I Present to you the 1st Republican 2012 Primary Debate…

I present to you the 1^st Republican Primary Debate for the Presidential campaign of 2012

Please welcome former Vice President Richard Cheney, former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, former governor and talk show host, Mike Huckabee, current Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich, Florida Governor,  Charlie Crist, former governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney and last but not least, form Senate Majority leader from Tennessee, Dr. Bill Frist.

Can’t you just picture this woman and the men walking on stage and behind their respective podiums?  What a show that would be.

Would those leaning toward the middle of the political spectrum finally tell Cheney and Palin, ‘where to go’ with their radical ideas or lack there of?  Would somebody actually point out the Bush/Cheney failure in the wars they started, their failure with spending and socializing of medicine for seniors?  Would someone take on Palin for walking away from her governorship because she ‘couldn’t handle it’?

It would be interesting to watch wouldn’t it?

I wrote this past weekend that I welcome the “Draft Dick Cheney for 2012” group and their plans to get Cheney to run for president in 2012.  I wrote that he should definitely be drafted — into the military or CIA that is because of his experience with starting wars and leaking CIA agents names.   I was joking of course.  However, now that I’ve had time to think about it, having Dick Cheney in the Republican primary debates could do wonders for the Republican Party itself.  Why would I offer a suggestion to help that Party choose the right candidate to run against President Barack Obama?  Since when have you ever seen a republican or conservative listen to me?

As Jon Meachum recently wrote in the Newsweek article, Dick Cheney, “is a man of conviction, has a record on which he can be judged, and whatever the result, there could be no ambiguity about the will of the people. The best way to settle arguments is by having what we used to call full and frank exchanges about the issues, and then voting.  A contest between Dick Cheney and Barack Obama would offer us a bracing referendum on competing visions.”

However, Meachum is skipping a few steps.  Cheney would first have to get past the Republican primaries.  Here is my plan; by having extremists in their mix (Republican’s primaries), history will once again prove that Americans always end up moving toward the center when faced with the radical left or right.

Once American’s see how radical and extreme Dick Cheney, as well as Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Tim Pawlenty are, they will most likely push those folks out of the race before it’s barely begun.

The ones left behind will be the ones that are middle of the road and/or experienced in domestic issues, such as Mitt Romney, Charlie Crist or Bill Frist.  Crist and Frist both supported health care reform and I believe they both supported a Stimulus package, although a limited one and both have criticized their own party for being the party of ‘no’.  While they have conservative views, they are somewhat middle of the road and appear willing to compromise.

Mitt Romney hangs on only because of his experience with money – that is, if, the economy is still having trouble – which I personally believe it won’t.  The issue in 2012, in my view, will be the deficit, Social Security, Medicare and spending.

If the GOP are smart, they will run someone that not an extremist that wants radical change or wants more world domination by super powers like ourselves.  Having Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin running for president in 2011’s primaries – would actually save the Party from total vaporization from the political arena.

Thankfully however, the GOP membership has never had reason to listen to me and never will.

Draft Cheney: I’m All For It

former Vice President Dick Cheney to run for president in 2012. “There is only one person in our party with the experience, political courage and unwavering commitment to the values that made our party strong – and that person is Dick Cheney,” said Christopher Barron, an organizer of the group.

I’m all for this idea. This is the perfect man to draft.  The perfect man to carry on the Republican, so called conservative moment (or neo-con beliefs) with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq if you will.

Think about it folks, what man in America, besides former president George W Bush, knows more about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  What man enjoys torturing prisoners and invading nations that haven’t attacked us more?  What man thinks the current president is “dithering” when it comes to Afghanistan and is putting our soldiers on the battle field in harms way by doing so?  What man was Vice President during the time in which President Bush announced his desire to get Osama Bin Laden, “Dead or Alive”?  What man loves the “shock and awe” of war more?

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is the perfect guy to draft — in the military that is.  Seeing as he unfortunately missed out serving his nation during the Vietnam war by asking for 5 deferments, I’d say this is the perfect time to give him another opportunity to use his unwavering commitment to our nation.  Draft him into the Marine Corps or perhaps the Army.  Hey, even better, perhaps we should draft him into the CIA.  He can become comrades with some of those he put in danger a few years back by leaking a CIA agent’s name for political gain.

Draft Cheney — NOW!

If True, Even More Reason for Special Proscecutor

KABUL, Afghanistan - Two Afghan teenagers held in U.S. detention north of Kabul this year said they were beaten by American guards, photographed naked, deprived of sleep and held in solitary confinement in concrete cells for at least two weeks while undergoing daily interrogation about their alleged links to the Taliban.

The accounts could not be independently substantiated. But in successive, on-the-record interviews, the teenagers presented a detailed, consistent portrait suggesting that the abusive treatment of suspected insurgents has in some cases continued under the Obama administration, despite steps that President Obama has said would put an end to the harsh interrogation practices authorized by the Bush administration after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks…

A Defense Department spokesman, Lt. Col. Mark Wright, said that the military does not respond to each allegation of detainee abuse, but that all prisoners are treated humanely and in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and U.S. law.

