From politics (moderates who lean to the right) to Pogo (drools during poker stare) to rants (Whatcha expect from savvy, sassy sexagenarians?) to raves (Have you had your kudo today?) -- we never take ourselves too seriously.
We do, however, reserve the right to slaughter an occasional sacred cow. And in case we fail to mention it -- we will never forget....
It's only an opinion, and basically unsubstantiated, but since reading an old article that stated elder-Bush was allegedly more concerned about Jeb losing an election than about GW winning the Presidency -- I've long had my suspicions about the father-son dynamics between GHWB and GWB.
Elder-Bush's tears at a recent event honoring Jeb re-kindled this allegation.
When the Iraqi Study Group was instituted in March, I wondered if GWB would seriously consider adopting solutions compiled by a gathering of his father's contemporaries.
Would Bush stand Lincoln-esque (as described by a recent article) "a man alone" to declare, not only personal validation, but a proactive path toward resolution to the Iraqi quagmire?
I prefer to think that Bush has begun to stand alone --to seek a workable resolution -- in spite of ideas rehashed for a problem (-- make that problems) that members of the ISG were unable to resolve 25-30 years ago.
Much greater minds than mine have questioned -- not only the composition and backgrounds of the study group, but the support-scenario in which they have studied.
And no -- I don't expect GWB to do much cherry-picking from the 79 study recommendations.
Why?
It was not GWB, but elder-Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) lead organizer and chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), who asked USIP to facilitate the ISG -- with the support of the Center for the Study of the Presidency, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy. Congress kicked in one million dollars to foot the bill.
The USIP?
Since when has this group or any of its supporting agencies every done anything comparable to salvaging a military quagmire? They're fundamentally flag-waving dove-havens. Their forte is diplomacy. That's about all they have ever promoted.
But diplomacy as a means to resolve centuries-old Muslim and Arabic tribal conflict? I don't think so.
Maybe diplomacy in conjunction with military strategy and political maneuvering? That could work. But diplomacy as a cure-all for Iraq and the Middle East? I don't think so. My assessment is that the ISG has encouraged diplomacy as a back-room tactic to enable a front door exit.
That is not what is wanted (by a majority of Americans and Iraqis) or needed in Iraq.
We need action that moves us toward a productive resolution --- not a time out to determine who to invite to the talking table. Diplomacy as a resolution to the contemporary Iraq quagmire?
My God -- have we learned nothing from history? Switching from a military effort to diplomacy is a sign of retreat in itself. Remember the meaning of Arabic "truce," i.e., the time taken for talking while re-arming .....
Diplomacy as a change in strategy is not a viable option for the US, for Iraq or for peace in the Middle East.
But wait. Baker et al didn't stop with the Iraqi scenario. They proceeded to lay blame on Israel (i.e., the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) as the source of all Middle East evil.
I don't think so. And nor do many others -- including Mark Steyn.
Why would anyone -- even a short-sighted incompetent political fixer whose brilliant advice includes telling the first Bush that no one would care if he abandoned the "Read my lips" pledge -- why would even he think it a smart move to mortgage Iraq's future to anything as intractable as the Palestinian "right of return"? And, incidentally, how did that phrase -- "the right of return" -- get so carelessly inserted into a document signed by two former secretaries of state, two former senators, a former attorney general, Supreme Court judge, defense secretary, congressman, etc. These are by far the most prominent Americans ever to legitimize a concept whose very purpose is to render any Zionist entity impossible. I'm not one of those who assumes that just because much of James Baker's post-government career has been so lavishly endowed by the Saudis that he must necessarily be a wholly owned subsidiary of King Abdullah, but it's striking how this document frames all the issues within the pathologies of the enemy.
But back to this father-son analogy, specifically -- 10 elder-statesmen, contemporaries of GWB's father, assembled to identify a bipartisan plan for alleviating the Iraqi quagmire ....
Their suggestions certainly incorporate ideas that democrats (who had no plan of their own) can hang their collective hats on. The recommendations are also fodder for conservatives to enjoin their own splintered and self-serving visions. It would have been easy for GWB to accept the suggestions of his elders ....
But the past two weeks have also provided incentive for GWB to stand as a man alone -- in spite of all odds -- to stand against the whims of politicos who failed to bring about peace when they had their chance. Including the President's father.
Fortunately, GWB is making his own headway.
Respectful of the ISG's recommendations, he has met this week with his political advisors, with the military he commands, with Middle East leaders and with representatives of the Iraqi government who must, in essence, employ his suggestions to bring the US and the Middle East out of this quagmire.
Will it happen?
This elder-person bets her lap-shawl that we are about to see a transformed and re-directed GWB. Watch for him to employ suggestions from ME leaders, the military and his former Secretary of Defense. Watch for us to bribe (yeah, bribe) local militias to take control in areas where the Iraqi army can't .... Watch for the Kurds and other sectarian leaders to start their own negotiations .... Watch for less subtle involvement by concerned ME leaders.
