The Alligator

In my article And The Prize Goes To… (The Incompetence of George W. Bush) posted on November 25^th,  I posed the questions: “When will they actually call it (the war in Iraq) a civil war rather than saying the country is on the brink of all out sectarian civil war??  Is there an agreed upon tipping point?”  In the article I said that I felt that in fact the war is a civil war.  

Interestingly- my question was timely.  In Sunday’s New York Times there was an article about the very subject.  In  his news anlaysis “A Matter of Definition: What Makes a Civil War, and Who Declares It So?” Edward Wong writes, “Though the Bush administration continues to insist that it is not, a growing number of American and Iraqi scholars, leaders and policy analysts say the fighting in Iraq meets the standard definition of civil war.”  The common scholarly definition has two main criteria. The first says that the warring groups must be from the same country and fighting for control of the political center, control over a separatist state or to force a major change in policy. The second says that at least 1,000 people must have been killed in total, with at least 100 from each side.  American professors who specialize in the study of civil wars say that most of their number are in agreement that Iraq’s conflict is a civil war.  

According to the Times article some scholars now say civil war began when the Americans transferred sovereignty to an appointed Iraqi government in June 2004. That officially transformed the anti-American war into one of insurgent groups seeking to regain power for disenfranchised Sunni Arabs against an Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and increasingly dominated by Shiites.  Others say the civil war began this year, after the bombing of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra set off a chain of revenge killings that left hundreds dead over five days and has yet to end. Mr. Allawi proclaimed a month after that bombing that Iraq was mired in a civil war. “If this is not civil war, then God knows what civil war is,” he said. 

And today NBC News took the next step and labeled the conflict a Civil War.  Matt Lauer opened this morning’s “Today” with these words: “Good morning. Civil war. A bloody weekend of sectarian clashes in Iraq and no sign it’s letting up.”Lauer declared: “For months the White House rejected claims that the situation in Iraq has deteriorated into civil war. For the most part news organizations like NBC hesitated to characterize it as such. After careful consideration, NBC News has decided the change in terminology is warranted and what is going on in Iraq can now be characteritized as civil war.”  Lauer later brought in retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey to make the case for the change in terminology. Well it is about time that one of the networks decided to finally deal with the fact that when something looks like a duck, walks like a duck- it is a duck. 

Of course Fox News will probably talk about the insurgency being in its last throes.  I would imagine the self proclaimed languange guru of the New York Times, conersvative Bill Safire, will have a pithy and biting analysis of NBC’s turn of phrase.  But alas – I guess I would be relegated to one of Safire’s nattering nabombs of negativism.   

Not surprisingly the White House immediately stated that NBC was incorrect that the conflict is not a Civil War and that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also does not believe that this is a Civil War.  As Steve Young wrote on “The Huffington Post”, when reporting about the White House’s disagreement with NBC over the term “civil war, “The White House objected to NBC’s terminology, because, well, because. Tony Snow added that the Lincoln-Jefferson Davis thing is more of a problem with Negro terrorists who don’t understand that the so-called slavery issue is just a disagreement over room and board.”  WAY TO GO STEVE!  LOVE THE APT ANALOGY!

Americans have a pesky habit of not being excited about being in the midst of someone else’s civil war so even though polls show a preponderance of Americans want out of Iraq, it would likely increase to near 100% if the current civil war would be called a civil war.  The Bush administration just can’t have that!  I would assume that now that NBC has taken the step, other news organizations will follow suit. 

Maybe by the time the 110^th Congress is seated in its mostly blue chambers, there will be other media that call the Iraqi Civil War a civil war.  This might give the Democratically controlled legislative branch another bullet in its arsenal to stand up to Bush and his war.  But alas that means that the Democrats actually have to stand up and show some gumption.  Is that too much to as?  No.  It is too much to expect?  Most likely.

Without a doubt, the forty-third President of the United States is the most incompetent leader that this country has ever had.  I’ve been a critic of the President well before he was elected- but he has gone far and below my lowest expectations as the nations’ worst President in history and I can no longer hide my contempt.

