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- Mugsy

I have been a long-time member of the “Democratic Underground”. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, I constructed a “tagline” (a “signature” quote or saying) to be placed at the end of all my posts, summing up the disastrous record of Bush Administration in just a few lines:

!!! 8600+ Americans DEAD !!!
(3,000 on 9/11. 4,000 in Iraq. 1,600 in Katrina.)
National debt: $9.19 Trillion and counting.
$3.00 gas; $100 oil.
Osama bin Laden still on the loose.

---

* MISSION ACCOMPLISHED *

 
  When I first created this tagline, the deathtoll was “6500+“, and I updated it with every grim 500 “milestone”, relying on the “Iraq Coalition Casualty Count” website icasualties.org for the official count. And with the latest “4,000″ figure, I updated it to reflect the new figure.

So here I am, looking at this unfathomable and nauseating number, when a thought occurred to me: Everyone is talking about the 4,000th soldier, but is that just Iraq? What about “that other war”… Afghanistan… which is now in it’s seventh year with no end in sight?

So I checked and in fact, Afghanistan is NOT included in that count. Another 490 American soldiers have given their lives in that other incompetently run war. I realized that my tagline had been woefully understating the true disaster that is the Presidency of George W. Bush:

!!! 9100+ Americans DEAD !!!
(3,000 on 9/11. 4,000 in Iraq. 500 in Afgh, 1,600 in Katrina.)
National debt: $9.19 Trillion and counting.
$3.00 gas; $100 oil.
Osama bin Laden still on the loose.

---

* MISSION ACCOMPLISHED *

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- Mugsy

Happy “Mission Accomplished” Day!

Five years ago March 19th, George Bush invaded Iraq with an estimated 250,000 troops. By May, that number was down to 150,000. Today, that number is approximately 158,000… 8,000 more troops today than after “Mission Accomplished” on May 1, 2003.

And with that, the White House had announced expectations of withdrawing troops from Iraq:

• In late 2003, the Pentagon was confident we would be able to reduce the number of troops in Iraq sometime in early 2004.
• But when violence didn’t subside like they hoped, those plans were scrapped in 2004.
• In 2005, things were going so well, 2006 looked promising for bringing some troops home.
• But by the time 2006 arrived, things didn’t look so good anymore.
• They hinted at troop reductions again in 2007 with the “success” of “the Surge“.
• But that plan is to reduce the number of troops to “pre-Surge” levels and hope John McCain wins so they can keep the troops there for the next hundred years.

Would someone PLEASE remind these people that 40% of the troops they have fighting this “war” in Iraq AREN’T FULL TIME MILITARY? They are National Guard and Reservists, “weekend warriors” with jobs and families, that joined The Guard to fill sandbags in a hurricane. If they wanted to fight in a warzone, trapped by “stop loss” to play full-time soldier for five years, they would of joined the Army. It frustrates me to no one that the fact so many National Guard and Reservists are STILL there today, taken away from their families and regular jobs, being forced to serve as if they were “Regular Army”.

A 100 year old law appropriately entitled “The Dick Act” required that the “Ready Reserve” (decommissioned soldiers, the Guard and the Reserves) be available to serve in the U.S. Military should the Army command it. In 1920, that law was amended to give the “Commander-in-Chief” the power to call up National Guard and Reservists to active duty, but only “in a national emergency declared by Congress“.

Remember that Congress NEVER declared war against Iraq. President Bush assumed that right carried over in the authority given to him after 9/11 to pursue al Qaeda and “threats against the United States”. I think one would be hard-pressed to make the case that what is going on in Iraq today presents any “imminent threat” to the United States that justifies calling up the Ready Reserve and forcing them to serve as full-time soldiers.

The “Dick Act” also limits the time that Reservists can be forced to serve to just “24 months”, after which they must be released from service and sent home. But since no one is challenging President Bush’s assertion that Iraq is a “national emergency” and “imminent threat”, he has been allowed to “stop loss” these weekend warriors indefitely, LONG beyond that 24 month statute of limitations.

