Juicio Brennan

Last Thursday, President Bush left to spend 32 days at his Crawford ranch on ‘retreat.’ Historically, it is the longest presidential retreat in 36 years and unprecedented during war. This will be his 49th trip to his ranch during his presidency. As of last Tuesday, Bush has spent 319 days away from office, about 20% of his presidency. The current record holder is Ronald Reagan who spent 335 days away in Santa Barbara, CA, during his presidential 8 years. Bush will surpass this record during his current vacationing and still have 3 and ½ years left of his presidency!

Everyday I read at least three separate Cincinnati news sources. Everyday, the front page has an article about a local soldier killed in Iraq. On August 3rd, an insurgent bomb killed 14 marines of the Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force. Two days before, on August 1st, 7 other soldiers of the unit were killed. Almost all of them were from Ohio.

I don’t give a damn what your political affiliation is, George W. Bush’s retreat is both disgusting and wrong. So far, he’s asked and commanded at least 150,000 Americans to risk the greatest sacrifice and put their lives in danger for American ideals. As of today, at least 1, 832 of those soldiers have made that sacrifice, according to U.S. military reports.

Why can’t Bush make simple, if not grand, sacrifices? Why isn’t he giving up his vacation time? Why isn’t he focusing his efforts on calming a continuously growing insurgency? Why isn’t he meeting with business leaders for support in getting water and electricity back to the majority of Iraqis who lost them during our invasion? Why isn’t he in Iraq spending time with and supporting the troops who are doing the fighting? If he can run the country from Crawford, TX (if you consider that ‘running the country’), why the hell can’t he do it from Iraq or Kuwait?

Last week, a freelance journalist, Steven Vincent, was kidnapped and murdered in Basra, along with his interpreter. Shortly before the tragic incident, he was part of an internet symposium titled “Iraq: A Report Card,” held by Frontpagemagazine.com. Frontpagemagazine.com is well known for its strong right-wing stances no matter what the issue. They gave Bush an A+. Mr. Vincent who was part of the panel appears to have been the only attendee in Iraq. Historically, his views of coincided with those at Frontpagemagazine.com. This is what he said:

With respects to you and Karl, Jamie, I have to give the war effort a B-. Judging the conflict by Saddam’s removal—and thank Allah the monster is gone—is setting a pretty low bar. I mean, let’s face it: military-wise Iraq was not Nazi Germany or the Soviet Union. Then you have to factor in U.S failures, such as not sealing the borders or halting the looting—not to mention the fact that American military tactics have widely alienated the very people we liberated. Something’s not working right.

But the important point is this: this conflict is not just about killing bad guys, but building a nation. True, maaku Saddam, and yes, there is a democratically-elected government, but when Baghdad lacks power and water, and the road to the airport is life-threatening crap shoot, and I can’t leave my hotel here in Basra without Iraqi protection—I can’t see much nation building going on.

Insurgents win by not losing. If they keep Iraqis living in misery, then no matter how many “insurgents” we dispatch to Paradise, Amir Zarqawi gets the prize. In assessing the war effort, then, we must also include the quality of Iraqis’s lives. Want a grade for that? F.

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When I first started this site, I did not plan on putting political news coverage on here. There are many more sites that do a better job. I was surprised this weekend, however, that very few of my friends and family knew what was going on with the Karl Rove scandal. Truthfully, this is a very important event because it has severely damaged the reputation of the Bush administration. This has led to a very important phenomenon occurring: reporters are asking hard questions again. This has not occurred since 9/11. I do not, however, expect anyone to start reading the New York Times. Instead, I urge you to please go to the following if you do not know about Rovegate. I promise you they are both entertaining and informative.

1) The Daily Show did a wonderful episode that covers the Rove controversy. (wmv, flash) It is very entertaining, but it also describes the situation very well. Please do not write it off because it is on Comedy Central. During the 2004 elections, a vote taken at the Columbia Journal Review ranked Jon Stewart as the fourth best reporter covering the campaigns.

2) NPR had an interview last week with Helen Thomas, commonly referred to as the First Lady of the Press. During the interview, she puts into perspective why the Rove scandal has become so important to reporters. Helen has been covering the white house for 62 years and early during Bush’s office, they stopped letting her ask him questions when she asked him a hard one and he could not answer it.

Please, feel free to leave comments.

Update: Hey ho! Found the original episode the Daily Show did of Rove and updated the link above. Here’s the previous episode posted that deals with follow-ups.