Katrina, national debt, human rights violations, a military stretched to the breaking point, a Medicare disaster that was a boondoggle for the pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies, a disaster in Afghanistan that has the Taliban seeing a resurgence, an unmitigated disaster in Iraq that IS in Civil War (when will they actually call it a civil war rather than saying the country is on the brink of all out sectarian civil war??  Is there an agreed upon tipping point?)

Let’s look at some of the more grievous examples of Bush’s incompetence in a little more detail!

Emergency Management: They completely failed to manage the first large-scale emergency since 9/11. Despite all their big talk and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on homeland security over the past four years, this administration proved itself stunningly incompetent when faced with an actual emergency.

Fiscal Management: America is broke. No wait, we’re worse than broke. In less than five years these borrow and spend-thrifts have nearly doubled our national debt, to a stunning $8.2 trillion. These are not your father’s Republicans who treated public dollars as though they were an endangered species. These Republicans waste money in ways and in quantities that make those old tax and spend liberals of yore look like tight-fisted Scots.

Katrina relief: Eleven thousand spanking new mobile homes sinking into the
Arkansas mud. Seems no one in the administration knew there were federal and state laws prohibiting trailers in flood zones. Oops. That little mistake cost you $850 million — and counting.

Medicare Drug Program: This $50 billion white elephant debuted by trampling many of those it was supposed to save. The mess forced states to step in and try to save its own citizens from being killed by the administration’s poorly planned and executed attempt to privatize huge hunks of the federal health safety net.  And GET THIS- the government is PROHIBITED from negotiating lower prices for drugs!  

Afghanistan: Good managers know that in order to pocket the gains of a project, you have to finish it. This administration started out fine in Afghanistan. They had the Taliban and al Queda on the run and Osama bin Laden trapped in a box canyon. Then they were distracted by a nearby shiney object –
Iraq. We are now $75 billion out of pocket in Afghanistan and its sitting president still rules only within the confines of the nation’s capital. Tribal warlords, the growing remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda call the shots in the rest of the county. 

Iraq: This ill-begotten war was supposed to only cost us $65 billion. It has now cost us over $345 billion and continues to suck $6 billion a month out of our children’s futures. Meanwhile the three warring tribes Bush “liberated” are using our money and soldiers’ lives to partition the country. The Shiites and Kurds are carving out the prime cuts while treating the once-dominant Sunnis the same way the Israelis treat the Palestinians, forcing them onto Iraq’s version of Death Valley. Meanwhile Iran is increasingly calling the shots in the Shiite region as mullahs loyal to Iran take charge. On Thanksgiving Day 2006 Iraq saw the worst violence since the Americans arrived.   What have we done to this country?

Iran: The administration not only jinxed its Afghanistan operations by attacking Iraq, but also provided Iran both the rationale for and time to move toward nuclear weapons. The Bush administration’s neoconservative threats to attack Syria next only provided more support for religious conservatives within Iran who argued U.S. intentions in the Middle East were clear, and that only the deterrent that comes with nuclear weapons could protect them.  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has continued to thumb his nose at the United States and there isn’t one thing we can do about it.  

North Korea: See Iran. Also add to all the above the example North Korea set for Iran. Clearly once a country possesses nukes, the U.S. drops the veiled threats and wants to talk.

Social Programs: It’s easier to get affordable — even free — American-style medical care, paid for with American dollars, if you are injured in Iraq, Afghanistan or are victims of a Pakistani earthquake, than if you live and pay taxes in the good old U.S.A. Nearly 50 million Americans can’t afford medical insurance. Nevertheless the administration has proposed a budget that will cut $40 billion from domestic social programs, including health care for the working poor. The administration is quick to say that those services will be replaced by its “faith-based” programs. Not so fast… “Despite the Bush administration’s rhetorical support for religious charities, the amount of direct federal grants to faith-based organizations declined from 2002 to 2004, according to a major new study. The study ”is confirmation of the suspicion I’ve had all along, that what the faith-based initiative is really all about is de-funding social programs and dumping responsibility for the poor on the charitable sector,” said Kay Guinane, director of the nonprofit advocacy program at OMB Watch..”

