The Iraq Funding Bill

“Pork: More than just a staple at breakfast”

This week, there will be a vote on funding for the Iraq War.

In the Democratic Party, we have two schools of thought on bringing the troops home. Those who want out NOW! and those who want out NOW! but understand that some must stay-short term. The US needs to facilitate a treaty between the Sunni and Shiite. Involve surrounding countries like Baker-Hamilton suggested. All wars are ended with compromise. And, the best part about a good compromise…..it leaves everybody angry.

Those who want our troops out NOW! believe the best route is to cut off funding. Completely. Totally. Michael Moore wants this. So does Cindy Sheehan. I respect both of them and admire them for what they have the courage to do, but I have to totally disagree with cutting off funding. I think that would be a complete and utter disaster.

Needless to say, they HATE the Iraq Funding Bill.

So do the Republicans.

They are saying it is full of pork.

And it is!

$4 billion in drought relief for farmers in the Great Plains.
$3.1 billion for military base construction and closings.
$1.3 billion for New Orleans levee improvements.
$1.2 billion in relief, unemployment, food and housing aid arising out of a freeze that destroyed citrus, avocado and other crops in California's Central Valley.
$745 million to deal with a shortfall in the State Children's Health Insurance Program in 14 states.
$400 million for a one-year extension of payments to rural counties in the Pacific Northwest to make up for timbering cutbacks in national forests. (Detroit News)

WOW! That IS a lot of pork.

I guess when you are spending close to 10 million dollars a month in Iraq, why spend any money helping rice farmers in Louisiana? Why spend any money on the Iraq war veterans? Why spend any money helping spinach farmers recover from the E. coli outbreak? Why spend any money on the catastrophic forest fires we have been having? Global warming is after all, perhaps the biggest lie ever imposed on the American People. Why spend any money on children’s health care? I guess we need to do the Christian thing and just support Dick Cheney and Halliburton. His stock options only rose by more than 3,000% from 2004 to 2005. Poor guy. Hardly enough to even benefit from his own tax cuts. Such a shame.

The Democrats are playing good politics. They have taken a page from the Republicans. Republicans hate it because the Democrats are actually giving the money to people that need it, instead of defense contractors. Even though a Republican would sooner spit on a picture of Regan than vote for anything offered up by the Democrats, you can’t very well go back to Louisiana and say, “I could have gotten you 150 million dollars in relief, but it was more important to vote with my party. That’s how we dooz it up in the D to the C!”

Personally, even though I have sworn off the tasty, tasty pork treats since New Years and have been doing quite well, in this case, I will make an exception and embrace the pork.

Plus, no carbs! Score!

Just because it works for Jack Bauer doesn't make it right......

I do not believe in torture.

I believe that the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and Abou-Ghraib is a disgrace.

Have you seen the email about Gen. John J Pershing and his handling of terrorism in 1911? According to the email, this is how he dealt with terrorists:

[Islamic terrorists] Forced to dig their own graves, the terrorists were all tied to posts, execution style. The US soldiers then brought in pigs and slaughtered them, rubbing their bullets in the blood and fat. Thus, the terrorists were terrorized; they saw that they would be contaminated with hogs' blood. This would mean that they could not enter Heaven, even if they died as terrorist martyrs. All but one was shot, their bodies dumped into the grave, and the hog guts dumped atop the bodies. The lone survivor was allowed to escape back to the terrorist camp and tell his brethren what happened to the others. (SNOPES)

Snopes has not determined if this email is factual. Whether it is fact or not, I do not care.

What bothers me is how the sender of this email will put "I agree completely" in the subject line.
I (the Godless Sodomite from the Church of Liberalism) completely disagree.

Let me share with you a segment I heard on the NPR segment Hmmmm.... Krulwich on Science. (NPR)

During the Revolutionary War back in 1777, gunfire was exchanged between American soldiers and the enemy British and Hessian German soldiers on a farm in New Jersey. The Americans left 7 wounded but alive soldiers on the battlefield. One of the American soldiers offered to surrender but the British refused. Instead, the British decided that these 7 wounded soldiers should be put to death. Not just any death though, the good kind of death. They "dashed out their brains with their muskets, rammed them through with their bayonets, made them like sieves."

When news reached General Washington that the British had killed American soldiers so brutally and without provocation, he said, "We will not do it to them." He even issued orders that said, "captives are to be treated with humanity." (Think of it like McCain's bill sans signing statement.)

General Washington believed that these "enemy combatants" had a right to life.

Right to life. Kinda like fetuses, right? Choose Life?

Washington also said that "we will protect them, we will feed them, we will house them, they will not be harmed because we are fighting for a cause and our cause requires we behave with honor." Washington appealed to his soldiers that they needed to behave with honor because that brings glory. Gen. Washington's soldiers obeyed.

