soybeans and babyfarts
Do you think the folks who talked big (and profited bigger) from the Iraq war grieve? Do they regret what they did, killing hundreds of thousands innocent people?
Do they, in hindsight, like the commander in chief, who led our sons and daughters to war blame intelligence?
“The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq,” Bush told Charles Gibson. “A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein.” Given that Bush previously has acknowledged that there were, in fact, no WMD in Iraq, and that Iraq had no connection with 9/11, the fair inference is that the war was unnecessary.
Like Coni Rice echoeding the sentiments of her boss, saying she wished the intelligence about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs had been better.
“I would give anything to be able to go back and to know precisely what we were going to find when we were there,” she said. “But that isn’t the way that these things work.”
Sorry, no do-overs…
Eric Ken Shinseki, the first Asian American in U.S. history to be a four-star general and the first to lead one of the five U.S. military services, has been picked by Obama to be secretary of Veterans Affairs.
Shinseki is famous for publicly clashing with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during the planning of the war in Iraq over what troop levels would be necessary once the Iraqi regime was defeated. Many believe General Shinseki correctly estimated that far more troops would be needed than in Rumsfeld’s plan. Shinseki testified to the U.S. Senate Armed Services committee that “something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers” would probably be required for postwar Iraq. Then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz publicly disagreed with his estimate, Rumsfeld insisting that General Shinseki was “wildly off the mark” Over time, it has become almost universally accepted in U.S. political circles that Shinseki was correct. General Shinseki retired from the military in June 2003, just three months after the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Obama said the nation must focus on helping troops who have served their country especially during bad economic times.
“We don’t just need to better serve veterans of today’s wars. We also need to build a 21st century VA that will better serve all who have answered our nation’s call,” Obama said. “That means cutting red tape and easing transition into civilian life. And it means eliminating shortfalls, fully funding VA health care, and providing the benefits our veterans have earned.
John Rowan, president of Vietnam Veterans of America, called the reported pick an “interesting choice.”
“I am satisfied with it,” Rowan told CNN on Saturday, adding that the choice seems to be in the Obama transition team’s pattern of “bringing in strong personalities into all the positions who aren’t going to ‘yes’ him to death.”
“When Shinseki had his disagreements with the administration, he wasn’t afraid to speak up,” Rowan said.
That cost him his job then. Thank God America has a new commander in chief.
Focus on the Family announced yesterday afternoon that 202 jobs will be cut companywide — an estimated 20 percent of its workforce. Initial reports bring the total number of remaining employees to around 950.
After spending more than half a million dollars for the California Yes on 8 campaign, the Colorado based ministry, is adjusting to the recession just like the rest of the nation.
In all, Focus pumped $539,000 in cash and another $83,000 worth of non-monetary support into the measure to overturn a California Supreme Court ruling that allowed gays and lesbians to marry in that state. The group was the seventh-largest donor to the effort in the country. The cash contributions are equal to the salaries of 19 Coloradans earning the 2008 per capita income of $29,133.
I guess fighting to keep the right to become a family away from loving individuals is more important than the people that are employed by “Focus on the Family”. Can anyone say irony?
Headzup Entertainment has a great toon here: It’s better to have 202 jobless and homeless then let the queers get married
Word is Lucinda Williams fell in love, and her new album, Little Honey reflects it. Critics are calling it her first HAPPY album, but Williams says it’s not so simple.
“There are a couple of songs that deal with sort of finding my joy,” Williams says. It’s a happiness that’s made some fans nervous about her ability to continue to write songs. For her part, she says that’s unlikely.
NPR talks to Lucinda about life, love and the new album earlier this month on All Things Considered: 11/1/08
Probably the greatest female songwriter of our generation (at least my opinion), Williams pleases with Little Honey. Real Love is a rocking treat, see a liver performance on David Letterman here.
Got an extra $15 bucks? ($10.99 on itunes) I HIGHLY recommend picking up this beautiful cd. Honey Bee will make you smile and want to dance, (it’s rocking and naughty) plus the cover of AC/DCs Long Way To The Top is a real treat.
It’s obvious which Sarah Palin Alaskans need to see in the next two years. Alaskans elected her to be governor, not to give her a platform to run for president in 2012. Alaskans chose her because she promised a different way of doing business, not more of the same mindless partisan warfare.
Centrist Sarah Palin or the highly partisan social conservative Sarah Palin?