The Military: Overused and over-deployed. Former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned in a 15-page report that the Army and Marine Corps cannot sustain the current operational tempo without “doing real damage to their forces.” … Speaking at a news conference to release the study, Albright said she is “very troubled” the military will not be able to meet demands abroad. Perry warned that the strain, “if not relieved, can have highly corrosive and long-term effects on the military. With military budgets gutted by the spiraling costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration has requested funding for fewer National Guard troops in fiscal 2007 — 17,000 fewer. Which boggles the sane mind since, if it weren’t for reserve/National Guard, the administration would not have had enough troops to rotate forces in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 40 percent of the troops sent to those two countries were from the reserve and National Guard.

The Environment: Here’s a little pop quiz: What happens if all the coral in the world’s oceans dies? Answer: Coral is the first rung on the food-chain ladder; so when it goes, everything else in the ocean dies. And if the oceans die, we die. The coral in the world’s oceans are dying at an alarming and accelerating rate. Global warming is the culprit. Nevertheless, this administration continues as the world’s leading global warming denier. Why? Because they seem to feel it’s more cost effective to be dead than to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. How stupid is that? And time is running out.  Just asl Al Gore (only if he been the one annointed by the Supreme Court in 2000!)

Trade: We have a  $1 trillion trade deficit, most of it with Asia, $220 billion with just China — just last year.

Energy: Record high energy prices. Record energy company profits. Dick Cheney’s energy task force meetings remain secret. Hmmmmm… is there more to be said?

Consumers: Americans finally did it in 2005 they achieved a negative savings rate. (Folks in China save 10 percent, for contrast.) If the government can spend more than it makes and just say “charge it” when it runs out, so can we. The average American now owes $9,000 to credit card companies.

Economy:  Sure the economy is booming but for whom?  Not the average American.  The rich are getting richer and corporations are making hand over fist- but the average American hasn’t seen it translate into daily life!   Corporations are keeping the profits and paying obscene salaries for CEO’s while bickering about paying health care benefits for the rank and file!  

Human Rights: America now runs secret prisons and a secret judicial system that would give Kafka fits. The U.S. has joined the list of nations that tortures prisioners of war.  Can you believe that this country had a debate about torture?  I never thought I would see such a thing in my life time!  

Dismantling the Constitution: See Human Rights.  Additionally think about wire taps and banking records….A quote that was used as a motto on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania and which is debatably attributed to Benjamin Franklin but may have been actually written by Richard Jackson is apt.  “Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

What about the incompence in his record before he became President???

Of course there was the bankrupting of Texas as Govenor.  Several researchers have investigated the business history of the Bush family. The facts that they have uncovered are not very pretty. The business record of George W. Bush holds some revealing insights to how his presidency has operated, and helps to explain why the country has fallen so deeply in debt and has so many other problems. As explained by Kevin Phillips in his book, American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush, George W. Bush’s businesses fail but he makes millions. Among Mr. Bush’s business ventures:

• Arbusto, an oil exploration company, lost money, but it got considerable investments (nearly $5 million) because even losing oil investments were useful as tax shelters.
• Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. bought out Arbusto in 1984 and hired Mr. Bush to run the company’s oil interests in Midland, Texas. The oil business collapsed as oil prices plummeted by 1986, and Spectrum 7 Energy was near failure.
• Harken Energy acquired Mr. Bush’s Spectrum 7 Energy shares, and he got Harken shares, a directorship, and a consulting arrangement in return. Harken, under Bush, brought in Saudi real estate tycoon Sheikh Abdullah Bakhsh as a board member and a major investor. Over the next few years, Harken would turn out to have links to: Saudi money, CIA-connected Filipinos, the Harvard Endowment, the emir of Bahrain, and the shadowy Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

