MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2003

IF I WASN'T SO LAZY, I WOULD HAVE COME TO WORK LAST FRIDAY

Is the Bush trip to Baghdad old news yet?  I must have watched that bit where Bush walked out from behind that curtain 50 times Thanksgiving night and the next day.  Just amazing. I sure would have liked to have known the private thoughts of Dean, Kerry, Edwards, Gephardt el al when that news broke. 

I was tempted ... almost ... to pull the plug on my day off last Friday and hit the air to talk about the trip.  I've been through a 12-step program for working on my days off .. and its working, but not flawlessly.  I did manage to post some notes to the Nuze on Friday, including some thoughts from the enemies of freedom at Democraticunderground.com.  When leftists start using language that vicious against the president you can rest assured that they've been gravely wounded ... and wounded they were by this brilliant trip to Baghdad.

Can you tell me the difference between George Bush and Saddam Hussein?  George Bush has actually been seen in Baghdad in the last five and one-half months.

OK ... what to expect.  Look for Democrats to increasingly refer to Bush's visit as a "stunt."  Weasley Clark, whose presidential campaign had a half-life of about one week, is calling the trip a "photo op."  There may be more stories about disgruntled reporters who didn't get to go on the trip.  We've already heard the New York Times and CNN whining about being left behind.  Incredibly, the New York Times argued that reporters are quite capable of keeping a secret, and the press pool should have been expanded.  Wasn't it the Times that first printed those classified Pentagon papers when America was at war in Vietnam?  As for CNN; Ted Turner is proud of the international stature of his creation.  I can specifically remember Turner and other CNN honchos telling us that CNN is an international, not an American news operation, and that CNN owes nothing to the United States when it comes to stories that might reveal American military strategies or movements.  Yeah ... this is the crowd you want in on a secret like this.

Finally ... what do you want to bet that some Democrat steps forward in the near future to ask Bush to pledge not to use any video of this event in Baghdad in political advertising.  And you're telling me that Hitlary didn't have a campaign video crew with her on her visit?

And ... speaking of Shrillary .....

HILLARY'S ATTEMPT TO DEMORALIZE OUR TROOPS

I'll tell you one place I wouldn't have wanted to be last Thursday, and that's anywhere near Hillary Clinton.  This woman has a well-earned reputation for abusive and even violent behavior when things don't go her way, and things definitely didn't go her way with her trip to Afghanistan and Iraq last week.  Hitlary doesn't like being upstaged. 

While dining with troops in the theatre of combat The Hildabeast told them that there were "many questions at home about the administration's policies."  Translation:  "There are many questions at home about the actions of your Commander in Chief."  It's one thing to question administration policies in a political setting.  It's quite another for a politician to go before troops in a war zone and raise doubts about their mission and the actions of their commanding officer.  This is absolute typical Hillary Clinton.  This is a woman who never expressed anything but complete disdain for any man or woman in uniform ... until, that is, it became politically expedient to become their proud supporter.

TAKING MY LUMPS ... AND FIGHTING BACK

Last week in these program notes and on the air I said something to the effect that "other than the tax cuts and the war on terror, there is no real reason to reelect George Bush.  Perhaps we would be better off with the stalemate that comes from a president from one party, and a congress under the control of the other."

Fighting the war on terror is certainly the most important job this president has, but it's not the only job he has.  The American dream has enemies both foreign and domestic.  You can't completely ignore one while devoting your full attention to the other.  One great enemy to America is big government.  We have a class of people out there, some call them Democrats, who think that America is great because of government.  I would prefer to think that America's greatness was brought about by a free people acting freely with one another under a system of laws crafted to preserve and protect basic individual rights, including the right of the individual to act in his own best interests so long as he respects the rights of others to do the same.  Big government is a threat to those rights, and George Bush is doing absolutely nothing to fight the growth of government. 

As things stand now George Bush holds the record for three of the top five years in terms of increases in government spending.  He only holds three of those years because the figures for the fourth year of his presidency aren't in yet.  What do you want to bet that when those numbers do come in Bush will hold the record for four out of the top five years. 

Bush has not proposed eliminating one single government spending program, nor has he vetoed one single spending bill.  The recent energy bill was shelved in part because some elected Republicans were repulsed by the pork that had been inserted by various Senators and Congressmen, a feeling evidently not shared by President Bush. 

Don't blame these spending increases on the war on terror.  Yes, military spending is up .. but it is still nowhere the level of the 1980's  Discretionary spending is increasing faster, and this is where Bush has failed to show leadership.