“Department of Defense policy is and always has been to treat detainees humanely. There have been well-documented instances where that policy was not followed, and service members have been held accountable for their actions in those cases,” he said.

Jonathan Horowitz, who works on detention issues in Afghanistan for the Open Society Institute, said: “These allegations of physical and mental abuse at a secretive facility are, if true, patently unacceptable and must be investigated.”

I’ve said from the very beginning when torturing or anything that is done beyond that allowed in the Geneva Conventions, that if we allowed one administration to do it, others will follow.

I know that most of my readers consider it ‘ok’ to torture a prisoner, if it means saving lives of Americans.  However, you forget one thing.  Our soldiers are Americans too.  What we allow in our name will surely someday be allowed to happen to our soldiers and Marines by the enemy.

Yes, I realize this enemy is different.  However, if we ignore our own rule of law, how can we ‘ever’ expect to request another nation to change their way of treatment to a human being.

I happened to click on Hannity’s show last night (not on purpose and I don’t know if this was a rerun or not) while he debated Michael Moore.  Moore was saying something like you love thy enemy don’t you Sean?  Sean said something to the effect, that yes but that, “They don’t respect human life and dignity“.

Well — if we treat other humans inhumanely and don’t respect human life and dignity — how are we any different then they are?

Torturing and treating a prisoner inhumanely has no excuse, especially in the name of America.

A strongly recommend that President Barack Obama and Attorney General Holder get together and discuss hiring a special prosecuter as soon as possible to investigate this and any other actions in our past 9 years while at war.  Are these acts of torture orders from the top commanders?  Are they from the administration themselves?  Or are they truly just a bunch of bad soldiers having fun?  If past information is true, the acts were not just a bunch of bad guys….the orders came from the top.  And if so, those people should be sent to jail for war crimes.  Plain and simple.

I don’t want to give ‘any‘ future president the right to spy on Americans or torture prisoners.

UK Evidence Seeping Out: UPDATE

LONDON – The United States was “hell bent” on a 2003 military invasion of Iraq and actively undermined efforts by Britain to win international authorization for the war, a former British diplomat told an inquiry Friday.

Jeremy Greenstock, British ambassador to the United Nations from 1998 to 2003, said that President George W. Bush had no real interest in attempts to agree on a U.N. resolution to provide explicit backing for the conflict…

As diplomats frantically attempted in early 2003 to agree upon a U.N. resolution approving a military offensive, Bush’s key aides grew impatient — criticizing the process as an unnecessary distraction, he said.

‘Waste of time’ alleged
Grumbling from Washington “included noises about ‘this is a waste of time, what we need is regime change, why are we bothering with this, we must sweep this aside and do what’s going to have to be done anyway — and deal with this with the use of force,’” Greenstock testified before the inquiry into the Iraq war…

Yet Bush’s inner circle cared little about what international allies thought and refused to halt plans to invade in March 2003, Greenstock said. He said even Blair was unable to persuade Bush, winning only a brief hiatus of two weeks.

All the while here in the U.S. we were being told the President Bush hadn’t made up his mind and war was the last thing on his mind….yeh right.

These words and actions that are now seeping out of the woodwork in the UK bring back memories.  Many of us accused the Bush administration of planning all along to invade Iraq — this kind of information just proves it.  They were going in whether or not anybody went with us.

UK Evidence is Seeping Out

A bit of news that isn’t being seen in America – at least so far as I can tell:

The UK received intelligence days before invading Iraq that Saddam Hussein may not have been able use chemical weapons, an adviser has said.

Foreign Office official Sir William Ehrman told the war inquiry that a report suggested that such weapons may have been “disassembled”.

A separate report suggested Iraq might also “lack” warheads capable of spreading chemical agents, he added…

This is really damning for the former prime minister,” said the party’s foreign affairs spokesman Ed Davey.

“To go to war when you are not absolutely certain about your case raises serious questions about whether international law was broken.”

The inquiry also learnt that the UK investigated and rejected suggestions of links between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda.

Following the 9/11 attacks, the Foreign Office looked at the matter “very carefully”, Mr Dowse said, and concluded there was “nothing that looked like a relationship between the Iraqis and al-Qaeda”.

It appears that it will definitely take another nation to finally get some of the truth out about why we really went to war in Iraq.  Unfortunately, the U.S. news people don’t seem to care anymore.

Hear All About It!

WASHINGTON - The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week to the lowest level in over a year.

The concern is that the big improvement will be temporary as the weak economy continues to push unemployment higher.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that the number of people filing first-time claims for jobless benefits fell by 35,000 to 466,000. That was the lowest level for initial claims since the week of Sept. 13, 2008, and was far better than the 500,000 that economists had expected.

Ever notice that each and every time we get a piece of good news, the reporter or /news site has to put a caveat on it?  Whether its about the jobs market, housing market, the current bill being discussed or simply if it’s having a nice day or not, we get the famous cautionary detail to be considered when evaluating, interpreting the story.

