Bush Baffled on Blackwater
Student: “How do you plan to bring private security forces in Iraq under the rule of law?”
President: “Help!”
Its almost as if he’s capable of not absorbing any information whatsoever. I mean, you’d think from even sitting in the oval office he might overhear all the “big people talk” and some of it would seep it, but in all seriousness he’s got to be the most clueless guy I’ve ever seen grace the political arena.
Security forces in Iraq, a subject of no small importance given their size, should be especially at the forefront in his thoughts given the Blackwater fiasco in the past few weeks, yet he still tries to pass the buck.
There’s two unpleasant possibilities here.
1) This thought, how do we make sure that private security forces are held accountable to some form of law, has never crossed his mind. *silence* This terrifies me. If it hasn’t passed through his mind than he is either much dumber than I have ever given him credit for or has so little regard for the rule of law that he never thought of it .
2) He’s thought about it, but either doesn’t have any good ways to do it (and thus passes the buck instead of saying “I have no freaking clue”) or doesn’t consider the rule of law practical/necessary/advantageous.
Don’t worry, its not like he’s the leader of the free world or anything…..
Click here if you’d like information that will help you get through the Bush Administration
Odds and Ends: September 26
Over the course of the week, I run into a lot of stories that make me do a double take. The weird, the funny, the “I can’t believe these people are in government or have an influence on it” kind of news is what odds and ends is all about and I hope to make it a regular feature.
1)Senator Mike Gravel admits using marijuana and cocaine and says they should be legalized
2)Talk about transparency in government
Candidates in Poland’s Women’s Party (Partia Kobiet) run sexy thought-provoking ad campaign.
3)Indian canal construction delayed by monkey army
Construction of a $500 million canal is being delayed because of concerns over the religious worth of the land the canal would pass through. Tensions have already been running high in a country where secularism and religion often butt heads, but were made worse when state leaders dismissed the deity involved (who is still worshiped by millions) as a “big lie”.
The land in question is a series of islands that, I kid you not, was supposedly built by an army of monkeys to allow the god Ram to cross the narrow strip of sea and rescue his kidnapped wife from a demon.
Although the Archaeological Survey of India has determined there to be no physical proof of the event, several detailed sketches have been printed in the media:
Shocking.
Bridge to Nowhere
So, have you been losing sleep over Alaska’s pet project? That bridge connecting an island in Alaska to an airport that would cost roughly $400 million to build and was by and large seen as a ridiculous waste of tax payer money? Well, worry not my fiscally conservative friends, its been trashed. Thanks to pressure about the abusive use of earmarks over the last few years, the project has finally been canned.
But why was it so bad you might ask. Maybe the bridge was of vital importance to great many people? WRONG. With only 50 people living on the island, the $400 million would break down to an incredible $8,000,000 per person.
Now, I know a lot of people are confused about where they fall on the political spectrum. They believe something but have no idea why or have seemingly contradictory beliefs and behaviors. Conservatives for example of bring up phrases like “Fiscal Responsibility”, “Small Government”, and “Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps” to describe their feelings about taxes and government.
At the same time however, you see Republican Sentors like Ted Stevens pushing for pork laiden earmarks like this bridge to nowhere. Not only is this vastly inconsistent (seriously, I can hear the tune to “One of these things is not like the other” playing in my head), but also makes little sense.
Red states recieve far more money per head from the federal government than blue states. In fact, 20 of the top 25 recievers of government money voted republican in the 2004 presidential election. Apparently these states are for small government, except when they want pork laiden projects to serve their incredibly small populations.
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Here’s where my facts are coming from by the way: Pork/Capita 2005
Daddy? Do we deserve Healthcare?
For anyone interested in healthcare politics, the reauthorization of S-CHIP (thats State Children’s Health Insurance Program) is passing through Congress this month. For those who don’t know, SCHIP provides medical insurance for children whose parents make too much money for their kids to be eligible for Medicaid, but too little to actually provide insurance for them. More than 6 million children rely on the program that, if not reauthorized, will expire by September 30th. Should be an open and shut case considering it’s about kids, but its not going as smoothly as some would hope.
What the Democrats want:
-Increase the program’s spending by $35 billion over the next five years.
-Loosen the eligibility requirements to allow more children into the program. In many states this would limit it to middle-class families, but in a few circumstances would include parents making up to $80,000 a year.
What the Republicans want:
-Increase the program’s spending by $5 billion over the next five years.
-Concentrate on getting more kids who are currently eligible and haven’t applied for the program onboard instead of reaching out towards the middle-class kids.
Problem is that President Bush has threatened to veto the bill because he feels it isn’t in sync with the original purpose of the program.
As Brian Walton, spokesperson for the Republican National committee said,
“Democrats have decided to use SCHIP as yet another vehicle to try to increase government control of health care and slip tens of millions of dollars of extra spending in the budget.”
And of course you’re right Mr. Walton. Who would want more government guaranteed insurance for this group of freeloading socialists?
Where do I fall on the Spectrum? I don’t care where you stand politically, healthcare for children should never be a question. When it comes to the medical treatment, the son of a millionaire shouldn’t be treated any differently than the son of a mill worker.
Every child should should be guaranteed the very best our healthcare system has to offer because, in the end, something like this shouldn’t be a commodity to which we are comfortable assigning higher and lower values. The highest quality is the only quality we should be interested in.
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