In his book, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush, John W. Dean explains that his family name and his father’s prominence were significant factors in George W. Bush’s business “success”, or, were significant factors in repeated saves from serious business and financial failures. Both Arbusto/Bush Exploration and Spectrum 7 failed with Bush as chairman and CEO. At Harken, Mr. Bush was relieved of day-to-day management responsibilities but still served on the board of directors

On its face, Harken’s acquisition was surprising. Harken bought Spectrum 7 for $2 million in stock from Bush and two other partners - even though it had losses of $400,000 in the prior six months and had $3 million in debt. A report by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan group that investigates the finances of politicians, attributes Harken’s interest in Spectrum 7 to the lure of Bush’s name. Bush’s name soon helped him become a player in another deal: the purchase of the Texas Rangers baseball club in March 1989.

Bush’s great-uncle, Herbert Walker, was a founder of the New York Mets, and Bush was a big baseball fan. Major League Baseball officials were looking for a group of Texas investors to buy the Rangers, and Bush’s name came up. Bush was hardly a big financial player. He needed $606,000 to become a co-owner - a small sum by baseball standards. But he could come up with only $106,000, so he borrowed another $500,000 from a bank at which he was a director. That gave him a 1.8 percent ownership in the club. The other owners did Bush an enormous favor, deciding to up his stake to nearly 12 percent. This was bonanza for Bush, giving him his first real test of Texas-sized financial success. Overnight, Bush was in a position to become a very wealthy man.

The purchase took place at a time when Bush’s father was president, and some of the other co-owners of the Rangers were major backers of then-President Bush, including Fred Malek and billionaire investor Richard Rainwater. The success of the Rangers deal was assured by a tax increase. Bush, who would later emulate his father’s ”no new taxes” mantra in politics, pushed hard for a sales tax hike to help pay for the construction of the new ballpark at Arlington. To increase pressure for the tax hike, Bush and his fellow investors became one in a long line of baseball ownership teams to threaten to move the club out of town unless the public paid for a new stadium.

The strategy worked, the sales tax was increased, and owners profited substantially. All of that enabled the Rangers ownership team to sell the club later for three times the original price. But for Bush, the deal was even sweeter because his ownership stake had been increased from 1.8 percent to nearly 12 percent. Having invested $606,000, Bush received shares worth $14.9 million.  

I am of course hopeful that the American people have awaken from their 9/11 induced coma to see that the President is the DEFINITION of incompetence.  But think about it he never did have that much of a mandate anyway.  He lost the 2000 popular vote and didn’t win the 2004 popular vote by that much (even with all the fear mongering)  and he had the HUBRIS to declare he had a mandate and a lot of political capital!  What arrogance for an incompetent man with no track record other than relying on family connections and has translated that into an incompetent Presidency beyond anyone’s worst fears. 

We might have made fun of his incompetence when he was a candidate in 2000 but his incompetence combined with his arrogance and intransigence has made this a VERY dangerous world and has seriously damaged this country.

Maybe the American people have suddenly developed a back bone.  I have been waiting!  Ever since George W. Bush convinced the American people to blindly follow him into an absurd war in Iraq I have wondered if the American people were stupid, lacked gumption, or were just too damned lazy to make a ruckus about being manipulated by the government and the media.

For years the American people swallowed the one dimensional flag waving jingoism of the neo-conservatives and the monosyllabic talking points of Karl Rove.  And we allowed much of the news media to be the venue of commercialism and bias.  The rise of Fox News an obvious partisan pandering machine was scary.  Some folks point to CNN and the network news entertainment divisions as too far to the left.  I beg to differ- I think that, at least compared to Fox- they are emblematic of balance.

Of course I have big problems with the idea of “News / Entertainment” divisions.  When William S. Paley founded CBS he knew that the News division would be a money loser, but that didn’t matter - it was about integrity and about nobility of purpose.  Overtime that high mindedness lost out the money and ratings are just as important to the News Entertainment as they are to prime time. 

