Hearts not Troops...how to win Iraq(over)

The question in Iraq is not whether we are winning or have won the war, rather it is how can we keep the peace. This has been ignored as the last stage of thsi conflict by those on both sides.
IF we needed considerably more troops the commanders would ask and receive them. If we ever could reduce the militant components entering from Iran, Jordan, Syria and Saudia Arabia by show of force we would do so, but we cannot. the Soviet Union, and the entire Eastern Bloc fell despite walls, armorments and troops to sedate thier citizens, it does not work.
To win the Peace in Iraq we must as General Landsdale said of Vietnam win the Hearst and Minds of the Iraqi people. We must continue to build and rebuild the vital infrustructure inside of Iraq. When sabatoged, we rebuild. We continue to spur the process to a democratic structure and continue to support the political and social institutions inside Iraq. When the Iraqi people begin to establish the trust in thier own government, they then will establish the necessary respect for the government and country they have developed. When this time has come, they will not accept the interference by elementst from outside. They who live near or around the foreign insurgents will begin to identify them to the authorities. Until this occurs this is going to be a truth test.
The Iraqi people hold the key to their own future. They must be the keeper of sovereignty, but htis can only occur when they accept the institutions they have created. The US can help this process along with aid, relief and a strong enough force to continue to train and rebuile the people and hte structures.

When ordinary Iraqis accept thier destiny of democracy they will accept ownership in thier nation and target these rogue elements themselves.

5th Anniversary of the Hyde Park Declaration

This month we quietly celebrated the 5th anniversary of the Hyde Park Declaration, a ‘Statement of Principles and a Policy Agenda for the 21st Century’ issued by the Democratic Leadership Council in August of 2000. The Declaration was a guide for Democrats for Policy in the new Millennium.
Yet, why was it a quiet celebration? Well, that was because some of the good ideas offered by the New Democrats include ‘Personal Retirement Accounts’ for Social Security. Today, the Democratic Party has decided to stay out of the national discourse on a permanent solution to the solvency issue of Social Security.
You see, it was a quiet celebration because the lists of signors of this Declaration include many who have spoken ill of the very measures they endorsed only 5 years ago. Congressman Jim Davis is one of many Democrats who had agreed by signing the measure that endorsed…
· Honor our commitment to seniors by ensuring the future solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
· Make Structural reforms in Social Security and Medicare that slow their future cost growth, modernize benefits, and give beneficiaries more choice and control over their retirement and health security.
· Create Retirement Savings Accounts to enable low-income Americans to save for their own retirement.

Congressman Davis is not the only prominent Democrat to endorse Personal Savings Accounts in 2000 who has more recently shied away. That list also includes Sen. Bayh, Sen. Kerry, Sen. Landrieu, and Sen. Lieberman.

The historical context of the Hyde Park Declaration should be noted for clarity. It was written and signed by these Democrats long before they and their Party refused to offer any solution to the Social Security problem. In fact, around the same time as this Declaration, the thoughtful Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan said of his own savings account proposal, “With this investment provision workers can build up estates, The fellow who worked at Bethlehem Steel for 40 years would not just have a pension, an annuity, but could leave substantial amounts of money to his children. That’s kind of a new America”.
It was this type of thinking at allowed the Democrats signing this Declaration to say about Social Security, “we can’t just spend our way out of the problem; we must find a way to contain future costs.” They went on to endorse the proposal of giving, “beneficiaries more choice and control over their retirement and health security” and that we should “Create Retirement Savings Accounts to enable low-income Americans to save for their own retirement”.
The time has come for the thoughtful Democrats, like Rep. Jim Davis, to back their Hyde Park Declaration with action. The time for politics as usual has passed, the fiscal wreck of Social Security inches closer each passing day. Instead of ignoring their Declaration of 2000 in Hyde Park, today we ask Representative Davis to stand and reaffirm his 5-year-old endorsement for Retirement Savings Accounts and permanent Solvency of the Social Security System.
It may come as a surprise to many to discover that President Roosevelt’s original Social Security plan included provisions that would have allowed people to make personal investments-not all together different from the private accounts that President Bush is currently proposing. This was one of the three ‘necessary principals’ in Roosevelt’s legislative package presented to Congress on January 17, 1935. Unfortunately this provision formerly known as ‘Title V’ was deleted from the final bill that passed Congress due to pressure from the Insurance Industry Lobby.

