ireadthenewstoday

Rodney Dangerfield the late great comedian once joked "you know you're ugly when you go to the proctologist and he sticks his finger in your mouth".

I need humor these days to get by. Every day there is some new revelation about either the supidity, incompetence or just plain dishonesty of the Bush administration. It seems to be pretty common knowledge and a consensus among the media that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are headquartered in Pakistan along the border with Afghanistan. There they have re-grouped and infiltrated Afghanistan again regaining power and Al Qaeda has moved into Iraq and continues to plot future attacks against the U.S. and Europe.
So over the weekend an article comes out in the NY Times and the SF Chronicle reporting that the Bush administration is continuing to pay Pakistan a billion dollars a year for conducting counterterrorism efforts along the border where Al Qaeda and the Taliban are, "even though Pakistan's president decided eight months ago to slash patrols through the area where Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are most active".
So far Pakistan has received over $5.6 billion in 5 years for this so-called effort. The Pentagon has admitted that roughly $80 million a month has been paid to President Musharraf since October 2001. Musharraf who's government is shaky announced in September of last year "that under a peace agreement with local militants his regular army troops in North Waziristan, the center of Al Qaeda's operations would no longer operate checkpoints and they would stay within garrisons". In other words leave Al Qaeda alone. That's right! It gets worse, "Soon after meeting with President Bush last year, Musharraf promised that tribal leaders and local militia would handle Al Qaeda and the Taliban in tribal areas". So it's probably not to far fetched to assume some of this $80 million a month is ending up in Al Qaeda's pockets and especially getting to them in the form of guns and bombs from these tribal leaders.

Al Qaeda is our enemy. They are responsible for 9/11. Yet the commander and chief of the greatest military in the history of the world has decided to outsource to the tune of $80 million tax dollars a month the capture of our worst enemies to local tribes that think a whole lot more of Al Qaeda than they do the U.S.
"They send us a bill and we just pay it", said one senior American military official who has dealt extensively with Musharraf. "Nobody can really explain what we are even getting for this money or even where it is going".

Now couple this with the billions unaccounted for in Iraq and the billions still being spent for our military presence there on the wrong battlefield and you have a Presidential nuclear bomb of incompetence and dishonesty. Yet the opposition party, the Democrats, instead of screaming about this unprecedented incompetence and waste of tax dollars, at the top of their lungs is arguing over the details of giving the President another $120 billion to piss away in Iraq.

Here is a strategy, I guess the great "decider" never thought of: If we know North Waziristan is the center of Al Qaeda's operations along the Pakistan border, why don't we drop $80 million a month in bombs on the area instead of giving them the cash?

"Never tell your wife she's lousy in bed she'll go out and get a second opinion". Thanks, Rodney.

Ireadthenewstoday

The Republicans have broken the system. If you think Iraq is a mess "you ain't seen nothing yet". Bush and Cheney and crew have not only screwed up Iraq so that almost no solution is possible without many more lives being lost, but they have been so distracted trying to cover their political butts on their massive foreign policy incompetence, the world has gotten a lot more dangerous and anti-American.
Afghanistan is in trouble again with the Taliban making a comback. Russia is flexing it's muscles again, rich with oil dollars. North Korea is a nuclear threat. Iran has gained great influence in the new government in Iraq and is thumbing it's nose at us over it's nuclear development. Al Qeada is back after being given safe haven in Pakistan to re-group for more 9/11s. They are present in Iraq along with countless other insurgents and jihadists threatening our troops and blowing up innocents. Terrorist groups Hezbollah, and Hamas have gained politically in Lebannon and Palestine and our stronger than ever. Anti American and Anti Israel Clerics and Mullahs are training more and more future suicide bombers even in middle east countries that are supposed to be our allies, some with nuclear capability such as Pakistan. We are in hock over a trillion dollars to the Chinese, and billions to the Saudis, and Japanese. And we are more dependent on oil which finances our enemies, since this administration in 6 years has not done one thing to curb our oil use, except attack Al Gore, and let the oil companies bloat their profits with higher and higher prices at the pumps.
But there is more: How about over 40 million with no health insurance and the cost of health insurance going up and up. No fiscal solutions for the upcomming financial burdens on Social Security and medicare have come from this administration. Our education system isn't working to compete in the world. Jobs and industries are being outsourced dailey. Global warming is a real problem and this administration makes jokes about it.
Even though George W Bush had never been successful at one thing prior to our right wing Supreme Court handing him the Presidency in 2000, nobody, not even his harshest critics could imagine how in 6 years of his Presidency he could massively screw up, not just the U.S. but the whole world. And how he could remain in power.
It motivated me to start my blog again thinking about this. Because somebody has to. The pathetic Democrats who promised supeonas and accountability and change are so devoid of leadership they can't even give this President more money than he asked for, in Iraq with nothing binding in their bill. And the idiot vetoes it to score political points and the Dems, now want to negotiate. Meanwhile Hillary and Obama and Edwards are singing Kumbaya on the campaign trail for the election two years away. Our government is broken. It doesn't work and our politicians our hopeless and only motivated by campaign funds and trying to keep their jobs.
The Republicans are corrupt and dishonest, and the Democrats are so weak they can't even dump a President and Vice President that took us to a un-winnable war on lies. How much more proof of this do the Dems need when the CIA director during the march to the invasion of Iraq, comes out with a book admitting it. Kumbaya my lord Kumbaya sing the Dems.