that Pastor. Well, his wife just seems so angry. Well, his bowling game is weak. Well, he can't go to his right on the basketball court....."Come on now. Let's keep it 100% with each other. "He looks like one of the gangbangers I just saw on the evening news, and don't want the leader of my country to look like that." Sorry "O" man, only the best Tuna's get to be Starkist.

So that's my little postscript on the elections folks. Here in Pistolvania we hate to see the candidates go. I know the T.V. stations are sad that the "O" man is leaving, they made a killing on that guy. Now in retrospect, I am realizing that maybe he should have kept his T.V. money and used it for something else. WAM maybe?

Weapons Of Multiple Directions

There was the frat boy and great "Decider" announcing yet another new plan for his war in Iraq. Flanked by the bad perm lady, and the human hunter himself, our favorite frat boy was explaining once again, his plan for a "new direction" in Iraq. Gee, I can't even begin to imagine what this "new direction" will look like. Let's just hope it's better than the last directions we took. Let's see now, almost 3,000 of our brave young men killed (4 more today), a half a trillion dollars and counting in our tax dollars, not to mention a region in absolute chaos. So yeah, I would say that it just might be time for a "new direction".

But do you want to know what's really scary? The fact that according to a new AP Ipsos poll, a little over 28% of our fellow American believe that we are heading in the right direction in Iraq. Gee, I wish I know where those people were. Rrrrrring: "Hello", "Yes is this Mrs. Jones?" " Yes this is her, how may I help you?" "Yes Mrs. Jones, this is the Field-Negro, and I have this wonderful idea to cure cancer, would you like to invest your life savings with me?" "Sure Mr. Field Negro where do I send the check?" Seriously, who the f*&% are these people, and why are they even living among us, and not locked away in an asylum some damn where? I mean, do these people really believe that the frat boy's plan for a stable democracy in the Middle East can work? My question to them would be this: Just how much f*****g longer would you have us stay there, and will that vat of Kool Aide ever dry up?

"Like most Americans this administration wants to succeed in Iraq because we understand success in Iraq would help protect the U.S. in the long run". This was our President today, still lying to the American people, and still spinning this travesty of a war. "...because we understand that success in Iraq would help protect the U.S. in the long run"? No it wouldn't, success in Iraq has absolutely nothing to do with protecting us here in the U.S. All success in Iraq would do is protect your sorry ass legacy Mr. President, so stop it already. I mean really now George, this has gone on long enough. For the 71% of us in this country who realize just how absurd this sounds and how absurd this war is, this kind of rhetoric makes us all want to...well, move to Canada or some damn place. I mean to follow your insane logic to its conclusion, this would be like someone raping a woman and after she gets pregnant saying: "gee I sure hope this pregnancy goes well, because if there are complications it could jeopardize her life and that of the child."

As I watched the bad perm lady and the VP standing there today, I couldn't help but think to myself just how pathetic a bunch these clowns are, and for a minute there, I almost felt sorry for them. Almost. Let's face it, these guys are in way over their heads, and now they are calling in Tom, Dick, and Harry, or, should I say, James, Lee, and Vernon, to bail them out. And this was Tony Snowjob today, talking about the President's ...ahhh "new direction": "It's important that the American people (Boy they love that line don't they? 'The American people') be aware both of his consultation and his level of concern about getting it right". Well Tony Snow Job, this will be the first time he cares about getting it right, cause he sure didn't care for these past few years. A little late for some 2,800 Americans and an untold number of Iraqis don't you think?

The frat boy meets tomorrow with Tariq al-Hashemi (Doesn't he play wide receiver for the Bengals?) the Iraqi Vice President. Lets hope he has more luck with this Sunni than he did with the Shiite con artist he propped up as President. Somehow, I get the feeling that my man is going to say to the frat boy: " Look, you f****d up our country, things weren't too bad under Saddam, especially for me, (A Sunni remember?) so the least you could do is hang around until we get this democracy thing right". To which I am sure the frat boy will reply:"Don't worry Tariq, the American people are behind you 100%, don't you watch FOX NEWS?"