The fact the Newscorp.- Rupert Murdoch’s empire than includes Fox, Harper Collins, Regan Books and a vast assortment of other media is bothersome to me.  No one should have that much monopoly on getting into the public’s collective brain.  This was never so obvious as when Fox and Regan Books announced that they would air an interview with and publish a book by O. J. Simpson about how the murder of Nicole Brown “Simpson” and Ronald Goldman would have happened if he had done it! Immediately upon hearing the news- I was repulsed.  I wasn’t the only one.  There was an ocean of outrage.  I found it pathetic that Bill O’Reilly – the Fox News poster boy- couldn’t even develop a circuitous defense for this corporate obscenity. 

But in the past few weeks the American people have spoken up- not just once, but twice.  The first time was on Election Day when they sent the Republicans packing and gave George W. Bush a giant bitch slap.   Of course, even though I am a liberal Democrat, I know that the Democrats didn’t win this election, the Republicans lost it.  And they deserved to.  Look at the polls – the American people who were like sheep being led to slaughter blindly supporting their President into a folly in Iraq that has turned into an unmitigated tragedy have had enough.  They finally woke up from years of slumber and said an emphatic “NO MORE!”

The second time was when the people rose up and said to Newscorp that the OJ Simpson deal was an outrage to decency and the public wouldn’t put up with pandering to that level of pond scum anymore- a barrier of ethics had been breached.

I have a little hope for this country again.  I was really beginning to lose hope, wondering what had happened to that American spirit filled with moxy and genuine character.  But in rebuking Bush and his war and then rebuking a media giant for pandering in a way that would repulse even the most unconscionable, the American people have said “Enough is enough”.  We will not be your sheep.   I hope that this lasts, but regardless- I have the best Thanksgiving present possible-  a nation that has redeveloped its backbone!

Ralph Nader did it in 2000 for the Greens.  If he hadn’t been in the mix- Gore would have won the 2000 election without any hanging chads or recounts or legal battles.  Now the Green candidate has caused tumult in the Virgnia Senate race.

The Greens took 25,000 votes and undoubtedly these votes would have gone to Mr. Webb.  If Webb could have put those Green votes in his column he would handily win over Mr. Allen.  As it is- we may not know for days who the winner is and we may have a recount as well. While I respect the idea of a third party- it just isn’t in the cards folks!  And the thing that really chaps my hide about this is that the Greens know darned well that they don’t have a fighting chance to win.

So they go on potentially spoiling Democrat victories which, even if you are more left than the mainstream Dems (like me), we know will be better for our policy agenda than a Republican.  As of this writing we have no idea what will happen with Virginia, but we know that if there hadn’t been a Green candidate we would know we had a Democratically controlled Senate.  While Webb is currently ahead- who knows what the outcome will be.

If Webb loses we can thank the Greens.If we really care about our issues and not our egos it is time for the Green Party to temper personal ideology with a little political pragmatism. 

If I see one more political commercial I think I will vomit.  Now mind you- I don’t even live in an area where there are many contested races other than ballot initiatives so I really cannot imagine what it must be like in areas where there are hotly contested races for Congress or the Senate.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics this year’s intensely competitive election for control of the House of Representatives and Senate will be the most expensive midterm election ever. Candidates, national political parties and outside issue advocacy groups will spend roughly $2.6 billion by the end of 2006 to influence the 472 federal contests around the United States and pad the war chests of incumbents not running this year.

The non-partisan Center, which has been tracking the money in federal politics since the 1980s, based its 2006 prediction on spending to date and the final tally for the 2002 midterm election. In 2004, which included a presidential contest, the election cost $4.2 billion. About $2.2 billion was spent in 2002, which preceded campaign finance reforms that limited the influence of large corporate and union donors. The estimate for 2006 would represent an 18% increase over ’02.  

It truly amazes me that we do not have any real revolt from the public about true campaign finance reform.  We know darn well that neither party will aggressively pursue campaign finance reform because they are quite satisfied with the status quo. The Center predicts that PAC receipts and spending will exceed $1 billion for the first election ever, reflecting the ever-growing influence of business, labor and ideological interests in federal politics and despite the apparent competitiveness of this election, the percentage of PAC money going to incumbents is 87%. 