And if we don't see GWB taking a proactive stance -- pass out those nuclear blankets, nurse -- the world will soon learn what fission does to sand.
Dennis Miller has it right-on. Even the Washington Times has noted that the airline, pilot/staff and police acted appropriately.
Now if those eye-moms would just show up to complete the inquiry, we could sweep this issue under a prayer rug and pray that these guys will stop acting like the profiles they say we're accusing them of being ....
Win, that is. Whether you "like" Dick Morris or not --- possibly only one other man knows Hillary Clinton better.
December 6, 2006 -- Now that Hillary has dropped the coy pretense of indecision that she used to justify her reelection to a Senate seat she no longer wants and has told friends that she plans to run for president, two questions present themselves: Can she win? And what kind of a president would she be?
She definitely can win … and probably will. She is uniquely able to expand the electorate to bring in millions of women, mostly single, who will vote overwhelmingly for a female Democrat. The feminization of poverty, long decried by the left, will finally lead unmarried women to show up at the polling place and vote their short-term economic interest and vindicate their gender bias. In 2000, only 19 million single women voted. By 2004, their turnout rose to 27 million. With Hillary in the race, the single-female vote will probably go up to its proper ratio of the adult population — 33 million votes.
Can white men outvote single women? Despite the intensity with which white men tend to oppose Hillary, they can’t vote twice.
The enthusiasm that will grip many Americans — women in particular — at the cultural implications of a woman president will probably sweep through the primaries and cause many to overlook Hillary’s flaws and dismiss her defects. The generic of a woman candidate will prove so attractive that millions of voters will overcome their objections to the specific person who is running.
Her mastery of the establishment of the Democratic Party, her vast lead among ex-officio delegates — many of whom have received campaign contributions from her coffers — and the celebrity draw of her ex-president husband will prove hard for a mere mortal to overcome.
But should she win? No way!
Those who know both Hillary and Bill well and are willing to speak frankly in public realize the fundamental differences between the two and grasp how his abilities are the counterpoints to her defects.
He is intensely creative, constantly turning issues over in his mind seeking new solutions. She rarely has a new idea but specializes in advocacy — the rote recitation of talking points.
He has an instinctual feel for people and an uncanny ability to read a room and know what everyone in it is thinking. She is obtuse in her understanding of people and ham-handed in her approach.
He cares deeply about being loved. She seeks popularity as a means to the goal of getting elected but otherwise marches to the beat of her inner, liberal drummer.
He distrusts ideology, and his innate perfectionism finds all belief systems flawed. She swallows the ideological line of the guru du jour hook, line and sinker. During the healthcare years, it was Ira Magaziner who pushed her buttons. When she decided to back the Iraq War, it was the generals who paraded before her committee. She is vulnerable to a cultish adoration of the guys with all the answers.
He lets the give and take of politics wash off his back. A critic is a potential convert whom he hopes to charm over to his side. She has a rigidly dichotomized view of friends and enemies, demanding total loyalty and public silence from the former and maintaining a ruthless determination to destroy the latter. She is a Democratic Nixon to those whom she perceives as her enemies.
He is a moderate by instinct, seeking incremental change. She devotedly and deeply believes in a European-style socialism in which government takes much more of our national income and offers a far wider array of services and benefits.
He’ll raise taxes when he has to. She’ll increase them just to redistribute income.
He’s most like Eisenhower, Kennedy and Bush Sr. — feeling his way, acting with caution, and skeptical of all advice. She is more like LBJ, Nixon or Bush Jr. — determined to charge ahead and do what she thinks needs to be done, the torpedoes be damned.
And finally, he knows who he is and, except for his private shortcomings, is not ashamed to let it show. She constantly seeks to reinvent herself and rigidly maintains an almost totally inaccurate image in public of what she is really like in private. He has little discipline. Hers is iron. His caution is innate. Hers is a learned response to what happens when people see who she really is.
He made a very good domestic-policy president. She would be a disaster at home and abroad.
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His line about Hillary Clinton may be around for a couple of years:
Miller said that he read Hillary's book and when he got to the chapter where she said she didn't have any idea that Bill was cheating on her, he decided then that she was definitely not smart enough to be his president.
No matter how hard they try -- they simply can't hide class. Talking about the Huffington blog. Remember? Remember the blog that pledged to present the most powerful, progressive minds of our times? Uh huh. (And no -- I'm not linking to that cyber cesspool of puke.)
Why in the name of an omnipotent God would ANYONE post a prayer beseeching the death Dick Cheney?
In the name of progressive politics?
Mocking God?
With a re-hash of anti-Bush hype?
