By: Bruce
S. Ticker -
If the retired George Bush was casting a
line for fish from his boat outside his Kennebunkport
home on Sunday, Etta McMillin was told that she lost her 29-year-old son in Iraq that day.
The officers arrived at her Biddeford, Maine, home possibly within 10 miles of the Bush compound
— and informed her that her son, Heath, was killed when the military
vehicle in which he was riding was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade. Her
son had lived in New York
State.
She told The Portland Press Herald: “They asked me if there were
any words I would like them to take back. I said, “Bring them all home.
Get them out of there. They don’t belong there.’
On Monday, William J. Maher 3d was killed by an explosive device dropped from
an overpass in central Baghdad
as his Humvee passed through daytime traffic.
The 35-year-old Maher was from Yardley, Pa., 25 miles north of my residence in Philadelphia. A color photo of family members
topped the front page of Wednesday’s Philadelphia Inquirer.
While our men and women in uniform continue to die in Iraq, the
politicians play more games.
From the start, I could not understand why we are there. Maybe this war is
necessary, but our so-called leaders give us double talk and bully us. If
that’s their attitude, then the troops should definitely return.
Even in London, Prime Minister Tony Blair is accused of trying to do to the
British Broadcasting Corp. what Bush has managed to do too much of
America’s news media — muzzle them.
According to an Associated Press account, Gavyn Davies, chairman of the
BBC’s board of governors, wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that unidentified
officials were quoted in media reports as threatening to cut its funding,
remove its director general and rewrite its charter or alter the tone of the
fallout over Iraq.
“Our integrity is under attack, and we are chastised for taking a
different view on editorial matters from that of the government and its
supporters,” he wrote. “Because we have had the
temerity to do this, it is hinted that a system that has protected the BBC for
80 years should be swept away and replaced by an external regulator that will
“bring the BBC to heel.’”
Blair’s people have denied pressuring the BBC, but where have we heard this
kind of garbage before? Wanna bet that someone from the Colonies gave him the
idea?
Not surprisingly, Dick Cheney tried to turn the question around of whether the Iraq attack was
a serious mistake. It’s easy to pick apart his main statement, as quoted
in The Washington Post.
“At a safe remove from the danger, some are now trying to cast
doubt upon the decision to liberate Iraq. The ability to criticize is
one of the great strengths of our democracy. But those who do so have an
obligation to answer this question: How could any responsible leader have
ignored the Iraqi threat?”
The crux is Cheney’s question at the end: Who wanted the Bush
administration to ignore Saddam Hussein? We have not ignored him at all. We
went to war against Saddam once already and have been staying on his back ever
since.
Cheney still refuses to answer these questions: Was this trip necessary?
Whatever the war’s advantages, was it worth the price?
We’re still waiting, Dick.
And amid all of the junk spewing out of George W. Bush’s mouth, he
finally accepted “personal responsibility” for his
lie claiming that Saddam sought uranium from Niger.
Would he take “personal responsibility” for the
deaths of Heath McMillin and William J. Maher if their deaths could have been
avoided?
That may not be a logical way to view it. If this war is self-serving or
ill-planned, or both, why would Bush even want to confess to it?
A Gay-Friendly Tom Delay?
San Francisco’s
gay community learned that they may have a friend in Tom DeLay after all.
By sheer coincidence, the House majority leader expressed his concern for gays
in the process of attacking a Democrat who represents a congressional district
across the bay from San Fran.
They learned through their local newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, that
DeLay assailed fellow Congressman Fortney “Pete” Stark for
branding GOP colleague Scott McInnis of Colorado
“a wimp” and “a fruitcake.”
Said DeLay: “The intolerant comments made by Pete Stark I find
incredibly offensive, and I am shocked that the media hasn’t treated him
like they treat others that make these kinds of remarks.
“You know, he’s made remarks against women, he’s made remarks
against African Americans, he’s made remarks now against homosexuals, and
yet he’s more or less allowed to get away with these kinds of
inflammatory displays that he is so famous for.”
Just like DeLay is allowed to get away with his intellectual dishonesty.
“No One Raised A Hand”.And That, Too,
Made Me Lie
To paraphrase an old childhood song:
“If the president tells a lie, raise your hand!!!!!!!”
That must be the obvious solution to prevent future boo-boos in George W.
Bush’s speeches as Stephen Hadley, the deputy national security adviser,
blamed himself for allowing Bush to lie in his State of the Union speech that
Iraq sought to buy uranium ore from Africa to use in building nuclear weapons.
The Associated Press quoted Hadley as saying, “There were a number
of people who could have raised a hand” to have the passage
removed from the draft of Bush’s Jan. 28 address., “and no
one raised a hand.”
Dirty Davis
William Safire was apparently reflecting the views of California Republicans,
but in his New York Times column he wrote, “He won re-election by a
dirty trick, interfering in a Republican primary to choose the weakest
opponent.”
He was referring to California Gov. Gray Davis’s campaign tactic last
year of making sure that conservative Republicans knew that Dick Riordan was
pro-choice and otherwise too moderate for them. Instead, they nominated Bill
Simon, whom Davis
demolished in the general election.
Republicans would never try “a dirty trick” like
that, would they?