Then there are the “independent expenditures” The issue-advocacy groups known as 527 committees appear to be playing a much smaller role than they did in 2004, when the $600 million they raised in unlimited amounts was used to influence the presidential race in particular. For the 2006 election, 527s have reported raising about $295 million to the Internal Revenue Service, $151 million of which comes from 527s focused on federal issues and elections.  Rather than spending money to influence federal elections, 527s have been focusing on the states: races for governor, state legislature and ballot initiatives.

An election that is waged through TV commercials is absurd.  How much real policy information, issue based debate or real robust political rigor can come from 30 minute sound bites?  It is power being won through propaganda. 

$2.6 billion is an obscene amount of money to spend on an election.  The idea that “money” is free speech and therefore true campaign financing is unconstitutional is rather idiotic.  We need public financing of elections with even playing fields and banning private donations- pure and simple.

Every morning I sit down to read my “New York Times” and it used to be a nice quiet time to find out what’s new in the world, what’s up with the arts and find wonderfully written human interest stories that touch my heart.  But over the course of the last year that quiet, calm morning ritual has turned into a stomach churner and a blood pressure riser.  What possibly damage to our country could the Bush administration do today?

Well yesterday was one for the history books.  There in the black New Times Roman font in the paper that gives us “all the news fit to print” was an article “US Web Archive is said to reveal a Nuclear Guide.”  Was I really reading the times or was I reading a copy of the satirist paper “The Onion”.  Nope it was the Times- this is a real story.

 In their zeal to desperately rationalize the reason for the invasion of Iraq, Congressional Republicans who were unhappy with the findings of the nation’s spy agencies pressured for the documents found in Iraq after the invasion to be posted to the website so there would be a larger audience that could sift through these documents and find that smoking gun showing that Sadaam had reinvigorated his WMD programs. 

The pressure was placed on the Director of National Intelligence, John Negraponte by the Chairs of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees (both Republicans).  Mr. Negraponte was very wary and unwilling to create this website, but the two Republicans dead set on proving the critics wrong went to their buddy – President Bush.  After all President Bush had everything to gain from someone finding this smoking gun- so Mr. Bush said “Do it John”. 

Well a plethora of documents were posted on the web site “Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal” including a document that many scientists and nuclear experts said was a guide to building a nuclear bomb!  But Mr. Bush and his buddies were still not vindicated.  The documents that compromised nuclear secrets were all created before the Persian Gulf War in 1991. 

We all knew that Sadaam had such programs before the first war with Iraq –  that wasn’t the smoking gun but it was a big old invitation to rogue nation states and terrorists to find a “Nuclear Bomb Marking for Dummies”. 

In the zeal to retain political power and vindicate the reason we were originally sold for the invasion of Iraq these Neo-Con nincompoops compromised our security.  Just a quick history lesson in case your forgot it was WMD’s not a desire to free the Iraqi people and create democracy which was the reason we were told after WMD’s weren’t found.

The terrorists haven’t had a better ally that George W. Bush.  He has infuriated the Islamic world more by a needless war allowing for easier recruitment among the ranks of terrorists, he has created a staging area for terrorists by an Iraq that is in chaos, and now he and his buddies have carelessly released nuclear technology in their singular purpose to salvage their political destinies.

The next time the Republicans talk about how Democrats will compromise our national security I want to ask them what anyone could do short of treason that hasn’t already been done by Bush and friends.

The Republicans have been portraying Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as a bogey man that is going to aid the terrorists, hand over the country to “illegals” and gays, and raise everyone’s taxes. 

I am one of Mrs. Pelosi’s constituents and I have had the privilege of working with her office on numerous occasions in my work in health policy and planning as well as AIDS advocacy.  I also had the honor to have dinner with Mrs. Pelosi once which was a remarkable evening. 

Congresswoman Pelosi is fair, she wouldn’t dream of raising taxes on the middle class- she would probably hope to repeal some of Bushs’s tax cut for the wealthiest in order to help balance the budget- but she cares about the middle class and those that are struggling.  Balancing the budget is a good thing folks!  She also cares deeply about public health issues and equal rights.  She is a balanced thinker and she is acts out of what she thinks is right- not what is politically expedient.  Nor does she act out of a need to pander to the worst in us. 