As the war continued, Washington's soldiers captured 1400 Hessian and British soldiers. The captives kept diaries and wrote journals about their detainment. What surprised them the most was how well the Americans treated them. They in turn were very good prisoners of war.

How good you ask? Read onward......

Several hundred of the POWs were told to march from Pennsylvania to Virginia. The Pennsylvania Militia accompanied them until they reached the Maryland border. At that point, they were told to continue on, unaccompanied, alone, without a guard, unsupervised until they reached Virginia, where they would join up with the Virgina Militia.

Guess how many showed up?

Guess.....I dare you.....

Answer: ALL OF THEM

What is even more interesting, is even after they were released, 1 in 4 of the detainees stayed here. They stayed here working in fields and raising families. They were pioneers of this country.

The decision that Washington made was not met with a warm reception by his soldiers.

They wanted to dash out their brains!

They wanted to ram them through with bayonets!

"We are fighting for a cause and our cause requires we behave with honor."

Today, we are not fighting for a cause. We are fighting because we let a "cowboy" from Texas use 9/11 to further his and his cronies interests. Every cause we have been given from WMDs, (do you remember that WMD was voted word of the year in 2002?) to Saddam was a threat, to 9/11, to Osama Bin Laden, to Al-Qaida, to terrorism in general, to liberate Iraq, to spread freedom, to spread democracy, to prevent terrorism by gas price increases, and what I believe holds the most water, because Saddam tried to kill his Daddy.

It is because of this that it is imperative that we behave with honor.

With our credibility gone, with our economy declining, with home foreclosure rates at the highest levels ever, with a 26% increase in the number of families living (if you can call that living) making less than $10,000 per year, with our national debt out of control, with our blatant disregard of the environment, with our intolerance of those who choose a different lifestyle than the "moral majority," with more soldiers killed in Iraq than civilians we lost on 9/11 in the WTC, and with the deplorable conditions the over 24,000 wounded vets are forced to deal with..........

Honor is all we have left.

So when you are voting to ban Gay Marriage because it is immoral, think for just a minute that there is more to morality than what you find behind closed doors.

It is in being the better person, treating others the way you would want to be treated, and not picking and choosing What Jesus Would Do. Jesus hates Gays but loves Water-boarding?

And to those who "completely agree" with the claimed tactics of Pershing, you are a traitor to this country and the memory of every soldier that lost their life while defending our freedom.

How I learned to start hating others and love the AMT..........

The other day I was talking to Dave about the multitudes of middle class families that are responsible for paying the Alternative Minimum Tax this year.

So today, Dave sends me a link to this story and I just had to blog about it. Best part about the email was that he said I should write for CNN.

The best part of this story for me, is the fact that it addresses one of the biggest reasons I hear from people as to why they vote Republican.

"I vote Republican because Republicans lower my taxes and give less money to the poor, who don't work as hard as I do because if they did, they wouldn't be poor."

This is my favorite reason for voting Republican. It says, "I don't care about anyone other than myself." That is God's way.

Let's pretend for a minute that even though you have a good job and you make a lot of money, you are not in the 1/10th of 1% of the richest people in this country. It is easy to know if this is you or not because if you are not on the Forbes top 400 richest people in American list, you are not the 1/10 of 1%. I think you have to be a billionaire to be in the top 400 now.

Now, since you fall into the other 99.9% of this country that is not on that list, here is how Shrub's tax cuts have helped you.

"Because of poor design, millionaires are actually less likely to owe AMT than middle-income people with kids," said Tax Policy Center director Len Burman told the House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee....Burman and others at the House panel hearing said that the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 will double the number of people subject to the AMT unless lawmakers act to reform the tax.
That's because the tax cuts lower tax liability under the regular code, forcing some to pay the higher AMT bill. Without the tax cuts, the number of taxpayers subject to the AMT would already be high - 16 million by 2010 - unless the income exemption levels are indexed to inflation. But with the tax cuts, that number doubles to 32 million." CNN

Which brings us to the key point.....Bush's tax cuts DO NOT help the middle and even what is considered the upper middle class. Again, if you are not on that top 400 list by being a BILLIONAIRE, the tax cuts are hurting you.

"I vote Republican because they let companies and rich people keep more of their income which means they will invest that income in jobs and private sector social services"

TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS DOES NOT WORK! This was proven in the 12 years that Regan and Shrub Sr were in the White House. They quadrupled the national debt (don't you wish that we still had that small of a debt?) and proved that their theory did not work. But like the good Republicans they were, instead of getting rid of bad domestic policy, they kept hanging onto it. That doesn't sound like anyone else we know, does it? Why let the FACTS speak for themselves?

Now here is where I am going to really blow your mind.....

You know that fabulous job you have that earns you a great income, does that job have anything to do with the economy?

If you answered yes, then a vote for a Republican is a shot in your own foot.

Now wait a minute....how can I justify that statement you ask?