One more thing.  Social Security and Medicare.  Right now in Atlanta we're facing a sewer crisis.  Our politicians have known that our sewer system is crumbling for decades ... but they did nothing.  The exalted Maynard Jackson and the amazingly corrupt Bill Campbell sat on their rear ends and did nothing for a combined 16 years.  Now the bill is due and sewer and water fees are on their way up by nearly 150% over the next few years, and this is on top of a recent 50% increase in property taxes.  This is the price of ignoring a problem you know is there   Medicare and Social Security are headed towards bankruptcy.  With every single day that passes we have more people receiving those benefits and fewer people working and paying taxes to fund those benefits.  By the year 2020 those two budget items alone will account for 80% of all federal spending.  That's about 16 years from now ... the same period of time time Jackson and Campbell ignored Atlanta's sewer problems, and you see what's happening here.  Businesses and residents may well be forced to leave Atlanta to survive.  Will businesses and people be forced to flee for their own survival when our taxes triple to take care of the cost of just these two programs?

This hideously expensive and unneeded prescription drug benefit program would never have happened if one party had been in control of the White House while another controls the congress.  When your party is running the show there's a special level of responsibility present to make sure that fiscal discipline is maintained.  There has been no spending discipline under Bush, and someone will have to pay that bill.

HALLIBURTON .. THE REAL STORY

I am so completely sick and tired of hearing these Bush-hating, left-wing, Saddam-appeasing neo-socialists rant and rave about Halliburton that I could  ..... well ... I could just spit.  What morons.  These are people who hate capitalism, hate the profit motive, and believe that every evil visited on the world is done so in the name of corporate greed.  Losers all.

To listen to these irrational cretins you would think that this entire war in Iraq was being fought for one purpose, to enrich Halliburton. It would be not at all surprising if some of these anti-capitalist geeks believed that Bush arranged for those airplanes to fly into the World Trade Towers for that one purpose .. enriching Halliburton. 

Try this experiment.  The next time you hear some liberal parrot squawk about Halliburton just ask them one simple question.  "Well, pal --- since you're such an expert on Halliburton, why don't you tell me just what it is that Halliburton does?  Name one product or one service that Halliburton provides."

Don't hold your breath waiting for cogent answer.

Part of the perceived evil that is Halliburton is the fact that Dick Cheney once ran the company.  As everyone knows, we should strive mightily to avoid ever placing anyone with the know-how and ability to run a multi-million dollar corporation in a position of responsibility in the political realm.  Actually making a success of yourself in the private sector disqualifies you for public service, while not having any actual discernable private sector job skills is the supreme qualification for public service. 

So ... let's get to the bottom of this.  Did Bush or Cheney do something underhanded or illegal in handing some rather lucrative contracts to Halliburton for infrastructure and other work in Iraq?

We'll start with another question you can ask your bedwetting leftist friends.  Ask them if they've ever heard of LOGCAP.  They will tell you that they don't know what that is.  You won't be at all surprised.  LOGCAP is the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program created by the United States Army.  It is a program that uses a competitive bidding process to award a contract to a corporation to be on call to provide whatever services the Army might need ... right then.  Some brilliant thinkers in the Army came to the conclusion that it might not be such a swell idea to screw around with competitive bidding processes for logistics and other services during wartime.  Imagine that.

Halliburton won the competitive bidding process for LOGCAP in 1992.  They then lost that bidding process five years later in 1997.  In spite of the fact that Halliburton no longer held the LOGCAP contract, Bill Clinton went ahead and awarded a no-bid contract to Halliburton to do some work in the Balkans supporting U.S. peacekeeping actions.  Odd, isn't it.  The same people who are screaming about Halliburton right now had absolutely nothing .. nada .. nunca .. not one thing to say about Halliburton when it was the Clinton Administration that was handing out contracts .. with no bidding, by the way.  You might also be interested in knowing that Al Gore was quite a fan of Halliburton. Gore's reinventing government panel had some very complimentary things to say about Halliburton and the services it provides to the U.S. government.  Ahhh ... but what does Al Gore know, right?

That brings us to 2001.  It's time for bidding on the LOGCAP contract again. Halliburton is right in there, and wins the bid.  This means that at the time of the Iraq War Halliburton had the bid for providing logistical and other services to the U.S. government.  They were the go-to company.  So, along comes the U.S. Army with a fat contract for Halliburton to put out oil-well fires in Iraq and all hell breaks loose.  To the left this is all the proof you needed to show that this whole war was about oil and enriching Bush pals. 

