The Iraq War .. Whose Legacy, Really?

H. CON. RES. 63

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CONCURRENT RESOLUTION

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That--

(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and

(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

Passed the House of Representatives February 16, 2007.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c110:2:./temp/~c110ZLuX7a::

Today the Senate Republicans, in a rare Saturday session, exhibited cowardice as a Political Art by not allowing a vote on a resolution opposing President Bush's troop escalation in Iraq. The same resolution that on Friday, passed 246 -182 in the House with 17 Republicans defecting to the side of reason. Today's resolution was an opportunity to get on the record where the individual Senators stood on the very clear issue of escalation of American Military presence in the ongoing sectarian Iraq Civil War.

Numerous red herrings have been offered by the minority Republican members linking the resolution above with cutting funding to our troops in the field. I'm sorry, but reading and re-reading the resolution, I found, does not indicate anything about funding or not funding our troops. I hear remarks how this resolution is some insidious first step to abandoning US Military personal to starvation and murder at the hands of the Iraqi Insurgents . I'm afraid that just doesn't hold water.

The Republicans are the first to wield "Support of Our Troops" as a righteous light saber in the face of opponents to the war. Of course, with all of the injured coming back from the Middle East Campaign the Veterans Administration has reached a point where it has to ration medical care to them because of lack of funding. The Republicans could have passed legislation, while they were in the majority, to fully fund the VA and, thereby, tangibly demonstrate their support of our troops, they didn't. Maybe my problem is I don't understand the Republican definition of "support".

There is also much banter about how the Republicans are, at their heart, engaging in this obstructionism to support their "War Time President", George W. Bush. I sense there is something far more germane to the Republican position than protecting the historical legacy of one of the worst Presidents in Republican Party History ... hear me out.

In Vietnam, Truman sent the first advisers into the French debacle in 1950; in 1954, Eisenhower up the ante and the US was shouldering 80% of the cost; JFK inherited the policy and continued it; LBJ and Nixon escalated and mismanaged the effort, Ford oversaw the ultimate defeat and retreat of American forces. In Vietnam, there was enough political damage to be shared by both the Democrats and the Republicans. Iraq is different ... the Republicans own Iraq.

True there was a nearly bipartisan vote to grant President Bush the right to use force against Saddam, but when questions began to arise the control of Congress, the Constitutional Body of Oversight, by the Republicans came into play. Tom "The Hammer" Delay, flush with testosterone, kept the Republican flock in line. With smug assurance that the Democrats were politically irrelevant after the seemingly permanent shift to the Right the Nation displayed in elections since the birth of the Republican Congressional Majority, the Republican's sat on their hands and let the Dems twist in the wind. The election of 2006 took the wind out of their sails. and presented the Republicans with a HUGE problem. A failing war effort and no one but themselves to blame, or worse yet, take responsibility. The Republican's own the Iraq debacle, and it is the legacy of the Republican Party, not President Bush, they are concerned about.

The brutal sectarian violence unleashed by the invasion of Iraq is unlikely to end soon, in a land where seeking vengeance is the Muslim equivalent of Christianity's, "Turn the other Cheek". If the US troops are withdrawn from Iraq the implications for the Republican Party will be dire. In 100 years if a Republican President (probably a Yale Grad) decides to embark on some military adventure, the opposition Party leader, whether Democrat or what have you, can point an accusatory finger from the Well of the Senate and boldly state:

"Remember Iraq! The Republicans are at it again!"

For the war to collapse during the Bush presidency would cause an emasculation of the Republican Party that would endure. The Senate Republicans understand this, all too well. American's don't cater to losers, a retreat from Iraq is an undeniable Republican defeat.

The Republicans can't go on record in support of President Bush, whose poll ratings are in free fall, with an election coming in 08 that could really pull the rug out from under them, and they certainly can't align themselves with the Democrats, in many areas of the Country that would be political suicide. All that their cowardice allows them is hollow, non binding platitudes in support of American Military Personnel in the Iraq, and the kind of obstructionism the Senate Republicans displayed today. The only hope for the Republican Party is to stall America's imminent withdrawal from Iraq until they can either taint the Democrats, or can see a Democratic President in office they can blame for Iraq and save their skins.

The obstructionism and stalling, of course, is the Republican way of supporting our troops, by keeping them employed in Iraq, at least until the next National Election.

FogBelter out ....

Pop-up Porn Bouffant

I was taken aback by I story I came across on CNN’s website about a substitute teacher in Norwich, Connecticut who potentially faced 40 years in prison for exposing 7^th graders to pornography on a school PC

(See story => http://www.cnn.com/2007/LAW/02/13/teacher.porn.ap/index.html )

Mrs. Amero, the substitute teacher, innocently used a classroom PC to send an to email her husband before a class, after receiving permission from a co-teacher. After using the computer, Mrs. Amero left the classroom to use the restroom, leaving the permanent teacher, who granted her access to the PC and some of her students alone in the class. When she returned to the classroom she found her colleague had left and the students were surfing the web. The students had gone to a hairdressing website, when suddenly the PC exploded with hardcore porn pop-ups, which the students saw. For this the teacher went to trial and was convicted.