Republicans (and the Media) like to “remind” us at every opportunity that “the Surge worked! Violence is down dramatically in Iraq.” Of course violence is down in Iraq, we’ve essentially put 23,000 more cops on the beat… U.S. troops roaming the streets of Iraq are playing cop. And entire regions have been “ethnically segregated”, so there is less Sunni/Shi’ite infighting to control.

If you remember, “The Surge” was deemed necessary following an explosion of violence in late 2006 with record troop fatalities month after month. The White House blamed the uncontrolled spike in violence on “too few troops”. So, with that said, will there EVER be a situation where someone in this Administration WON’T argue that “fewer troops” might be “too few”, sticking us right back where we were at the end of 2006? We can’t bring the troops home when things are bad because “we can’t abandon the Iraqis” and “it will look like a retreat”. And we can’t bring troops home when things are good for fear of loosing all of our advances. So then what? This is the best example I’ve seen yet that Bush’s Iraq policy is doomed to failure: “an inability to bring the troops home regardless of conditions on the ground” multiplied by “a total lack of political progress”, equals “failure”.

As I’ve bemoaned here on M.R.S. several times before, I frequently find myself confronting “Bush Apologists” when approving Comments to my video archive on YouTube. Last week, I encountered two young “never retreat” Republican kids responding to one video, both arguing that withdrawing our troops from Iraq would leave Iraq in chaos. I reminded them that simply because we leave doesn’t mean Iraq would be defenseless. “Iraq’s security forces are larger than the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. And once we leave, the insurgents won’t have as many targets to shoot at, bringing the violence down to a number Iraq can control on its own.” They liked that answer, and I honestly believe the thought that Iraqi’s could defend their own country themselves ever occurred to them.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney argued before the war that one of the “threats” Saddam Hussein posed was that he “controlled all that oil”, suggesting he could use that supply to manipulate prices and hurt the global economy. As recently as 2006, Cheney stated:

“Think where we’d be if he was still there. He’d be sitting on top of a big pile of cash, because he’d have $65 and $70 oil.”

$70 oil! Whew, thank goodness we got rid of him! Just imagine what the world would be like if Saddam were still in power playing cat & mouse with thousands of international inspectors making his life miserable, while the price of gas climbed to over $2.50 a gallon! <Shudder>.

But at least life is better for the Iraqis.

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- Mugsy

This was really quite extraordinary… so much so that it deserves a special Sunday Evening edition of Mugsy’s Rap Sheet.

The Bush Administration’s Secretary of the Treasury, Henry “Hank” Paulson, did a guest spot on two Sunday News talkshows this weekend to address the rapidly sinking economy. On both shows, he was asked about the falling dollar, which fuels inflation, has pushed oil over $100 a barrel and gold over $1,000 an ounce:

Really quite remarkable.

And just why was Secretary Paulson asked to appear on, not one, but two Sunday shows? Here are some economic highlights of the past week:

• The brokerage firm Bear/Sterns, worth over $1.5 Billion last year with stock trading at over $170/share, looked to the government for an “emergency bailout” last week to avoid bankruptcy, and was purchased by rival JP.Morgan/Chase for $270 million ($2/share) over the weekend thanks in part to a giant financial bailout from the U.S. government.
• The U.S. dollar fell to a record low against the Euro. Once worth more than the Euro when George Bush entered office, the greenback fell to just $0.63 against the Euro when markets closed on Friday.
• Fears over the value of the U.S. dollar and an American economy which appears to be headed for… if not already in… a recession, spiked investment in gold, pushing it above $1,000 an ounce for the first time in history.
• The DOW went on a roller-coaster ride, falling 147 points the previous Friday, another 153 points the following Monday, skyrocketed 416 points on Tuesday, fluctuating another 11 points before loosing another 194 on Friday to close back below the 12,000 mark (11,951.09). I remind you again that the Clinton peak eight years ago was 11,723.
• Foreclosures in the U.S. are reported to be “Up over 60% versus just one year ago.”
• Oil hit a new record high nearly every day this past week, closing at a record high of $111/barrel.
• The record high oil prices pushed gasoline to a record high national average of $3.35 per gallon of Regular.

Perhaps this is why Secretary Paulson felt the need to hit the airwaves and reassure the townsfolk that there is “no need for alarm”.