The only excuse (to be followed with apologies out the ying-yang) I can imagine is that the talking heads went on vacation and some idiot accidentally posted an April Fools Day reject!
Here it is. I don't expect it to be around long.
I give thanks O Lord for Dick Cheney's Heart, that brave organ which has done its darn-tootin' best on four separate occasions to do what we can only dream about.
O Lord, give Dick Cheney's Heart, Our Sacred Secret Weapon, the strength to try one more time! For greater love hath no heart than that it lay down its life to rid the planet of its Number One Human Tumor.
I give thanks O Lord that we're getting to kick The Lame Duck when he's down. Thank you too Lord for making impeachment unfeasible so's we get to kick him and kick him and kick him, have him to kick around for two more long years, kick him so bad his stupid quacking beak comes out his own greasy-feathered DA.
I give thanks O Lord that because of the sanity, decency and plain commonsense of the American voter, the whole world has finally had this self-evident truth confirmed: George Bush is what the whole world knew him to be the second it laid eyes on him: a talent-free, petulant, pea-brained bully.
Allow me to enlarge somewhat O Lord upon this particular thanks. Despite six years of suppurating drivel from his catamites about leadership and inner strength and Christian fortitude and courage under fire: George W Bush is, was and always will be that sneering, leering little creep who came to school in a chauffeur-driven car, yelled racist epithets at the scholarship kids, tripped up the guy on crutches, stuck his paw up the dress of any girl he pleased, had his toadies beat up anyone smart or weak or different, insulted teachers to their faces - and got away with it all, because his Dad had just endowed the new sports stadium.
And while we're on the subject of his Dad Lord, I give thanks for the delicious sight of that craven, racist, traitorous, class-ridden old fool having to hoik his withered Yankee hams out of the comfy billion-dollar no-show job the Carlyle Group found for him, in a desperate attempt to save a dynasty built on graft, treason,war crimes and good old-fashioned brown-nosing.
I give thanks to thee Lord for the hilarious notion that 41 is in any way superior in skill-sets, smarts or statesmanship to 43! O Lord thou dost indeed make it a cake-walk these days, for the clowns and jokesters! Thy comedic munificence is boundless Lord!
And before I leave this rich vein O Lord I give Thee thanks for the possibility - at long last - that this axis of incompetent evil is OVER. That a crime family who gave us two disastrous Presidencies in the space of a decade might finally be bound for the oblivion it so richly deserves. For Thou knowest Lord in Thy infinite wisdom that with truly evil stupid people - the Nazis spring to mind - it always takes TWO defeats to finally bring them to their knees. So let it be with Bushdom. (And perhaps one of these fine days the neo-Confederates).
But to return O Lord to that for which I give Thee the most thanks: that dinged and dented old jalopy, democracy. Countless millions of miles on the clock but still getting us to our destination safe and sound. Above all O Lord I gave Thee thanks for that which keeps the old jalopy running, the aforementioned ordinary American voter. Maligned, demeaned, taken for granted, treated like a sheep or bug or robot, her intelligence insulted by mail-order demagogues, his actions blithely predicted by arrogant non-entities, as if he had no more free will or character than a chip in a calculator.
But in the final analysis proving once again, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the ruled are always smarter than the rulers.
I give thee thanks O Lord that Thy glorious sun is finally breaking through the viscous, vomit-colored cloud-cover of Republican bigotry, repression, fear-mongering, greed and graft. A blighted carapace of despair and depression that has blotted out the clear blue sky from horizon to horizon for six long years, O Lord, like a billion pairs of enormous morbidly obese buttocks sitting on our heads.
I give Thee thanks O Lord for those same sagacious voters of all persuasions, creeds and ethnic origins, who saw the carnage in Iraq for what it is. I pray Lord that those who voted to launch the carnage might be inspired by your Holy Congressional Spirit to take a long hard look at their guilt in the murder of 200,000 entirely innocent people who never lifted a finger against the United States. Most especially those Democrats who, to curry crass political favor, voted for war in the teeth of their own lifelong principles.
Touching which, O Lord, when the white dove of Thy peace descends upon Washington to hover over the new Congress, may it take a long, wet crap on Hillary's hundred-dollar hairdo.
OK - LET'S EAT!!
Ruba-dub-dub! Thanks for the grub! Yay God!
[Knock knock.]
Is that you, Karma? Ohhhh -- hi, God .... Yeah. I read it. I know. I know. Lots of us felt the same way. This guy's earthly obese buttocks are toast. Especially if Hillary reads that last sentence. She'll curry his crass political --- errr ... post-script. Sorry, God. Be patient with us just a bit longer, please. You have more friends down here than you think. God? God? Where'd you go????
to 
-- time for a touch of Santa doo wop and the reindeer crooners!