Okay, several problems here. First, as is the case in most American schools, the PC that was being used in the Middle School was antiquated and not being properly administered by the responsible parties at the school. The school had no firewall software, nor Antivirus or Anti-Spyware applications installed on their Internet connected PC to protect it from the malware that plagues the Internet. Any computer savvy person could tell you virus protection is a must. Furthermore, in a rush to convict Mrs. Amero, the prosecutors didn’t even bother to check the PC in question for viruses … sloppy and unprofessional. I mean, you swab a rape victim for evidence, you check for fingerprints at a crime scene, in the 21^st Century, you check a computer for virus infection in a case like this. Second, based on the article, it seems that the substitute teacher was also cursed by have a jury of ignorant people, who after years of mass media exposure relating to perverts in positions of authority, couldn’t tell a victim of circumstance from Richard Allen Davis.

A story I know of parallels the case above. A friend of mine worked in a Computer Data Center as a Supervisor. His crew consisted of 9 men a 1 woman. One day, the only woman in the environment reported that she was having a problem with her PC. My friend went to investigate and discovered that when he booted the PC he was getting a flurry of gambling pop-ups. Someone had been surfing the Net and picked up a virus on the PC. Not good, but manageable he thought. He ran various anti-virus software on the PC and had some success, but was still getting some very stubborn, but benign, pop-ups. After he ran a third virus-scan on the PC, he managed to kill the gambling pop-ups, but then, with the female employee watching over his shoulder, all hell broke loose … The gambling pop-ups had been acting as a cork, holding back what was really infecting the PC … PORN. Not the run of the mill porn mind you, pop-ups of some of the raunchiest, most violent, perverse stuff he had ever seen. Oral, anal, animals, kids … you name it, it popped up. He furiously clicked away at the pop-ups, attempting to close them, with the employee, eyes bugged out and mouth agape, taking in the pornographic deluge. “Oh my GOD!” the employee shrieked and ran to the other side of office, face bright red, trembling. My friend frantically clicked away, in a hopeless attempt to stop the pop-ups. “Fix my machine! I can’t work like this!!! You need to fix my machine!!!!” In total frustration at not being able to take control of the PC, he yanked the power cord from the wall … a mosaic of woman with dogs, and men with … god knows what … faded as the power was cut.

My friend apologized profusely to his employee, and immediately contacted the Desktop Support of his company. He turned over the PC to them and requested that they reformat the hard drive and rebuild the image on the PC. The Tech told my friend he had some amazing software that would “scour the drive” of any virus or spyware. My friend had his doubts, but went with the Tech’s plan because this was his expertise. A day later the tech returned the PC to the office stating … “My God that was a bitch to clean!”

The PC was setup on the employee’s desk with a clean bill of health. The employee came in, sat at her desk, and booted up her PC. Then from his office, my friend heard a shriek. He ran out to the Operations area and found his female employee, bright red, apoplectic, with an accusatory finger pointed at him, while on her PC monitor he observed a veritable pop-up “fireworks display” of gay porn, animal porn, kiddy porn, exploding across the screen.

“You did this on purpose!!!!!” she shrieked at him as his BP went through the ceiling and thoughts of termination for breaching the company’s sexual harassment policy swirled in his brain. As a reactive response, he yanked the power cord from the wall, tore the CPU, with the peripherals attached, from the lady’s desk, dragged them across the Operations area and threw them on the floor in his office. To make a long story short, my friend ordered a new PC for the employee and watched as the Desktop Tech reformatted, then degaussed the old hard drive and sent it out for destruction.

The moral is, what happened to Mrs.Amero could happen to anyone. PC’s in a public environment are susceptible to misuse and in Public Schools, are often poorly managed. It would be a travesty if she were to spend 40 years in jail for this. She was merely an unwitting victim of technology.

And, as for how the PC became contaminated in the first place, ask the janitor. My friend did.

FogBelter out…….

McCain Fears "Tet Offensive" in Iraq - I fear McCain Presidency

You know ... John McCain might be a little out of it and that's why he regurgitates Vietnam analogies all the time. I reviewed his history and it makes me a little nervous about him being President ... I mean, here's a guy who's Father and Grandfather were 4 Star Admirals and he still saw combat in Vietnam? How does THAT work? He's not a lucky man! I mean, he should have been able to spend the Vietnam War checking Japanese hookers for gonorrhea with that pedigree ... not stuck in an actual war zone! Not a lucky guy ... then there was that Forrestal thing ... 134 dead naval personnel because someone accidentally shot McCain's A-4E Skyhawk with a Zuni rocket while it was parked on the deck of his aircraft carrier! Not a lucky guy! Then ... after he recovered from the conflagration on the Forrestal, he gets himself assigned to the Saints squadron of the 16th Air Wing, known for having the highest loss rate of the Vietnam War. Not a big surprise for "Mr Lucky" McCain! Neither was it surprising that McCain's winning streak would have him shot down down over Vietnam ... adding to the 16th Air Wing's glorious string of combat losses. And even though Lucky Johnny broke both arms and a leg in his crash into Truc Bach Lake, he was lucky enough to be found by a mob of Vietnamese who rewarded his attempts at providing them liberty, by spitting on him, kicking him and providing that most friendly of Viet Cong greetings ... a bayonet through the groin. Again ... a bayonet ... through ... the groin. It's no wonder "Lucky" McCain falls back on happy thoughts like the Tet Offensive, which he enjoyed from Hanoi Hilton, which supposedly sells some pretty cool t-shirts today :-) ... The point ... you may ask? I'm not sure if there is a Tet Offensive in our future in Iraq, but after George W Bush, I sure hope there is a Lucky President in our future ... period. And John ... careful with that razor, huh ... we love you ya big paluka!