So, now that thoughtful American’s like President Roosevelt, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Representative Jim Davis and President George Bush all agree on the concept of ‘Personal Retirement Accounts or if you wish, Retirement Savings Accounts, let us have some Democratic Leadership to help get this boat to port for all our sakes. Once this boat is safely navigated to port we have another looming Medicare ship not far behind. This should not be a Democrat or Republican issue; it must be a bi-partisan solution.

The nation needs to see the signors of the Hyde Park Declaration stepping up to help guide this ship safely home.

Bonds, McGuire, Palmeiro and Sosa, cha cha cha

Barry Bonds is within striking distance of Henry 'Hank' Aaron and the alltime homerun mark. Mark McGuire has the single season record for Home Runs. Raffy has put up 3000 hits to go along with 500 dingers. Sammy was just a two time 60 plus home run guy who just happened to cork his batting practice bat. Sadly, the fact is all these players are cheaters, whether we can positively affirm this or not, we know in our hearts Bonds is a cheat, as is Mark and Raffy. Sammy is a liar with Raffy.

Barry Bonds is being held out of baseball this year for purposes to distance himself from the bad press this season on steroids. I would even make the claim that Commisioner Selig made a back room deal to keep Bonds from being found guilty for Steroid use if Bonds would agree to ride into the sunset and not break the Aaron mark. We certainly will see if this theory is based in fact when next year arrives and whether Barry finishes his run at Aaron. Much like i had suspected Jordan was quietly suspended from Baseball for gambling, I too suspect that Bonds has been asked to take the season off and avoid further controversy.

Raffy is a proven liar, Sammy is a known corker though the both claim foul. Both took a page out of the Clinton playbook to deny even the sun in the sky. McGuire admited to taking a enhancing compound that clearly added to his competitive advantage, but due to a technicality he skated from being a doper. Yet, I would argue he could have been creating an elaborate rouse to cover his prior use of Steroids. In any event, you would have to have been born in the morning, in particular, yesterday morning to believe any of these players deserve anything more than our scorn.
they have trampled over our heritage of baseball.

Guardian of Year--Michael Shaivo---How Obnoxious!

Black is White and the Day is Night.
Well, it must be if Michael Schiavo is considered something of a good example of anything other than a killer, perguror and despot.
Michael Schiavo made a claim 5 years after any possible moment of discussion with his wife that she had not wanted to live is a PVS condition. I can scantly recall any converstions clearly I had 5 or more years ago.
MS is the embodiment of all that is abnormal and disgusting in our society--the epitimy of moral relativism. Yet, by pulling our our heart strings rather than our intellect many intelligent folks in this country quitely say, 'well, who would want to live that way'. Yet that is not the issue...what is or was the issue is whether Terri did or did not say this.
What we do know is that Michael Schiavo did not recall her wishes when he sought rehabilitative and punitive damages from the original care givers. He never made such claims in court during the first trials about her condition. Nay, what he did say was He intended to dedicate the rest of his life to his wife, leaving out he planned to finish what he started---by killing her.

Harsh?
I think not. I am simply calling it as I see it. Not one single bit of evidence can lead anyone to conclude she entered this condition in any particular way or for any specific reason. In fact, all the possibilites raised by MS and his team of lawyers were soundly rejected.
What we do know is for some period of time one early morning she was denied oxygen and as a result MS waited more than 40 minutes before he contacted 911. nearly 15 years later he finally was able to have her starved to death---and I am the one who is harsh--again I think not!

What is obnoxious is the moral relativism affecting all parts of our society. Religions allowing homosexual Marriage, people who claim to be god fearing ignoring that fear to allow people to kill those they deem less equal. We kill the unborn child because it is inconvenient to allow them to be born. We kill the infirmed because someone feels they are too burdensome. We kill Terri Schaivo because her husband claimed that is what she wanted...long before he started a new family.

Please, Michael Schaivo is an example of the very worst in all of us. The part of us that acts out without thinking of the moral consequences. What is most obnoxious about this award was his comment that he accepted this on behalf of Terri---that is sickening!
Some are celebrating the very worst and lowest denomenator in all of humanity--the killer.

