Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wants An Exit Strategy?

On Sunday House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi(D - CA) was interviewed on Fox News Sunday. Among the things she talked about was how she still hoped to get most US troops out of Iraq by the end of 2008, despite the party's repeated failure to win over enough Republicans in Congress to an exit strategy. An exit strategy? For Iraq?

OK madam Speaker, how about exit strategies for World War II, the Cold War, and Korea? Shouldn't we exit in a first-in-first-out manner? We're still in Germany, Italy, and England having been there since WWII. We spend billions of dollars maintaining bases and troops in Europe and the Nazi threat is over...where's the exit strategy? You could argue that the European bases were kept there for the Cold War but that's been over since the late 1980's. Where is our European exit strategy? We still have bases and troops in Japan but the Emperor of Japan gave a formal surrender decades ago. Where's the Japanese exit strategy?

How about Korea? Korea is a bit different than the WWII left overs. We have bases and lots of troops on the Korean peninsula some of which are killed in the line of duty each year. Where's the exit strategy for Korea? Why aren't we getting our troops out of harm's way in Korea? Heck, the DMZ is not a safe place. There was never an end to hostilities there but there was a cease fire...can't we get out now? South Korea is much more stable than Iraq so why isn't Speaker Pelosi demanding an exit strategy from Korea? If it was really about getting our troops out of harm's way Korea would be a good place to start.

Unlike Europe, Japan, and Korea we are still actively fighting in Iraq. We are fighting against people who want us gone. They want us out of the Middle East, they want us off the planet and they're willing to kill us to get their way. The best exit strategy is to defeat those who would kill us and then leave. Of course Speaker Pelosi conveniently forgets that if Congress discontinued funding our forces they would have to leave. She didn't push that and won't push that though because that would empower our enemies and she knows it. It would also be the end of her party's majority in Congress. She'd much rather mislead a sheepish public into believing some special exit strategy is needed and that the Republicans are to blame.

P.S. Yes, I know there are strategic reasons for being in Europe, Japan, and Korea.

Does An Opening Door Contribute To Global Warming?

Why isn't there more of an uproar? Everywhere you go there seems to be more and more automatic door openers. At every WalMart, Sam's Club, Costco, Grocery Store, home improvement store, and just about every other type of large place of business you can find them. Automatic door openers are opening entrances and assisting with your exit...while using electric power produced by power plants producing prodigous amounts of carbon dioxide.

Thousands upon thousands or maybe even millions of automatic door openers are working right now. They're using electricity everytime someone walks into or out of the door. With all the electricity they're using you would think more people would join the fight to ban automatic door openers around the world. As if it wasn't bad enough that automatic door openers contribute to global warming they're probably contributing to obesity too.

Automatic door openers might seem like small fries to those trying to ban the internal combustion engine. Automatic door openers might seem insignificant compared to the massive carbon footprint of Al Gore as he flies in a private jet to a speech that could have been given via satellite; however, when you add up all the electricity used by automatic door openers you can understand the threat they pose and their evil contribution to Global Warming. Do your part today...open a door by yourself.

By the way, the above post is a load of crap...kinda like the idea of man-made Global Warming.

What Was Senator Larry Craig Thinking?

OK, what was Senator Larry Craig (R - Idaho) thinking? First, he propositions a police officer in an airport public bathroom and immediately becomes the butt of late night talk show host jokes. Then he pleads guilty to the charge supposedly to make it all go away. Then this guy, a U.S. Senator who's supposed to understand the law, tries to take back his guilty plea. Huh?

Personally, I think the problem is that our Members of Congress including Senator Craig think they're above the law. Remember when a Congressman was found to have $90 thousand cash in his freezer? Remember what happened when the FBI searched that Congressman's office? Yep, the House of Representatives screamed bloody murder and came up with a bogus "separation of powers" argument...essentially saying that the FBI had no jurisdiction to come after a Congressman because the FBI is part of the Executive Branch. Law unto themselves.

So, when you're above the law you don't worry that you've already plead guilty to a crime because you couldn't have committed the crime in the first place. Oh well, guess it backfired on him because the judge wouldn't let him change the plea. I don't know where to go with this....I'm just really disgusted with all these political hacks. We really need some change and I've got some ideas about what kind of change but more about that later.

Dancing With The Stars Week 2

I knew it could happen. A "star" gets eliminated even though he dances better than the competition. I'm not sure how to "fix" Dancing With The Stars but something really ought to be done. Maybe what it takes is to change the voting system by giving more weight to the judge's scores in the first 4-5 weeks. By doing that the stars who give the best ballroom dancing performance would advance rather than the star with the biggest fan base. After all, how do you explain Jerry Springer doing so well last season? How about Wayne Newton this season? Ok, I voted for Wayne myself but that's the point I'm making.

This time around Albert Reed got eliminated though both his week 1 and week 2 performances were better than pseudo-star Mark 'the mouth' Cuban, or Wayne Newton. If the voting keeps going as a popularity contest then what's going to happen to Helio Castroneves? He's really a front-runner so far but how many people actually know who he is? Will he lose votes to a lesser dancer? How about Floyd Mayweather? He's doing pretty well, but will he lose votes to Wayne? On the women's side I'm really impressed with Sabrina Bryan. I'm wondering if she can take it all the way like Drew Lachey did. After all, he was a pop star with hip-hop dance experience like Sabrina's.

What do you think?

Does Senator Harkin need some busy work?

Do United States Senators have nothing better to do than attack radio talk show hosts? Apparently one of them has nothing better to do on the Senate floor. Senator Tom Harkin (D- Iowa) recently blasted Rush Limbaugh on the Senate floor during normal business hours. Harkin stated "I must say that as a veteran, I find it offensive that Rush Limbaugh, who never put on the uniform of this country, would attack the patriotism and the dedication of any soldier fighting in Iraq" apparently referring to a recent show where Limbaugh spoke about "phony soldiers" who had not served and that fraudulently sought Veteran's benefits. Harkin went on to say that "Maybe he (Rush Limbaugh) was just high on his drugs again." Is this what people get elected to the Senate to do? Isn't there a budget meeting to go to or a post office that needs a name?

As if wasting U.S. Senate time, the taxpayers time, wasn't bad enough...the whole thing was a lie. I heard the show that Senator Harkin was referring to and at no time did Rush Limbaugh ever insult any member of the U.S. Military. To the contrary he was highly complimentary of all U.S. Military men and women. In fact I listen to Rush Limbaugh's show as often as my schedule permits and I've never heard anything but high praise for the military from Rush Limbaugh.

As a U.S. Army Veteran with more years of service than Senator Harkin, I think he needs to find some busy work. Maybe he can lie about his combat service again.