Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

As best I can understand the situation in Washington, it seems to be as follows...

• One political party had control of both houses of Congress and the White House for the first six years of the current presidential administration.

• Little was accomplished. A war was started with inadequate justification and is being continued based on an idealogy of political extremists of one party who do not represent the majority of Americans. Taxes were cut but federal spending ran amuck, creating the largest federal deficit in the history of the nation. Little or no legislation was passed addressing increasingly critical domestic problems. Legislation that was enacted has repeatedly proven to have been created to satisfy special interests who basically bought the votes of members of Congress. Our national economic competitiveness and our role as a world power have begun to deteriorate, possibly to the point of being irreversible.

• The voters were so disgusted with the situation that in the 2006 mid-term elections they voted in enough candidates from the minority party to change the majority in the House of Representatives. But the plurality in the House was not enough to override a Presidential veto of legislation, should one occur. And the Senate remained in control of the other political party.

• Now, in an effort to discredit the newly-elected majority in the House, the Senate refuses to even attempt to negotiate mutually acceptable forms of legislation between the House and Senate in conference committee between the two houses of Congress, however necessary such legislation might be for the country.

• The President, equally complicit in the effort by Congressional leaders of his party to discredit their political opposition with the objective of regaining control of both houses of Congress in the 2008 elections, has threatened to veto any and all bills sent to him that found their source with the newly-elected majority in the House. The threat of a Presidential veto extends even to the most basic of necessary federal legislation, a federal budget.

• So, our democratic form of government is completely stalemated and held hostage by the political extremists from both parties for purely political purposes. Neither party is willing to modify their positions, regardless of the need of the country for the legislation such statesmanship might produce. Positions being taken by both legislative and executive elected representatives have everything to do with a struggle to the death of the political parties to maintain control of the Congress and nothing to do with the needs of the country.

I have occasionally opined, in an attempt to provide some humor to the situation, that a benevolent dictatorship might be a better form of government than the form of democracy that seems to exist in Washington. Living in Chicago for more than four decades teaches one that such a form of government under the leadership of two generations of the Daley family produced pretty good results. Even here in The Villages the plans and decisions of the developer of the community, certainly a form of "government" far from anything that could be called democratic, has had pretty good results.

But the situation in Washington has me completely frustrated and unable to imagine even a basic list of what needs to be done or how long it will take to reverse the current situation. Eventually the American ship of state will be righted, I'm convinced of that. But will it occur in my lifetime? I doubt it. In the lifetimes of my middle-aged children? Unfortunately, I think that's doubtful as well.

This whole situation is very, very sad.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

You mention political extremists. You just got the party wrong.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

I agree completely with Kahuna, and am equally saddened by what has happened to our country, and all the terrible things our "leaders" have done to run it into the ditch. It looks like it would take some kind of miracle to recover. I don't know if it will ever be fixed. What a terrible legacy for our children & grandchildren!!

I always vote, but right now I'm not sure if any of the potential candidates running would be able to solve the problems incurred by the numbskulls that created the disastrous government we have now.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

You pretty much nailed it, BK...I think the Republicans are about to learn the same lesson that the Democrats learned in the 70's and 80's. I think the lesson is that most Americans (excluding the inevitable extreme partisans) do not appreciate extreme agendas in government whether it be from the far left or now the far right. Either way is a train wreck waiting to happen...This thread will probably get REAL interesting before it is done.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

I think both parties are 100% partisan and accomplish nothing.
I can't say that Bush and company is better or worse than Pelosi/Reid and company.

all crooks, all blame the other guy and accomplish nothing

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

BK :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree: :agree:

To add to the fodder... now the're going to confirm an attorney general that thinks water boarding is not torture. We must get our house in order and win back some our lost allies in the world.

As far as a dictatorship goes.. we have one with BUSH and Darth Vader at the helm... just trust me WITH NO OVERSITE...........

GREAT OP-ED PIECE IN THE STAR BANNER

Teepen: Add Blackwater to Bush misadventures hidden by a veil of secrecy
By TOM TEEPEN
Cox News Service
Friday, November 02, 2007

Was any administration before George W. Bush's ever as panoramic in its contempt for the public's curiosity about how its business is being conducted?

Whether from malice or misadventure – and both have been present in large dollops – this president and his crowd have relentlessly buried government deeply in secrecy and dark corners.

It appears that misadventure is the culprit in the latest de facto cover up; misadventure is always plausible in a presidency whose incompetence has become a legend in its own time.

There was outrage in September when Blackwater mercenaries who have been hired to protect U.S. diplomatic personnel in Iraq gunned down 17 Iraqi civilians in what the company has said was self-defense but what many witnesses condemned as wanton killing.

(Blackwater is one of the scads of private contractors to which this administration has parceled out government duties so that favored freebooters can charge taxpayers for profits on services that taxpayers used to get at cost.)

