Osama who?

Does anyone even remember why we have soldiers fighting and dying overseas? Apparently the people we let run our government don’t. Even the President recently said: Osama? I don’t know where he is … I don’t think about him much.

As a country, we suffered a great wound on 9/11 – and we went to war with Afghanistan, the country that provided the training of the terrorists responsible for that attack. We removed the Taliban from power and scattered the people that controlled AlQaeda to the four winds. Then, suddenly, before we were even half through with that job, we pulled our troops out of Afghanistan and went into Iraq, leaving a shadow of the necessary force required to hold an rebuild a country we’d proudly “bombed back into the stone age.”

Power abhors a vacuum. The Taliban have regained control over a large portion of Afghanistan. That portion gets larger every day. And, according to the New York Times, “core AlQaeda” (meaning Osama Bin Laden and his immediate circle) have re-established the chain of command necessary for that terrorist group to function effectively throughout the region.
This is beyond ridiculous. I know I'm only a little bear, but surely things can be better.

Let's do it!

The White House is slowly building a case for attacking Iran. Following the pattern used so successfully to get us into Iraq, the reasons for going to war with Iran shift from week to week, but I think the current reasoning is adequate. They are claiming that Iran is supplying armaments to certain Shiia militia. Now, even though the Shiia being supplied are spending most of their energy fighting Sunnis, it is possible that up to 8% of our casualties are being caused by those theoretical Iranian arms. Of course that leaves us with another 92% of our casualties - the ones being caused by the Sunnis. The Sunnis that are being openly supplied by GW’s dear friends, the Saudi.

I say we should support the President in this matter. Let’s give him authority to bomb the people responsible for funding and equipping the people in Iraq who are killing our soldiers. Let’s tell him that if he really cares about who’s killing our soldiers that he should…no, he MUST bomb Saudi.

Let’s tell him that and see how quick he changes his mind. I know I'm only a little bear, but surely things can be better.

Support the troops - as long as they die quietly...

The Republican Party is constantly shouting about how much they care about the troops. They keep saying that they are the only people who truly support the troops. But what they don’t tell you is their definition of “support” and “the troops”.

Remember back when the first “surge” into Iraq started and things moved along so fast that the troops weren’t fully equipped or protected? Remember Rumsfield’s famous caveat: “We go to war with the army we have, not the army we wish we had…”? Of course we got rid of that guy and learned from our mistakes, right? Wrong - the same thing is happening right now, under the new “Rumsfield”. The new “surge” has moved along so fast that the troops once again aren’t fully equipped or protected. Is that your idea of supporting the troops? It’s not mine.

For those soldiers that don’t die from their wounds, they get to come home to one of the most famous hospitals in the world: Walter Reed. They get great care at Walter Reed – at least as long as they’re critical. But do you know what happens once the healing begins, but the trauma remains? The soldiers get shuffled off down the street. They get moved into some bureaucrat’s idea of half-way housing, where they wait for rehabilitation while the paperwork mill grinds away. Only the housing is not exactly what you’d expect from a country that has poured billions into private companies’ pockets.

They are, in fact, worse than you can imagine, even if you’ve seen public housing before. Holes in the walls, floors, and ceilings, utilities turned on and off (apparently at random), and mold everywhere. Multiple amputees thrown in with PTSD patients to watch over them because the staff is always short-handed. Frustrations mount as paperwork disappears and has to be filed over and over again for the simplest of requests. And if a soldier manages to maneuver through the web of bureaucracy and get discharged, he will usually discover that he has no medical benefits once he’s a civilian. Sorry Jack – you’re no good to us anymore and we’re not made of money, you know.

And don’t even THINK about appearing in public. If you’re photogenic and very appreciative of all we’ve done to you, this administration will parade you around like a prize bull. But tell that to Sgt. David Thomas, a multiple amputee that was discharged from Walter Reed with no clothes, no money, and no help. He found out that one of his old buddies was being granted citizenship in a fancy ceremony with the President and he wanted to attend. Unfortunately, he didn’t have “appropriate apparel” – fancy talk for saying all he owned was shorts and that would show his stumps. That was not something GW wanted shown on TV. Needless to say, he was NOT allowed to attend.

Oh, and by the way, GW has announced his plan to balance the budget. You remember, the budget that was in the black when he took office - the one he broke. It involves some very imaginative math, it doesn’t start until after he leaves office, and it requires the cutting of funds to Medicare, Medicaid, and Veteran’s Benefits. Yes, that’s right, Veterans. The ones they are already giving the short shaft to.

Right, they support the troops all right. They support them all the way to the grave, as long as they die fast, quietly, and out of sight. I know I'm only a little bear, but surely things can be better.

The new, IMPROVED, do-nothing Congress...

Things are going so weird that I don't even know where to start. Have you ever been so flabbergasted that words fail you? When all you can do is point and gurgle? That’s what it’s like watching the new congress pretend to work.

For example, when the Republicans ruled the day and the Democrats only had 49% of the Senate population, the Republicans rammed through bill after bill. The only weapon Democrats had was the filibuster, and the Republicans tried to take even that weapon away. They needn’t have bothered. The Democratic Party leaders, in their infinite wisdom, almost never used the filibuster. They said things like: We can’t use the filibuster every time – we have to save it for when it really matters. So they watched the Supreme Court get stacked with ultra-conservatives and did nothing. They watched the Republicans strip Americans of Habeas Corpus, the single most fundamental right we have – and did nothing. They watched as the “other side of the isle” passed bill after bill, and did nothing.

But then November happened. The public spoke out through votes. The Democratic Party was given a clear majority in both houses. And what have they done with that? Pretty much nothing, because you see, the Republicans are filibustering every single bill that they disagree with. Every one. The news doesn’t even talk about how many votes it takes to pass a bill anymore, they talk about how many votes it takes to break the filibuster. Every time.

And so, the congress does nothing. I’ve heard it said that Congress is only dangerous when it acts. Well, at least we don’t have to worry about them doing too much, I guess. I know I'm only a little bear, but surely things can be better.

The Educator?

Every time the President introduces legislation that turns out to be unpopular, he says it's just because people just don't understand what he's trying to do, and he says it's his job to "educate" us. Then he goes around the country, calling himself the Educator. That's the same as saying anyone who disagrees with him is stupid. So here's my "slogan of the week": "The Educator thinks you're even stupidier than he are..." Pass it on...

Make a nice bumper sticker, don't you think? I know I'm only a little bear, but surely things can be better...