Please, President Obama, No More Crusades!

Anonymous D expressed some hard truths the other day:

Getting tired of the "Obama threw away victory in Iraq" thing. There was never "victory" in Iraq. The conservatives, neo-cons and Fox News enthusiasts who blew up the world never admit to the mess they made--That it can never be put back together again--That the idea that democracy would flourish in this region was simply not true. It's a nice rhetorical device to blow something up and then blame the guy after you for not being able to fix it.

Let's face it,  Iraq will require a 50 to 75 year commitment. It will eat up men, women, and treasure. That should have been stated up front instead of 10,000 men or whatever the Neo-Cons thought. We will be there long after we're dead, and probably our children.

Still with the Prez

Yes, I still like President Obama. With his unfavorables down into "heckuva-job-Brownie" territory, someone needs to stick up for him.

Let's see... Obamacare is working and exceeding expectations in some areas. Even the Governor of Utah has a plan to take the Medicaid expansion if the Munchkin legislature doesn't sink it. It works best in states that have cooperated (funny how that is) with maybe the exception of Oregon where their tech expertise somehow got lost in the woods between the Redmond Valley and Silicon Valley.

Iraq's a disaster. We elected Obama to get us out of there where we never should have been. And he simply followed the W agreement to get us out because Maliki refused to sign one allowing for any US troops to stay. So, that's fine by me. If you want to keep following the Cheney Doctrine, go right ahead. I simply note that their answer is to go into full warrior mode again with no expectation that it won't get worse than they have already made it.

And the Next Prize for Cliff-Walking Goes to. . .

I'm afraid it's the Republicans again, specifically Speaker Boehner who can't win because the majority of his majority will not allow it any other way. The President is still holding all the cards. Boehner is thrashing about trying to blame someone else - the Senate, the President, Seth Macfarlane - but the Constitution along with tradition says its the responsibility of the House to initiate bills to raise revenues and appropriate funds (Cons. Art. I, sec. 7 requires revenues in the House, appropriations traditionally - and theoretically - go with revenues and originate in the lower house. See this Republican source.)

The Sequester comes Friday. (Did I mention that "sequestrar" in Portuguese means "kidnapping"?) But it will be a slowly painful fiscal crisis unlike a government default or shutdown. Personally, and remember all my caveats that I do not speak in my official capacity on this blog, our DC office has informed us that we will be receiving furlough notices soon (probably Friday as law already requires 30-day notice and Congress hasn't gotten rid of that yet). And by imposing a hiring freeze, cutting travel and training, we can probably get by with just three days of furlough assuming this even goes to next October 1 when a new fiscal year supposedly begins. "I only regret that I have but three days to lose for my dysfunctional country!" (sorry, Nathan Hale).

Dick "Gadianton" Cheney

In family scripture reading this morning we were in Helaman 6. I was mentally likening unto us and thinking of suspects who might be the Gadianton Robbers among us today. The usual suspects came to mind, urban gangs, the Mafia, terrorists, the Tri-lateral Commission (just kiddin'). And then it came to me, Dick Cheney!

Don't ever ask your crazy Uncle who he thinks should be your Vice President