Since oil is traded in dollars and not Euros, the decline in the worth of the dollar make oil more expensive. But with Euro’s being worth nearly 40% more than the dollar, the price per barrel of oil for Europeans is closer to only $60, having a far milder impact on their economy. Ditto for the price of gold. And a more valuable Euro makes the purchase of American real estate an absolute bargain in the current depressed mortgage market. British and other European companies are snapping up struggling American corporations for a song while their markets continue to stay afloat. And American retailers openly court the British Pound and Europe’s Euro because of it’s increased worth.

The National Debt, while still inconceivably outrageous, would be closer to $6Trillion instead of ten if the dollar were not so depressed.

And speaking of “depressed”, I think I’d better stop here before I am too.

PS: I appear to be having some video trouble. Let me know if the video link stops working by posting in the Comments. - Mugsy)

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- Mugsy

On Sunday, the Vatican released an updated… “modernized” if you will… list of The New Seven Deadly Sins. Pope Benedict XVI felt it was time to update the famous 500 year old list of “Seven Deadly Sins”… Anger, Sloth, Greed, Vanity, Pride, Gluttony & Envy/Lust… to reflect modern times. Now, I’m not one to point fingers, but if you were a good Christian trying to decide which political Party best reflected the Vatican’s values, what decision might you come to after reading a list like this:

1: Causing Pollution - I find it fascinating that the Vatican has not only taken a position on the environment, but has concluded THE EXACT OPPOSITE of the likes of the late Rev. Jery Falwell and the Religious Right in this country that has actively sought to disparage Environmentalists and the subject of Global Warming, claiming that God promised that “the Earth’s resources were here for us to use and could not be used up”. Apparently, the Vatican believes caring for the Earth and all God’s creations is what God wants. If I were a devote Christian debating whose translation of the Bible I would trust most: Falwell’s vs The Pope, sorry Jerry, you and your Conservative smog-belchers are on the wrong side of what God wants.

2: Social Injustice - How many ways can this be expressed? Unequal justice for the Rich vs. The Poor; believing in Social Programs like “Social Security”, “National Healthcare”, “Minimum Wage”… or do we look at it from the perspective of “Torturing prisoners at Gitmo & Abu Ghraib”. Might we look at the disparity in the number of “poor & low-income Americans” serving in Iraq vs the percentage of troops hailing from affluent families or members on Congress? Or perhaps we should consider the treatment of survivors of Hurricane Katrina?

3: Causing Poverty - “Nationwide, nearly 6% of all mortgages were delinquent at the end of the fourth quarter and just over 2% were in foreclosure, the Mortgage Bankers Assn. reported.” “65,000 Americans lost their jobs last month”, the second month in a row that the country reported net job losses. The dollar has lost 50% of its value against the Euro since George Bush entered office, and the collapsing dollar is pushing the National Debt to a heart-in-the-throat TEN TRILLION DOLLARS and has sent the price of oil gushering past a once-unthinkable $100 a barrel, which simultaneously drives up the costs of food production & delivery, pushing up prices in the grocery store as well as the gas pump.

4: Obscene wealth - Two words: Halliburton and Exxon. Likewise, tax cuts for the rich on the backs of the poor has resulted in “the top 5% of all Americans own 50% of all the wealth” in this country. The top 1% owns 38% of all the wealth in the United States” (yes, that means that other 4% makes up only 12%). The remaining 95% of Americans make up only 50% of all the wealth in this country. Toss in that lucky 4%, and 99% of all Americans account for only 62% of all the wealth in this country.

5: Taking drugs - Okay, this isn’t exactly a “platform” for either Party, but it does call into question whether or not you should be getting your political insight from Rush ”Oxycontin” Limbaugh.

6: Genetic modification - If one were to assume in #1 that “caring for all God’s creations” is what God (and the Vatican) has in mind here, then I think it is safe to assume the Vatican is opposed to genetic modification, not only of humans, but of food… plants & animals… as afronts to God’s design. Since neither Party opposes an all-out ban on ALL gentic modification, this “sin” is a definite wash when it comes to Party preferences.

