Lessons for the President

I admit I have an instinctual urge to defend the President from all attacks but it is increasingly hard to do when even someone such as myself sees mistakes that have been made. Here are some things he should consider.

Miers the wrong pick

George Will on the Miers nomination. Unsurprisingly, he's not a fan. Neither am I. While I think it admirable that Bush is very loyal to his aides, and they in return are loyal to him, the rewards for that loyalty should not include a seat on the Supreme Court. I applaud his decision to go to war in Iraq. I applaud his tax cuts. I applaud some of the ideas for the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast. I applaud his nomination of John Roberts. But Harriet Miers? If he had to go for the diversity pick he could at least have chosen someone qualified.

Bush nominates Miers to the Supreme Court?

How disappointing. Pat Buchanan says it all.

Your house was destroyed by a flood, you have no job, and now you're depressed...

Where are you gonna go now?

The Strip Club!

I guess that's one way to ease your stress if you've been affected by Katrina.

A couple more Iraq poems

While we were by no means as reflective as the British war poets of the First World War, the stuff my friends and I did was highly amusing to us. A lot of it was born out of the stress we experienced working in (what we considered) hellish conditions with people we strongly disliked. Some of the poems are about people, some are about the general situation we were in. Most was done in good spirit though and was a very effective way of blowing off some steam.

Anger Bubbling
Calm Down. Enough for griping.
Heat is just killing.

Callous disregard
For unlucky ones nearby
Crazed eyebrows flying.

Pray for December.
Please don't keep me here longer.
Kuwait November!

Push-ups, sit-ups, run.
Out of breath and out of shape
I am skinny fat.

The Seborrhea
Short, mad, and lacking of hair
He's talking too much.

What is this mockery of life that I live?
Pretending to work, not the best I can give.
Lazing around, grazing in my bag of beef
Hoping and praying no one gives me grief.
Shammer! They call me in rank hypocrisy
No one else is working, at least none that I see.
So I do what I desire with no show of humility
And continue my slide into foul schlegelity.

back

Now back with more updates to follow

rotc

I will be be gone from 23 June to 26 July off at cadet camp in Ft. Lewis, Washington.

haiku

So I was in Iraq for the first year of that fun excursion and I did some haikus. A sample:

What’s not obvious?
All I say is wrong to him
He’s right all the time

Crazed Coalition
Fifty friendly foreigners
Angry at Arabs

An alcoholic
Desert dry-out difficult
Give me a drink please

Rest not authorized
Nor are days off, because then
Soldiers cause trouble

When can we go home?
Most will leave in December
Not us sacrificed.

The Army promise
Sign up and get big bonus
Or not, you sucker

US Forces desecrating the Koran?

All the Muslim world is up in arms about the supposed desecration of a Koran in Guantanamo Bay. They allege an American interrogator flushed a copy of the Koran down a toilet. Can't these people pull their heads out of their collective ass? This criticism is laughable from a society that routinely tortures prisoners and condones stoning people to death. And this comes on the heals of Pakistan getting its panties in a twist over a CARTOON in the Washington Times. Get over yourselves!

Who are we fighting?

These guys.

How not to be Poor

Finish high school and get a job you lazy bum. Also, marry your baby's daddy or momma as it may be. Walter Williams here.

Wolfowitz to head World Bank?

So I've been out of the country for the last week and I come back to find out President Bush in nominating Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

And this comes on the heels of naming John Bolton as Ambassador to the United Nations. Thank God for a president with some balls.

Human Scum?

If you think about it, when a North Korean official calls you "human scum" you're probably doing something right.

Italian hostage injured in Iraq

So all the Italians are in an uproar about the death of one of their own in Iraq? So what. As far as I'm concerned the guy deserved to die. And so did the hostage, Giuliana Sgrena. As a journalist for the Italian communist Il Manifesto, she is at least culpable in instigating and promoting the anti-American sentiment that makes it seem acceptable for terrorists to attack Americans and Iraqi civilians struggling to establish a decent society in Iraq.

And after her release, she now accuses US forces of deliberately targeting her. I wish I had the confidence in the enlisted soldiers manning the checkpoint to believe they could have been proactive enough to do so, but how the hell would the PFC or corporal manning the machine gun know who Giuliana Sgrena was? I doubt they've been reading Italian newspapers recently.

As to the Italian intelligence agent, Nicola Calipari, paying a reported 6-8 million dollars to secure the worthless Sgrena's release, does anyone doubt that money will be used to finance further attacks against the Coalition Forces and the Iraqi security forces?

As a result of Calipari and the Italians paying off the terrorists, more Iraqi security forces, more Italian soldiers, more American soldiers, and more civilians (Iraqi or foreign workers) will continue to be killed and kidnapped in Iraq.

I hope Sgrena enjoys her restored freedom. It comes at the cost of the blood of countless Iraqis and Americans working for a cause Sgrena does not support.