Recap:  Clinton awards no-bid contract to Halliburton at a time when Halliburton did not hold the LOGCAP contract.  Bush awards contract to Halliburton at a time when Halliburton DID hold the LOGCAP contract.

So ... one last question for your mindless leftist friends.   Well .. make that two questions.  Ask them if Clinton went into the Balkans to enrich Halliburton.  They'll say no. Then ask them if Bush went to Iraq to enrich Halliburton.  They'll say yes.  At this point do all that you can to have your friend institutionalized .. for they are beyond all help.

AND MORE FROM OUR FRIENDS AT DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND

As I pointed out above, last Friday I posted some "thoughts" from Democraticunderground.com on Bush's trip to Baghdad.  I thought perhaps you would like to read some more.  Remember ... these leftists who post their feelings on this Democrat website can often be a bit profane.  Cover your children's eyes ... and here we go!

• An evil man who wants to help bring about a corporate/theocratic police state. Bush doesn't care one whit for the working people, middle class and the poor. His entire administration has been nothing but a big "fu*k you" to people who are worse off than himself and his corporate masters. And Barbara Bush is a evil, nasty woman. A mean and nasty c**t.
• I'm all bushed out, but the vile little cretinous penisless worm * just isn't worth my time. The writhering little hypocritical cowardly bastard can shove the whole turkey in his mouth and add a pretzel for all I care. No, wait, make that 10 pretzels - jumbo size.
• In a country where the poor and old cannot afford health care, in a country where the economy is falling apart, in a country where 44 million people live on less than $12,000 dollars a year, in a nation where 5 million people are homeless, in a country where the entire media system is owned by only six media mega conglomerates, in a nation with the highest crime rate, in a country with the world's largest prison population, in a society where 60% of marriages end in divorce, in a country where 25% of kids under 12 live in poverty, in a country that cut 25 billion dollars out of veterans benefits to help pay for a new war, in a country where the gulf between the rich and poor is growing everyday, in a nation that supports dictatorships in Saudi, Egypt, and Turkey, in a country where the government is full of corruption, in a country with the world's highest teen suicide and stress rates, and you're telling me our biggest problems are TERRORISM and DRUGS?
  BULLSH*T!
  You dishonor the title of President of the United States of America.
  You violated your oath to "protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" not just in 1972 when you deserted a CUSHY post, a year which I spent in SE Asia up to my ass in muddy, leech filled water, drinking water hotter than coffee from my sun-baked canteen and suffering the night sweats and day chills from malaria, no, you also violated this oath on or about Sept 11, 2001 when you let thousand of ordinary citizens roast in attacks you either ignored or colluded in.
  You continue to dishonor the good will of the rest of the world with your foolish, intransigent stance over this insane war over oil and greed.
  You put people in positions where they are forced to take other's lives, sometimes the lives of their comrades by accident.
  As a young man, I was put in the same circumstances. I wish it were not so, but it was, and it is. It took me two decades to sleep well at night. Sometimes I still don't, but it is not every night.
  I wish you at least that living hell on earth, for I know you will suffer even worse in eternity.
  I would say fu*k you Bush, but since fu*k can denote pleasure, I cannot.
  Rot in Hell, scum.
• I know how you feel, especialy about the nights and I wish it wasn't so true. When I start to type Bush I keep typing reptile, but I actually like some reptiles, this * thing is totaly repulsive. I can't watch him or listen to him, it's getting to where it's not even fun laughing at him anymore because he is so dangerous to peace and civilization and humanity. The old curses I know aren't vile enough, I need to think up some new ones

Whew!  That was a trip into intellectual hell ... wasn't it?  The spelling errors belong to them.  I did put a few asterisks into some words to force you to use your imagination as to what was being said.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Are you a victim?  About 91.2% of people in North America and Europe think that they are. 

Here's a man on a mission to enact a nationwide law slowing 18-wheelers down to 55 mph.  I know, he lost a son when a truck rear-ended him.  What he's trying to do now would cause massive traffic congestion and quite possibly more accidents.

Thomas Friedman is a bona fide liberal on everything ... except, that is, the war in Iraq.  This column is a must read.

Here are some things you need to know about the Geneva Accord, this Middle East peace plan you'll be hearing much about today. 

The Wall Street Journal says that Bush can vindicate his Medicare giveaway if he will take some steps to fix the problem with Social Security.  It's time to let Americans invest their own money in their own retirement.

Random Thoughts from Thomas Sowell ... always a good read.

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