Balloons & Baloney

However, in view of the 150,000 troops and National Guardsmen now in Iraq and compared to the loneliness and anguish of their wives, girlfriends and children, Laura’s joke was very inappropriate and extremely heartless.  Whoever wrote it for her should be fired.  It was extremely bad!  If the whole intent of the ‘joke’ was for Laura to appear to make fun of the President and insinuate that he did not spend much time taking care of her, it came out even more terribly cruel and uncompassionate.  Maybe George goes to bed early while Laura stays up but he is home.  Considering the hundreds of thousands of wives and girl friends whose men, compliments of George Bush, are stuck in Iraq facing death or injuries 24 hours a day, her remarks came out sadly inhumane.  Compared to the widows or families of the 1,785 GI’s and National Guardsmen killed in Iraq or the wives and girlfriends of the 14,000 wounded there, her remark ended up as  gross abomination. It was an affront to the families of those who lost their lives because of Bush’s unwarranted war.  Their wives and girl friends are desperate housewives but Laura does not have a right to compare herself to them!

It did, however gave birth to a fantastic idea. There is a serious shortage of enrollment in the armed forces. The recruiting offices report a severe drop and understandably so and WE can all see why. Unless completely desperate and unable to find a job, who in their right minds, would join the military and end up in Iraq and the constant threat of death or kidnapping, fighting a war that has nothing to do with our national interests.  Since Rumsfeld needs more live bodies, I searched my soul to see how I could help.  One logical and patriotic way is for Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Frist and all of the bellicose sofa patriots to persuade their children and grandchildren to visit the recruiting offices and volunteer immediately for combat service in Iraq.  Yes, real combat service, front line stuff, not a safe office place away from the fight, but right in the most dangerous places, not just long enough for a TV crew to film them on the frontlines.  No, it should be a real tour of duty, between 12 and 18 months, depending on Rumsfeld’s fancy, in other words the real McCoy.  That would reinforce the morale and prove that our patriotic leaders have their hearts where their mouths are.  It would show to the American people that they are real patriots, even if it means placing their own kids in mortal risk, sharing the daily perils with the 150,000 men and women that they sent there.  I can already imagine Bush’s pride seeing his two daughters boarding an Iraq-bound Air Force plane.  I can almost imagine the twins marching in 110 degree heat, fighting the insurgents in Falloujah, Al Anbar province or Mosul. Who knows, they may be lucky and wear a bullet proof vest!  I can already see our leaders’ kids, facing mortal dangers, just like the rest of the ‘regular people’ kids or husbands.  That would prove once and for all that our leaders mean what they say when they proclaim that our country is in danger and WE must defend it.  In this instance, ‘WE’ means all of us Americans, rich or poor, college grads or drop outs, black, white, Latinos, Asians et al, everybody, no exception. Yes, I can see all their kids riding poorly armored Humvees, being shot at by insurgents or threatened by IED’s.  Guess what, George!  It would help to improve the GOP image. A lot of people cling to the idea that many GOP members of Congress want to fight their wars with someone else’s children or husbands.  Since you George and your buddy Dick Cheney never went to war at all, if your kids were sent to Iraq, it would erase a lot of suspicions, don’t you agree? Treat everybody the same way and remember the old saying: What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.

Back to our 1^st Lady, as I said, she always looks compassionate and sincere.   Sometimes I do not quite understand how such a nice lady can say some of the things she does but, regardless of that, she always appears convinced that she is telling the truth.  The only explanation is that George must have fooled her.  For instance, when Larry King asked her why George was opposed to stem cell research, she jumped in and answered right away and without any hesitation.  She even looked shocked that Larry could ask such a question.  She vehemently argued that George was NOT really opposed, on the contrary.  She told Larry that, AS A MATTER OF FACT, he was the 1^st President to authorize any kind of research on existing stem cells.  Come on, Laura; you are too intelligent a person to say such a thing unless George misrepresented what he was actually doing.  Of course he was the 1^st one; no other President ever had to face anything about stem cell research!  In his usual wishy-washy way, Mr. Bush had just announced that, after thoroughly searching his conscience and after consulting the ‘higher authority’, he had decided on a balancing act that would authorize research on existing stem cells but that he could not authorize creating more cells for research if it meant killing living things. There was a little bit of everything for everybody but his evangelical fanatic buddies won again.  The pope was also very happy.   The existing cells would not last very long.  After they were all used up, there would be no federal money to continue the researches.  According to Bush, he did a lot of ‘soul searching’ and consulted with the ‘Higher Authority’ before reaching his decision.  I suppose it was the same ‘High Authority’ that advised him to invade Iraq and ‘shock and awe’ bomb it to piec