Thursday, January 11, 2007

Elayne Boosler: The Bush Berlitz. Because sometimes you need a dictionary... BUSHMINI = ENGLISH Augmentation= Escalation Surge = Augmentation 21,500= Pissing in the wind Nucular= Nuclear Strategy = Pin the Tail on the Donkey Mission= Quagmire Mission Accomplished= Premature Evacuation Mandate= 29% Sectarian violence= Civil war Civil unrest= Sectarian violence Sectarian violence= Civil war Caesarian section= Shouldn't be taught in schools New plan = Sweeps are over; rerun Iraq Study Group= Milli Vanilli Reviewed all options= Iraq, paper, scissors Not open ended= The Grand Canyon Sacrifice= Go shopping New resolve = Eight vacations Success that hasn't happened yet= Cubs win the World Series I'll only put it in halfway= Number of troops first sent to Iraq You don't look fat in those pants= Moo! Not winning, not losing= Losing Last chance for Iraq = Ms. Schiavo definitely has brain activity Woronterr= War on terror Tourists = Terrorists Tourists, Woronterr = Fear! Fear! Fear! Make Americans safer= Fear! Fear! Fear! Make Americans safer= But not with condoms Domestic wiretapping= Fear! Fear! Fear! Habeus Corpus= So 1776 9/11= 9/11 Family values = One million Iraqi dead Abortion is murder= One million Iraqi dead Stem cell research is murder=Three thousand Americans dead Culture of life= Three thousand Americans dead Iraqis are free= Except the women Clear Skies Initiative= Roll back energy plant emissions standards Healthy Forests Initiative= Clear cutting forests Clear Iraqi neighborhoods=Clear Neighborhoods Initiative Patriot Act= It's an act Energy Independence= No minimum MPG standards Iraqi Independence = No minimum IED standards The check is in the mail= And your grandchildren are going to have to make it good To step back now would force a collapse of the Iraqi government and result in mass killings on an unimaginable scale = I thought I was stepping on the brake, officer Sacrifice more young men and women= Not my kids Another 6.6 Billion = Not my money A real plan= Not my job Prime Minister Maliki= Queen Elizabeth Moqtada al Sadr= Tony Blair Al Qaeda in Iraq= Player to be named later Shia "insurgents"= Half the seats in Iraqi parliament Sunni insurgents= Tutsis I'm the Decider = Let the Democrats come up with a plan Rebuild Iraq= Not rebuild New Orleans Prosperity= Halliburton, Bechtel Responsibility= 9/11 Accountability= Dennis Hastert Feasibility= Cubs win the World Series Work with congress= Veto Co- operation = Talk to the hand My Fellow Americans= Evangelical base Support for Israel= Getting Christ's room ready No timetables= No timetables Benchmarks= Timetables Affordable health care= One million new uninsured this year Booming home ownership= Balloon mortgages for poor people Home ownership= Foreclosure Iraq= Foreclosure My presidency= Foreclosure Bring the troops home, for closure [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed] 6:12:15 PM    comment []

Jonathan Powers: Empty Chairs at the Dinner Table. Last night the President addressed the nation to discuss his new strategy for Iraq. There has been much analysis, critique and political banter about the number of troops he intends to deploy in support of this mission in Baghdad, many of whom will be returning for second, third or forth deployments. As an Iraq veteran, the part of his speech last night that made my stomach turn was when the President discussed the sacrifices being asked of these soldiers and his families. The following line in his speech showed me how little he understands of the TREMENDOUS burden he is putting on .5% of this population and their families who continue to serve this country in uniform: They serve far from their families, who make the quiet sacrifices of lonely holidays and empty chairs at the dinner table. Is that it? Is the only sacrifice of these men and women, who leave their families for a year or more--many who have gone numerous times--to have an empty place set at the table for them at dinner? What about the Reserve and National Guard soldiers who are self-employed, such as dentist or plumbers, and loose their entire client base because they are gone for a year? Now they risk having an increased operational tempo that would require them to deal with these "lonely holidays" every other year. How can a plumber keep clients when he misses two years of work out of three? If this is the only sacrifice families are making during this nearly 4 year-old war, then why is the divorce rate among military enlisted families up over 28% and officer families nearly 70% since the start of the war? The Army has launched programs to try and better support these families, but the idea of the soldiers returning for second, third or fourth rotations is driving loved ones apart. These are major threats to our all-volunteer military. An increase of 21,000 troops will provide a tremendous strain on our overstretched force. The President is asking for Americans to increase the burden he has placed on our brave and noble soldiers, and he calls it sacrifice. The father of a Captain from the Army's 101st Airborne Division told me his son, who has been to Iraq on two tours and had planned on previously being a career Officer, said, "I volunteered to serve my country, but I did not volunteer to serve it alone!" As a soldier who served in Iraq, I want to see peace in that region. I pray for my brothers and sisters in uniform, but also for the millions of Iraqis who have only known war for the last four years. For an Iraqi child who was born in 2000, they have spent over half of their life living in war. Will he or she just forget that once this surge is over? Will the families of the over 28,000 civilians violently killed in 2005 alone (over 17,000 in the last 6 months) just forget who started this war when the surge is over? Our soldiers on the streets of Iraq know that the Iraqi people will not so easily forget. That is why they deserve a more comprehensive regional plan that addresses the unconventional warfare we will use to re-win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis. The hearts and minds of those same Iraqis who I sat at dinner tables with all through out the summer of 2003, but whom I later fought in the streets in the summer of 2004. The President discussed an increase in aid and numbers have been circulating around Washington of about $1 billion. Well Mr. President, we have already spent nearly $18 billion and have little to show. $234 Million was spent to build 20 private clinics--not hospitals--but CLINICS! So what will this $1 billion get us that will bring peace? Our soldiers and their families, who are being asked to sacrifice many more "lonely holidays," deserve to know. [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed] 11:46:25 AM    comment []

Justin Frank: Unchanged Melody. Unchanged Melody by George W Bush and the far-Righteous Brothers Oh, Iraq, my darling, I've hungered for your oil, a long lonely time. Time goes by so slowly, and time can do so much, Are you still mine? I need your oil. I need your oil. God speed your oil to me. Lonely soldiers flow to the sea to the sea, to the open arms of the sea. Dying soldiers cry wait for me wait for me, I'll be coming home, wait for me. I need your oil. I need your oil. God speed your oil to me. [The Huffington Post | Full Blog Feed] 9:56:44 AM    comment []

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