Obama: “It is my intention to finish the job”

WASHINGTON (AP)“I feel confident that when the American people hear a clear rationale for what we’re doing there and how we intend to achieve our goals, that they will be supportive,” he said.

“It is in our strategic interests, in our national security interest to make sure that al-Qaida and its extremist allies cannot operate effectively in those areas,” Obama said. “We are going to dismantle and degrade their capabilities and ultimately dismantle and destroy their networks.”

“It is my intention to finish the job,” he said of the war in Afghanistan that has been going on for eight years—since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001.

Those words, “It is my intention to finish the job”, may someday come back to haunt President Obama, but right now they are soothing sounds to my ears. (more…)

Will Britain Be the One to Expose the Truth?

LONDON — In the most sweeping inquiry on the Iraq war, a panel investigating Britain’s role in the conflict began questioning witnesses Tuesday in hearings that critics hope will humble ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair and expose alleged deception in the buildup to fighting…

Among the most prominent witnesses will be Blair, who will be questioned on whether he secretly backed U.S. President George W. Bush plan’s for invasion a year before Parliament authorized military involvement in 2003. Critics of the conflict hope to take Blair to task for publicly promoting a policy of containment even at a moment he considered regime change inevitable…

Leaked military documents published Sunday disclosed that senior British military officers claim war plans were in place months before the March 2003 invasion, but were so badly drafted they left troops poorly equipped and ill-prepared…

Many in Iraq praised the decision to hold the inquiry, saying that the U.S. and British administrations lied when they invaded the country under the pretext searching for weapons of mass destruction.

“There were no weapons of mass destruction as they alleged,” said Rabie al-U’baidi, an Iraqi political analyst and writer. “This is a big lie and Tony Blair had (been) involved in driving it.”

Perhaps it will take this very small country to show us Americans how to truly conduct a fully disclosed investigation into the truth about our government’s actions pertaining to a pre-planned unjust war in Iraq.

War Surtax: Good Idea?

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the purse string-controlling House Appropriations Committee, is calling the idea a “war surtax.” He said that just as the federal government is expected to pay for its proposed intervention in the health care sector with new taxes, any escalated involvement in Afghanistan should come with a payment plan.

“If we have to pay for the health care bill, we should pay for the war as well … by having a war surtax,” Obey told ABC News in an interview that aired Monday. “The problem in this country with this issue is that the only people that has to sacrifice are military families and they’ve had to go to the well again and again and again and again, and everybody else is blithely unaffected by the war.”

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is making a similar demand.

I happened to agree with this idea.  Just as requiring a military draft, this tax would make Americans ‘think’ before supporting the start or continuation of any war.  Sacrificing our own treasured love ones and our own money seems to always limit our ‘gun-ho’ attitudes.  Perhaps with a war surtax, those supporting the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, along with the idea of attacking Pakistan, Iran or North Korea for their actions, Americans might have second thoughts before backing more war or any new one.

Having a military draft is also a deterrent for war.  I can’t tell you the amount of mothers and dads I’ve talked to in the past that mentioned being called by military recruiters when we first went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.  The recruiters wanted to talk to their son or daughter.  The parents absolutely refused to allow them to even talk to their sons and daughters about joining up and serving their nation.  “You can’t have him/her”, they’d say.

Money and our loved ones are reasons enough to control our military ambitions; however, if we must go to war to defend our nation, then we should all be willing to offer up both. This surtax should come from ALL Americans.

Build It and They Will Come

Jobs that is….

Economists expect the joblessness that has weighed down the nation’s economic recovery will start to slowly abate in 2010, but they predict consumers will continue to keep a tight rein on spending, according to a new survey…

The November outlook by the National Association for Business Economics, which is set to be released Monday, shows economists expect net employment losses to bottom out in the first quarter of next year. Employers are seen starting to add to their payrolls after that.

“While the recovery has been jobless so far, that should soon change,” said Lynn Reaser, NABE’s president and chief economist at Point Loma Nazarene University. “Within the next few months, companies should be adding instead of cutting jobs.”

I’ve been saying all along that I predict that the unemployment rate will drop back down to around 6-7% by late summer of 2010.  I continue to believe that.  My reasons have been the same all along as well.  Only a little over a third of the Recovery and Reinvestment stimulus money has been allocated or used, the bulk was planned to be used in 2010 and this has already been the longest recession in history besides that during the Great Depression.  Looking at our past recessions — history tells us this recession is over and has been for 2 qtrs — next comes the jobs.

Call it perfect timing or a political maneuver, but the timing of the release of the bulk of  stimulus money, along with the way our economy conducts itself historically — will be perfect.

Lastly, I’d like to remind folks this recession started back in 2007 during the Bush/Cheney administration and it’s loss of jobs was predicted BEFORE Barack Obama became our President:

“We’re seeing a complete unraveling of the labor market and are on track for getting beyond 10% unemployment,” said Lawrence Mishel, president of the Economic Policy Institute.