CAFTA's strategic importance

CAFTA is NAFTA with strategic importance, though less the economic impact. It is rather interesting that some Republicans have been the vocal opponent of CAFTA when they are also part of the group wanting immigration controls for strategic impact.
The Reagan revolution spread to Central America and helped usher in a democratic reform movement that enveloped the region. However, because of the lack of economic reform, the cental american region is sliding back towards powerful power politics of the few--ie. Daniel Ortega.

M-C-C-A-I-N is how you spell H-I-P-O-C-R-I-S-Y

Sen. John McCain believes in the notion "I can fool enough of the people, enough to the time, to run for President". If not, it could be he went to the School of Propagandy and studied under Goebbels. You see, Sen. McCain who has been self-identified as a reformist of Campaign Finance Laws is the very reason reform of some kind has been needed. We, (McCain and myself) would only disagree on what and how.

You may not recall his neck deep associations with peddlers of illegal and illicit campaign financing from the 1980's that Sen. McCain has been successful about keeping from more recent media exposes on himself or the 2000 campaign.

You also may not know that the same Senator is and has been successful in keeping the media from exposign another damning episode in is life of hypocrisy. Sen. McCain has recently had to step down, as Chairman, from the very Institute he created--The Reform Institute. The Institutel was accepting large donations in the 100K range from businesses and PAC's that had interests infront of the very Commerce Commitee Sen. McCain Chaired.

The Reform Institute is housed in the same building that also houses the Friends of John McCain (his re-elecion office) , his Adivsor's lobbying firm and his PAC, Straight Talk America.
The Institute also pays salaries to several cross over employees, in some cases more than 100K in individual salaries. For example, his political advisor Davis takes a 110K salary from the Institue along with additional salary being drawn from his campaign.

Possibly more interesting is the mysterious 'Contributor number 8, who is not identified in the Institute paperwork but did contribute. This is interesting since the Reform Institute makes transparent other contributions, less this one--why?

Possibly most interesting is the fact that the donations have been pouring in this year, more than doubling last years take...coincedence to the fact he may be running for President in 2008 or just dumb luck?

John McCain along with fellow travelor Sen. Feingold could be considered the Orvile and Wilber of the 521 Era. This newly expossed and abused code replaces the old time money stream into politics. Did McCain re-invent the wheel or just improve upon the Atom Bomb so to speak.

John McCain gets a free ride from the liberal media because he has been willing to eat his own or leave the planation of his GOP masters. He has been willing at nearly every turn to provide a valuable sound bit to criticise fellow republicans or the President, to the bedazzlement of the left and media.
They certain do not plan to take him down until he gets the Republican Nomination for President in 2008, when his usfullness hass expired.

I guess we would have to call him the Scarecrow because he has Courage and a Heart with some left over, it is a Brain he needs, though he is as shrewed as a fox. This man can never be President without a base and the left will not provide it. He cannot win the hearts and minds of conservative Americans and thus he is left out in the wasteland of political relativism.

John McCain has lived a life and practiced a form of Politics of trying to fool all who witness his actions, kind of a political David Copperfield of illusion. He claims to be the savior of money politics by creating the most usefull tool yet for the elites to control politics. At the very least, Businesses contributed jobs and tax revenue and possibly a product along the way to the American system while all 521's have to offer are money to candidates. This is somehow better?

John McCain is the Anti-Christ of Politics. All he does is black magic and sell it as the power to heal. He creates a Reform organization that practices the same techniiques used for decades to bilk the system. He claims to be a reformer while really conducting himself like a traitor to all that is good and decent. What is so grossly wrong with this man is that he plays upon the most decent in all of us by pulling our heartstring for serving our Country in Vietnam and being subjected to torture and confinment in a cell as a P.O.W.

John McCain is the very lowest form of Politician, one who practices what he beleives about the rest of us---he thinks we are stupid. Let us prove him wrong!

GOP may be going the way of the DEMS...can you say Republicats

The Transportation bill is just anohter example of what Lord Acton described by claiming "power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely". The Republican Revolution was a real purposeful revolution with sound tangeble results. However, since 2000, the fog of power has emerged and the GOP has began and now perfected the DEMOCRAT style of big government politics.

The Transportation bill is the right time for the first Presidential VETO by President BUSH.

The gains over the last 11 years are quickly sliding back to a disasterous time of Democratic control of the legislative branches of our government. It isn't the fact that GOPer's are just like the DEMS, rather it is that the conservatives have lost the power base they had under GINGRICH, ARMEY, ARCHER and crew. Today, Hastert, Thomas, Stevens and Young rule the roost and that is bad for all americans.