Let's examine my job for example.

I work at a car dealership where we sell GM products. I am the Business Manager which means I get people financed and sell insurances that no one thinks they need until something happens and they can't pay for their car. Now, 100% of our customers and I am going to say 99.9% of all of GM's customers are considered middle class. Remember the upper class in America is 1% of the entire US population. (Here is a link to a fabulous chart showing the explanation of classes in the US compiled by the US Census)

Now, since Shrub is taking money out of the middle class's (remember, middle class is 99% of the population) pockets, he is taking money out of my customer's pockets. Which means they spend less money. Which means I make less money and therefore spend less money. Which means that waitresses, stores, websites, etc all make less money because remember, 99% of the population is going through this.

So, if you are not a billionaire, do you still feel it is smart to vote Republican?

And don't worry, if you are sitting back with a smug look on your face that says, "I vote for family values," I will prove you wrong in another post.

How to bring peace to the middle east.....that is so easy.....just send more troops.....nothing says peace like war.....

My Fellow Americans:

How does it feel to know that you are being made a fool of? How does it feel to be mocked? Tell me, is it hard to see out of your stupid shades?

Operation Imposing Law

Yes, that is right my fellow Americans, the troop surge in Iraq is being called Operation Imposing Law.

Since you elected Shrub twice, I know I really have to spell it out for you....
Operation Imposing Law
O I L

move them just a few spots closer and what do you have?

Its only a three letter word so I know that it won't be too difficult to pronounce.....try it with me....

OIL

So, to that 29% of the country that still approves of the job our Idiot In Chief....how does it feel to be mocked by the very people that you put in power?

And thank you for voting for Shrub....Exxon/Mobil appreciates your stupidity because it translates into record profits for them.

I just hope that when you are done paying the AMT this year, you can still afford to gas up your Camry. A couple of hundred low paying, no benefit, no retirement plan jobs are depending on you.

And Ann Coulter is the voice of the Republican Party.

Rock On.

Pot.....meet kettle....you two will be bff's!

The GOP is outraged because indictments were not handed down prior to the November election?

What about the Baker-Hamilton commission report that was ready to go before the midterms?

What about STARTING the investigation into Mark Foley and the suggestive e-mails?

Luckily, the GOP have Shrub in the White House to keep these nasty reports and scandals under wraps around election time.

I wonder what happened to Rove's October surprise? Maybe the surprise was that there wasn't one this time.

What is really sad is that my fellow citizens prove time and time again that they are too stupid to see through the spin.

As far as I am concerned, the majority of the American people get what they deserve....sky high health care costs, middle class carrying the tax burden, and my favorite, a country so far in debt that their great-grandchildren will still be paying for this generations complete apathy to the world around them.

I don't know who taught their children to behave in this fashion. Care only about yourself and screw everyone else.

Ideally, every billionaire that benefited from Shrub's tax cuts to the tune of $56,000 per year, should take that money in $100.00 bills. Every time they see a middle class family struggling to pay their bills, just burn those pesky 560 $100.00 bills in front of them and laugh uncontrollably.

That is the American Way.

One highlight of the day today is that Scooter Libby was convicted on 4/5 counts.

That is good news but unfortunately, he will not serve as much time as he should.

What is even worse....Cheney, Rove, & Shrub get off scott free.

I talked to a customer today who said the world is so screwed he can't wait to get out of this life. He is disgusted by the fact that there is no love for the fellow human being. He said that "love" is the most valuable asset we are given by God. He makes a 55 mile round trip every day to see his wife of 61 years who is suffering from Parkinson's and in hospice. He said that people ask him why he comes up here to see her every day. Oh my God, can you even imagine, putting your loved one in a home and actually visiting them? People are shocked he does that. He says that there is no one else that he wants to spend time with and that he is glad that his body is giving out.

Some might say it was depressing but I find it comforting that I am not the only one who sees the world being extremely jacked up.

Oh Ann Coulter, you holy vessel you..........

I just want to say, I love Ann on the cover of her book, "Godless". She is wearing a little black party dress with a plunge-to-your-belly-button neckline. Nothing says "I love Jesus" like showing as much cleavage as possible. And that is just how she looks on her book! Can you imagine what she wears to church? I picture a mini-skirt paired with a halter top with her thong hanging out the back. I bet when she genuflects, even Dick Cheney suddenly feels alive.

And then today, Ann, or as I will call her from now on, Holy Mother, called John Edwards a "faggot".

It is not lost on my how the right-winged hate machine can continue to behave like the Godless Sodomites that they profess to hate so much, but still find myself wondering how to phrase "John Edwards is a faggot" on my next sampler for the church sewing bee. I know that some women will have things like "peace" and "love" in their samplers but that was the Bible from years ago. My sampler will feature the sentiments of today's God fearing Republican, "hate" and "greed" and my favorite "fascists". I better go find my thimble.