In a sweet set-up, the mercenaries already were exempt from both U.S. military and civil justice, but in a welcome surprise, State Department investigators said they would jump right on the case anyway. Truth would out.

But, oops, it turns out the investigators gave all the suspects limited immunity in their interrogations. That means the testimony probably can't be used and thus tested in any trial, even if an apt venue for one could be found. So what looks like still one more administration :edit:-up, this one deadly and perhaps murderous, disappears into the administration's bulging black bag. Once again, we'll never know.

No surprise, of course. The White House has repeatedly refused to let Cabinet officers testify to congressional hearings looking into suspect administration activities, citing executive privilege, national security or whatever excuse might work.

And when officials have been allowed to testify, their performances often have shown more bobbing and weaving than a 12-round fight. Some, taking a cue from Vice President Dick Cheney, simply stonewall.

Recent Attorney General Alberto Gonzales did testify, and often, but blithely contradicted himself and when even that seemed like too much bother pleaded a memory with more holes than a poor man's socks.

The White House has rewritten federal rules so that more documents than before can be, and are, classified secret. It has sequestered the papers of previous presidencies that had been scheduled to be made public.

The administration is, let's say, leisurely about responding to Freedom of Information requests and when it finally does respond the result is often the release of documents with so many, and such extensive, redactions that looking at them is like studying midnight.

And thousands of executive branch e-mails have gone missing. (Here we are back to the malice-or-mischief conundrum.)

Whatever else may also be at play, all of this secretiveness serves Bush's constant effort to imbue the presidency and its executive branch with a presumptive right to rule unilaterally, and the legislature and judiciary go hang.

To stake that grandiose claim, botching the investigation of 17 deaths or — might it be? — countenancing 17 murders may seem not such a big deal.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Just what is water boarding? I never saw a description of it. Anybody?

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Tony - you are place on a board on your back. A your mouth is covered so you can only breath through your nose. A towel is placed over your face and to your nose, and water is slowly poured or dripped onto it so you feel like you are drowning. It causes no permanent damage, but is very psychologically stressful. We have put our own pilots, special forces types, etc through it in training them to resist interrogation. Supposedly no one makes it through the water boarding without breaking. However, again it leaves no permanent damage.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Mr. LG
Makes no matter to me what the torture is, if your a terror suspect, there is no greater torture than those who suffered the fall of the twin towers of 911. Waterboarding is child's play to the pain those 3000 Americans suffered falling to their death. It boggles my mind, how we "civilized" Americans can push aside that memory. One who categorizes torture is one who also thinks the holocaust was a hoax and Pearl Harbor was air show. Please Americans, my God wake up to the fact that there are human beings in this world that think your life is all wrong and theirs has to be the World's way. Apathy will allow this to happen.
Handie :joke:

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Handieman: the problem is that the media has twisted the news to the liberal side. And there are people that does not want to see it.
I have read Mohamahd (I dont know and dont care how it spells) written by Washington Irving and it was and still it is like that, is either their way or you are dead. They are intolerant of anybody view but theirs. And our liberals are worry about their rights.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

LG, Teepen has been a far left liberal all his writing career. They finally replaced him at the Atlanta Journal some years ago. He is against anything and anybody that's not a far left liberal. His writing tends to look ridiculous. You and your cronies have a mindset of defeat. The enemy is not Bush, it's the islamic maniacs that are out to destroy us. The idiots in congress are asking this candidate to make a judgement on an issue that he doesn't have the info to judge with. In the recent past, the litmus test was abortion. No consideration for a candidates credentials, views, past history, anything. Just tell old Teddy boy his position on abortion. Now it's waterboarding. For God's sake, it's used on our guys in training. The enemy saws off innocent victims' heads with kitchen knives. This debate has become a joke already.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Quote from LG

"To add to the fodder... now the're going to confirm an attorney general that thinks water boarding is not torture. We must get our house in order and win back some our lost allies in the world"

Teddy Roosevelt said many years ago "Speak softly but carry a big stick". negotiating with terrorist's and sucking up to our so called "allies" will make the liberals swoon while the rest of us witness more "heads being sawed off" and our troops saving their pansy a :edit: countries from becoming 100% muslin. If all the liberals would all attend Ward Churchills retirement party (or was he fired? no such luck) from the Univ of Colorado we could get on with making America a respected country.
Handie :joke:

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

As I read that the senior Senator from Massachusetts wont vote for confirmation because he has not had a satisfactory answer from the candidate for Attorney Generall about his position about the legality of water boarding (simulated drowning) I am wondering what Senator Kennedy's position is on actual drowning. Has it changed since he left Mary Jo in his car after it went off the bridge? :dontknow:

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Good point Hancle. Even I forgot about that one. Handie, regarding Ward Churchill, it was in the news the other day that even though he was fired by the University, he's still on campus teaching a class at the invitation of the students. Academia is a whole different world these days.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