WE need a VETO and we need our second Conservative effort towards a new REPUBLICAN REVOLUTION or we risk losing to the the true socialists. The Dems are our version of the Socialist party in our nation.

Why is it that more than a dozen nations have a flat tax including several former Soviet Block nations like Russia. More than a dozen nations have No Inheritance Taxes including the Socialist iconiclast Sweden. More than a dozen naitions have Private Retirement Accounts, working to enrich their people instead of cripple them, like Chile. Why is the US tax code working more like Marx would have it than Adam Smith? Why is our governance sliding into a Socialistic experiment cherished by the the left?

The time may be coming to reject the GOP party apperatus and replace it with true believers in small, nimble government. The time has come for a VETO Mr. President! The time has come to call out C.W. Young, Sen Stevens and the rest of the big government Republicans in the Legislative branch.

Abortion, Stem Cell and research...hello Dr. Frankenstein

Can anyone reasonably support abortions or research upon fetuses? where has this world gone?
The world will someday look back upon this time much as we look back at our usage of other humans as slaves. Simply for the purpose of convenience do we allow those who are irresponsible to take the life of another.
It is not as though you cannot walk into any drug store or gas station to buy protection. It is not as though we have a patch, a pill and even a disgusting morning after pill, but must we still have abortion? how sad.

the left is a sadistic selfish group of baby killers. Pro life folks support the truly least fortunate while the Pro Choice crowd cares less for the least fortunate. I was led to beleive that it was the liberals and left that cared for those who need the most help, not the right?






Specialist: Keeping fetuses may be widespread
'At last I knew the truth'

Investigators probing the shocking discovery of hundreds of fetuses and stillborn babies stored in a Paris hospital morgue are likely to find that the practice is widespread in France, a top medical specialist said Wednesday.

A day after officials said 351 stillborn babies and fetuses were kept at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul Hospital's morgue -- some for two decades -- more than 100 worried families called a hotline to inquire about their cases, hospital authorities said.

Investigators were probing how such a breach of French law could have happened, and why. But one top geneticist and medical ethicist said he was not surprised.

"I think that there are fetuses and stillborn infants in all maternity wards at university hospitals," Dr. Axel Kahn, a member of France's national ethics committee, told The Associated Press. "Once, it was the norm ... Researchers who needed them for their work asked obstetricians not to dispose of them."

The law was changed in the mid-1990s to prevent the practice.

Current French law calls for bodies of unclaimed stillborn babies to be cremated within 10 days. Fetuses cannot be used for medical purposes except with the parents' explicit consent. In that case, the bodies must be cremated within six months.

Even after the laws were changed, some specialists at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul may have wanted to keep the remains to do genetic testing on them one day, Kahn said.

'I still have these disturbing images in my mind'
At the hospital in southern Paris, some jars in the morgue contained autopsied bodies, and others, dismembered body parts. The oldest remains dated from 1985, and around 20 bodies had been conserved in the last year, Paris hospital officials said.

While most were either aborted fetuses or stillborn babies, at least two had been born alive and died shortly after.

Health officials have launched a wider inquiry to find out if the practice existed at other hospitals.

"There was no reason why those bodies should have been kept," Rosemarie Van Lerberghe, general director of the Paris public hospital system, said at a news conference. "I don't think we will find the same thing in other places."

Health Minister Xavier Bertrand described his shock at visiting the morgue, saying that the remains were stored in "disgraceful" conditions.

"I still have these disturbing images in my mind, these sacks and bottles of formaldehyde spread out," he told Le Parisien newspaper.

The hospital has not addressed who kept the fetuses, or why. The remains were stored under lock and key in a two-room annex off the morgue's refrigerator room, news reports said. Only a handful of people had access to the rooms.

Dr. Pierre-Marie Cousin, president of the union of gynecologists and obstetricians, pointed out that Saint-Vincent-de-Paul carries out autopsies on stillborns from other hospitals.

"An autopsy for a child takes considerable work, and the delay to obtain one can reach up to six months," he told The AP. "The fact that the burial or cremation of these stillborn babies wasn't carried out is perhaps negligence, but not a moral problem."

One woman's search for the remains of a fetus she had aborted in 2002 led to the discovery, Le Parisien reported.