7: Human experimentation - I would argue that there are many ways to read this. Certainly, subjecting a person to potentially damaging medical experiments is not supported by either Party. But the Vatican doesn’t single out “medical” experimentation specifically. What about “social” experimentation like George Bush’s “experiment” to “transform the Middle East”? What of Conservative “experimentation” with “free market economics” that has done more to drive down wages and ship jobs over seas than any benefit gained from corporate profits in the name of “creating jobs”? Might we also consider “torture as a means of eliciting intel from prisoners”, a form of “human experimentation”?

I defy any good, God fearing Catholic to look at that list and conclude that The Republican Party best represents their faith. What do you think?

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- Mugsy

I stayed up late tonight to watch the returns here in Texas for the Primary results. Barack Obama led early, but Hillary Clinton slowly took a slight lead and clung to it for the rest of the night.

I lurked on a popular blog through most of the night and found myself in the surprising (and uncomfortable) position of defending Hillary Clinton against a barrage of childish name-calling, profanity and malapropisms towards Senator Clinton by throngs of disappointed “Obamaniacs”.

The attacks ranged from the personal (”F, Ohio! F, Texas!), the nonsensical (one person comparing Hillary to “Zell Miller”), to the bizarre (”I’d vote for Bush again before I’d vote for Hillary!”).

Many of the reasons given for this sudden fury towards Hillary were based upon unsubstantiated accusations that she/her-campaign were behind a series of racist attacks, photos & emails, all of which have Republican origins. The irony is that Obama supporters are using the same “short-on-facts, jumping to conclusions” justification to trash Ms. Clinton that they are complaining was used against Mr. Obama.

This is dangerous, folks. Now, any longtime reader of this blog knows I am no Hillary supporter. Nor am I an Obama fan. But the Obama supporters definitely trend towards the younger set, and they are handling this election with all the maturity of… well… spoiled brats. Kids, too young to realize that Presidential campaigns typically aren’t wrapped up by Spring. Hell, as I wrote last August, it wasn’t until the late 60’s that we even knew who the candidate would be until the Presidential Conventions in the Summer.

If Hillary does see a sudden reversal of fortune and somehow becomes the nominee, we need rally behind her. Realize that she… not Obama… has won SIX of the eight largest states: California, Texas, New York and Ohio (Florida & Michigan still very much up in the air as their Primaries were discounted) and with Pennsylvania still to come, while the only big state Obama has won is his home state of Illinois (Georgia and South Carolina round out the top ten, both for Obama). That’s nothing to dismiss. As Democrats attack Democrats, you can just hear McCain’s Campaign Manager smacking his lips repeating, “Divide & Conquer, Divide & Conquer!” The surest way to ensure another Republican is elected President (and enduring another catastrophic four years of Bush-enomics), is for a divided Democratic Party to act like a bunch of spoiled brats and threaten to stay home come November or “vote for Nader!” just because their candidate didn’t get the nomination.

No need to worry about how either candidate will do in November against the Republicans. Forget what “the polls” say and just look at these numbers from Ohio last night:

With barely a 1/3rd of all precincts reporting, BOTH Hillary AND Obama have EACH raked in more votes than ALL the Republican candidates COMBINED! The final tallys:

Ohio: 2.2 million people showed up to vote in the Democratic Primary vs barely 1 million in the Republican Primary.

Texas: 2.8 million Democrats vs. 1.3 million Republicans… NEARLY TRIPLE the number of voters… in a VERY Red state.

Hey, if you have any doubts about whether the turnout in Texas was big, just look at the percentage turnout in THIS local race in Houston:

<chuckle>

So relax people. A longer race is a GOOD thing. It vets the candidates, brings up issues and prepares them for what’s to come as we near November.

ADDENDUM: Comparing Hillary to Bush? Really, people??? I don’t envision THIS being done to a President Hillary: “The small towns of Brattleboro and Marlboro, Vermont passed proclamations Tuesday that if President Bush or Vice President Cheney visit their towns, they are to be ARRESTED or extradite them for prosecution elsewhere, for violating the Constitution!”

Time to get real folks. Hillary is not the anti-Christ.