:agree: Handie, your response is right on. The whole debate over waterboarding is laughable. These are "terror" suspects we are talking about.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

So I assume we should not complain when our soldiers are tortured since some on this Board seem to think it is the right thing to do. It doesn't feel "right" to me and feeling "right" is what made proud Americans and the world respect us. Not doing the same as terrorists would do. IMHO.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

What's even more laughable is Senator Kennedy's objection to the waterboarding. The man is a joke and a buffoon. How he gets consistenty reelected is amazing. Must be something in the water in Massachusetts. And they say don't drink the kool-aid in TV. Ha!!!
We need to keep the big picture in mind and that is to keep our country safe and to honor and enable the men and women in the military who are working so hard, for us all, to accomplish that very thing. I think of them every day. I have given up watching the networks news because they are not "reporting" the real news about the conflict just the slanted view they want us to hear. Talk to any returning soldier and you will get a whole new perspective, the real story.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Hmm...

War of 1812; Civil War; Spanish-American War; WWI; WWII; Korea; Vietnam; Gulf I; Gulf II; Iraq; Afghanistan; Panama; Grenada; Somalia; Haiti; all of the other wars/battles/actions in between; Impeachments of Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton; Resignation of President Nixon and Vice President Agnew; Assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John Kennedy; Attempted Assassinations of Presidents Andrew Jackson, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan; the Great Depression of the early 1930's; the Cuban Missile Crisis; Earthquakes of San Francisco and Anchorage; Hurricanes Andrew, Hugo, Charley and Katrina; Pearl Harbor; 9/11 and so many other possible llistings.

Maybe some have little faith in the resiliency of this nation and its ability to recover from the worst that nature and man can throw at it. Well, we've done it before and we'll do it again.

I'll keep the type of government structure we have, thank you. I don't want any type of dictator, benevolent or otherwise. What we have WORKS, and it's best demonstrated by how many folk will move mountains and take any risk to be within our borders.

Is it perfect? No, but what is? Many of the complaints probably were sounded dozens of times in the last 230 years since the Constitution came to be, and the country has survived. We'll get through whatever 'this' is as well, probably in spite of ourselves, but definitely due to the wisdom of the Founding Fathers.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Great post Steve - I think it keeps our history and current state in perspective. Wel written!

FYI: I'm from MA and i NEVER vote for Sen. Kennedy but that doesn't seem to stop him. I guess we need all sides represented and he is certainly on ONE side!

Great Reply Steve
 

I started this post, attempting to express my frustration in a non-partisan manner. What I missed, or didn't emphasize enough, was exactly what Steve pointed out.

My frustrations are temporary in the grand scheme of things. Our democratic ship of state changes course very, very slowly. But it will change course! What's is amazing is how comprehensive the framers of our Constitution were in assuring that would happen.

What I was attempting to express was my short-term frustration with the political sitaution in Washington. I agree that our form of democracy is best. There is a condition that I'd add...that everyone participate in voting for the representatives who we think will best govern in the way we'd desire. I am a little concerned that our younger generations are either too busy with other things or have simply given up on the sad morass in Washington. Without everyone's involvement, the democratic structure can be weakened.

But our Constitutional form of democracy does provide the structure for the people's wishes to be represented in the governance of the country. I just wish it would happen a little faster.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

I agree with you Kahuna but wish money didn't play such an immensely strong part.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

IF I WAS DRIVING THAT CAR INSTEAD OF KENNEDY I'D STILL BE IN JAIL

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Had occasion to watch "The War" a few nights ago. The segment was highlighting the "Battle of the Bulge". What the troops went through there was mind boggling. The casualties ran in the 10's of thousands PER MONTH as I recall. Wonder if this country would have the stomach for such a conflict today? Think of the other theatre's in the Pacific, Normandy beaches, etc.. What about Truman's decision to use "The Bomb". All took real guts by everyone involved.

Today this country is completely emasculated. Hell, our industrial complex couldn't even mount a real war effort if we tried, we'd have to get all our supplies from China. Face it folks, we've been sold out and most people (younger than us) haven't figured it out yet.
The "hay-day" is behind us I fear.

Re: Am I Understanding The Situation Correctly?
 

Captain, I've had the same thoughts many times. Our manufacturing industry is nearly down to the car companies, and the media and lots of politicians find fault with the US actions in conflicts, and sympathize with the enemy's. If we had todays political climate and today's media with it's stars ex. Katie Couric, Matt Lauer etc., we would be speaking Japanese or German if we were still alive. Most US citizens don't realize that we, the Germans and the Japanese killed POWs because there were no other choices. The soldiers to guard POWs, food, medical,and clothing supplies were all desperately needed to fight the war. When the Germans surrendered during the Bulge, a lot of them were executed by GIs. I'm not condoning what happened in WWII. War is ugly beyond belief. But the public outrage over stupid acts like Abu Ghraib makes you wonder.