"I wanted to verify that my child was cremated, like they said he would be," 27-year-old Caroline Lemoine was quoted as telling the paper. Following repeated requests for the date of cremation, the hospital acknowledged it had not disposed of the body.

"They told me 'Your son has not been cremated, his body is still here,"' said Lemoine, who had the abortion after doctors said her pregnancy was not viable.

"At last I knew the truth," she said. "My mourning came to an end."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Integrity and baseball

Rafael Palmeiro and his positive drug test are just the tip of this dirty mountain--DRUGS IN BASEBALL. The real story is much deeper and taller. The 1990's has ushered in the steroid age of baseball, but the cocaine age was epitomized by the Pittsburgh connections and folks like Hernandez and Parker. Though at least the cocaine epidemic only affected the players not the league records---this is what matters to me as a fan.

What has made Baseball great and unique over the last century plus is that players could be compared generationally and that the game was unscripted, less maybe the 1919 World Series (ha ha).
Yet, as of 1992 could anyone deny the emergence of something wrong in the game. from 1992 through this season players like Brady Anderson would go from 15 adn 21 homer seasons to 50. Luis Gonzalez and Steve Finly poping them out like Schimidt and Pops. Watching Bonds, McGuire and Sosa chase Ruth, Aaron and Maris was the final straw for me. Certinaly they could do it, but watching Sosa claim his bat was corked only for BP was embarrasing. Bonds and McGuire choose another form of illegal benefit-Steriods. Though McGuire attempted to knock us off the sent by admitting to creatine, i for one was not fooled by his action---he was an abuser of other 'roids' too--no doudt and his records need to be expunged or (*). Bonds, on the otherhand, wants us to believe that despite his connections with a distribution lab company dealing in steroids, that he did not partake in them, despite what his mistress claimed.
We can show the amazing change in numbers of homeruns hit by not only the power hitters in baseball from say 92 thruogh 2004, but that does not compare to the emergence of psuedo power hitters like Brady Anderson, Finly, Castillo and crew.

Baseball sold its soul to the devil to win ratings and fans in the seats. It only cost the integrity of the game. Thank you Mr. Owner/Commisioner Selig. The League ignored the clear issue demonstrated by increased power over the 90's...for who's benefit...owners, players and the league in general. Who loses?
Ruth, Gehrig, Williams, Mays, Schmidt, Maris and all of us who have cared about the history and integrity of the game.
Selig fiddled while Major League Baseball burned. He sent Rose to the lions while ignoring the corruption of that same game he claimed to be saving by sacrificing Rose.
All the time Selig condemned Rose he allowed Bonds, McGuire and Palmeiro to destroy the same game with Steriods instead of bets.
Satistically, just for review, Before 1993 Palmeiro averaged 15.6 homers a season while Bonds averaged 26. After 1993, Palmeiro averaged 36,5 while Bonds averaged 43.9. Surely even my son could see the clear demonstratable adjustment in power. Over the same two periods Palmeiro averaged 75 RBI's while Bonds averaged 84.6 RBI's. During the later period Palmeiro increased to an average of 108.7 while Bonds increased to 107.25.
Many other players could be added to demonstrate the steriod abuse was not atypical rather it was widespread and typical. Baseball has had a problem for more than a decade that it has tryied to hide, ignore and avoid. It had to take an action by Congress to get this opened up, think about it, Government actually has helped to solve a problem, no not crime, not poverty but steroids in Baseball---ye of little faith.

Finally, Baseball has lost something they have tried since Kennesaw "Mountain" Landis to maitain--its integrity. Despite the absolutely bueatiful history of the game, it is mared by the actions allowed by Mr. Selig. Though it should not be shocking to anyone, that when the fox is asked and allowed to guard the henhouse...don't be shocked to find dining going on.
Baseball needs a real, independent Commisioner and it needs one without the name of Bud Selig. Certainly one cannot blame Selig for Steroid use, but we can blame him for ignoring steriod use. Bonds, Palmeiro, McGuire and Sosa should all have thier records perferably removed from baseball history, but at the very least marked by an (*). The Steroid Era should be noted and established to re-engage the integrity lost to a group more interested in personal achievement than with team achievement---that includes owners who were more interested in padding the pocket than maintaining integrity.
As we note in the almanac that 1981 was a strike shorted season, so too should we note that the era beginning in about 1992 through 2005 was the Steroid affected Era.