Mrs. Pelosi dares us to think about those who are less fortunate.  Quite frankly- that is the hallmark of the San Francisco liberal- caring for the most vulnerable in our society.  If our moral compass has moved so much towards a judgemental holier than thou status rather than a place of compassion, I am profoundly sad.  But I do believe in the innate goodness of people and that they do want to do the right thing- like Mrs. Pelosi. 

When I worked in Public Policy at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, there was no better advocate or champion for people living with HIV/AIDS in Congress than Mrs. Pelosi. It was due to my work in HIV/AIDS and her exemplary legislative record and leadership on this issue that led to our having dinner together. 

There are three elected officials that I feel I have had a personal connection with- even if only for a moment. 

The first is California Assemblyman Mark Leno.  He was a friend before he was in public office and being in public office has not changed his goodness and his kindness and he remains a good friend to this day without any political hitches to that friendship.

The second is Congressman John Lewis.  I met Congressman Lewis when he was in San Francisco on a book tour for his book “Walking With the Wind”.  At the time I was a board member of the Human Rights Campaign and I had the honor of introducing him to an audience.  I was in awe of him and his leadership during the Civil Rights movement.  He was very kind during our brief time together.  Nearly 7 years later I met him again at an event in Atlanta Georgia.  I went up to him to introduce myself and to mention that we had once met in San Francisco.  I was astonished that he remembered me and the circumstances of our first meeting - without any hint about the previous encounter from me or anyone.  Needless to say I was impressed that someone who probably shakes tens of thousands of hands a year remembered our encounter of years ago.  I was humbled by that experience.

The third was Mrs. Pelosi.  I was a board member of an AIDS service organization in San Francisco - Shanti - at the time (which was 1995).  I was co-chairing our annual dinner and we were honoring Mrs. Pelosi for her leadership in Congress on HIV/AIDS issues. 

Mrs. Pelosi was seated at my table with my friends, my immediate colleagues and my partner.  We all had a convivial conversation and then it was time for the award.  I was to introduce the Congresswoman and then give her the award.  My partner told me that as I was talking about her - she sat in her chair smiling and quiet.  However, when I mentioned in those remarks that I was a person living with HIV/AIDS,  my partner told me her smile disappeared and she seemed genuinely upset.  I knew that she had a number of freinds who had AIDS and died.  My partner and others present said her heart seemed to have become heavy hearing that the man she was just sharing a meal with, talking with and laughing with also had AIDS.  At that time AIDS was still pretty much a death sentence (protease inhibitors had not yet hit the market) and she had a visceral reaction to hearing my news.   I have never forgotten that moment. 

So this caring and compassionate woman who felt for me upon learing about my diagnosis  is not the villain portrayed by the radical right.  Her hallmark features, of caring, fairness and compassion are exactly the qualities needed in our legislators and sadly seldom are present.  Our Congress will be a better place with her as Speaker.

Jon Stewart said it well last night when saying that a botched joke isn’t nearly as bad as a botched war.  True Kerry was a fool and his botched joke was offensive - just see my post “Message To John Kerry- Zip your Lip”.  And it is also true that even the originally scripted joke wasn’t that funny either. 

But who was making jokes about WMD’s at a Washington Correspondents Dinner a couple of years ago?  Mr. Bush’s “bit” was replete with a video of him looking around the Oval Office for WMD’s.  “Nope they aren’t there” he’d say with that “hee hee hee” laugh of his.  Making jokes about the fact that the reason we went to war was bogus is heinous and doesn’t even rise to the offense of Mr . Kerry’s botched joke.

Mr. Bush and all the Republicans that have been asked admit that they realize that this was a botched joke- but they just can’t resist using it like a pit bull given a raw piece of meat.  Isn’t it worse to capitalize on a mistake and use our troops in a political tactic to fan the flames of partisan rhetoric and demonize a party than it was to initially make that mistake?

Of course the most offensive thing that has occurred during the War in Iraq is the arrogance of the White House and the civilian leadership of the Pentagon.  They don’t seem to give a damn about these young men and women-  they are just more war equipment like black hawks and unmanned drones-  but they are our children, our brothers and sisters and our fellow Americans- not an armored Hummer.  

Putting our troops in harms way for a reason that turned out not to be true- and then joking about it is offensive.  And more offensive than that is to continue putting these brave young men and women in harms’s way while continuing a botched policy that the President is unwilling to alter. 

Mr.  Bush- your botched actions are much more offensive than Mr. Kerry’s botched words. 

When the Supreme Court anointed George W. Bush President, he pledged to be a uniter not a divider.  Well like his words about Iraq and WMDs and its role in terrorism- he lied.  He is not a uniter- he is more responsible for the ugly partisanship than anyone else in Washington DC. 

Once when asked about firing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld he said he wouldn’t and he was the Decider.  But I really think that he misspoke.  I think he meant I am the Divider.  He sees the world in black and white.  You either agree with him about Iraq and swallow the bilge water that he doles out that Iraq is an essential part of the War on Terror or you are a terrorist sympathizer.  Well- yeah I guess Iraq is an essential part of the War on Terror because it is essentially making more terrorists. 

It is interesting that Republicans are making Democrats sound like their are pals with Osama Bin Laden.  Well I have some news for folks-  no one has been a better ally for Bin Laden and the terrorists than Mr. Bush and his policies in Iraq.  We are less safe, the Middle East is a mess, and his arrogant policies are exactly why extremists hate us and why it has become so easy to recruit new terrorists. 

Mr. Bush - you are a divider and you have encouraged terrorism in this world.  Your presidency has been a disaster.  You squandered the national and international good will we had after suffering the devastation of 9/11, and of course the complete lack of competence of your administration is not just obvious in how the war in Iraq has been waged but in the unconscionable and inept way your government responded to Katrina.  I can think of no one who has done more damage to this country.  Your incompetence is dangerous and is perilous in a complicated world - a world you don’t understand; a world that is painted in gray- not the black and white which is your Weltanschauung 

Mr. Bush the next time you think about alluding to the damage that could be done by a Deomcratically controlled Congress, just think about all the damage that you have done.  Maybe, just maybe if you had worked with people with differing opinions and reached across the aisle, as your father had, you might have done some good.  But you have done nothing other than make this world a very dangerous place.  You are the divider.  I can only imagine the disappointment you are to your father. 

On more than one occasion I have said that if any one could lose an election that is handed to them on a silver plater- it is the Democrats! Well thank you John Kerry- you have dropped that silver plater.  John Kerry’s botched joke was utter stupidity. 

I wish he would shut up and just leave the national stage.  Former Texas Governor the late Ann Richards once said of the first President Bush that he was “born with a silver foot in his mouth.”  It was a great line- but sadly it applied to Mr. Kerry too.  The mangled English of President Bush seems folksy to many (not to me however) but Mr. Kerry has a decent command of the language and continues to confuse his words and make a mess.  Remember “I voted for it before I voted against it”?  He just hands the Republicans fodder for the Rove grist mill.  

I hope he makes it crystal clear that he apologizes for the perception of what he said.  I heard it- and I am a die-hard liberal and I thought it was offensive.  So imagine how energized the Repuiblican right wing nut bag base is over this!  But I think the damage is done.  The Rove machine is all over this one like a wet suit- and it was like a big ‘ol Christmas present from Mr. Kerry to the Bush White House. 

 I am glad that Kerry has cancelled any campaign appearances.  He should just go away and write his memoirs.  He continually damages the Democractic Party and his ego won’t allow him to be like an old general and just fade away. 

Mr. Kerry, Please on behalf of the Democratic Party, zip your lip and please depart the national stage.  We have some other people like Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, and Mrs. Pelosi who are better spokespeople for our party.  Your time was  two years ago and you should have retreated back to your Senate seat and left the national politics to those who’s time is now and in the future.