When the Repubicans took over the Bible around twenty years ago they cut a lot of stuff out. The parts Jesus talked about like greed, peacemaking, caring for poor, being humble and non-judgmental were sort of inconvenient and not conducive to winning elections so they were ignored. What’s wrong with providing healthcare to all, a livable wage and some semblance of a social safety net? Now it’s time to stop picking and choosing the parts they don’t like and put into practice what Jesus taught. It is time to be our brother’s keeper and to treat others as we want to be treated. The Sermon on the Mount is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. Helping those in need is not communism. It is a basic democratic quality.

Well, “w” is telling us once again that only he is “the decider” when it comes to matters of war. In case he and his administration have never read the Constitution Article I Section 8 says that only Congress has the power to declare war and make the rules concerning captures on land and sea as well as rules for our land and naval forces. The President doesn’t even get a vote in the matter. What is it about the Constitution that repubics don’t understand? The President only has as much leeway on matters of war as the Congress gives him. They might even let him wear a flight jacket on an aircraft carrier if he behaves. So much for him being the “decider in chief.” And as for a victory in Iraq, he hasn’t even defined what victory is. First it was finding weapons of mass destruction but now he won’t spell out exactly what it means because he knows he has no justification for it. He created this mess with a pack of lies and now he can’t find a way out. The war has already been lost and so have the hearts and minds of the people we should be defending. The public needs to “decide” to find a leader who will listen to reason.

I certainly don’t claim to be equal to an x-vice President or nominated for an academy award for best documentary but my right-wing pals have indigestion when I tell them I was awarded “Time Magazine’s person of the year” for my blog work along with so many other bloggers in cyberspace. The beauty of a blog is that one can say what one wants and not be edited or censored by self-serving control freaks. The stick that pokes right-wingers in the eye is that there is freedom of speech and thought that they can’t subdue or distort the way they do on Fox news or right-wing radio programs. Freedom of speech is a beautiful thing and should be encouraged. The internet helps balance the power of the media by bypassing the corporate middleman. Much to the consternation of right-wingers everywhere, freedom of thought and control of ideas are now set free from their greedy little power hungry hands and the world will never be the same again. The United States is the greatest country in the world and the technology that Al Gore helped start has started a revolution for freedom of speech not seen before. Thanks Al for your vision and courage and thanks Time magazine for your recognition of my job well done. As man of the year I will strive to live up to your opinion of me.

So maybe this is what the president means by sacrifice: The Evans-Novak Political Report says that George W. Bush's Iraq speech "backfired" and that a "sense of impending doom" now "clutches Republican hearts." Want to hear more? The report says a "nationally prominent Republican pollster" has told Republican members of Congress that "if U.S. boots are still on the ground in Iraq and U.S. blood is still being spilled there at the end of the year, the GOP disaster in 2008 will eclipse 2006."

Tim Grieve

I could certainly vote for a republican like Chuck Hagel. Unlike McCain (the sell out); Hagel has the balls to stand up and tell bush what a twit he is. He has been to war in Viet Nam and knows Iraq is a huge mistake. Tell ya what. How bout if the Democrats trade repu Hagel for demo Lieberman? Now I'm all for that. What are these two guys doing in their political party's anyway? It makes no sense. We need to move Israel to Connecticut, lock, stock and barrel so Lieberman can take care of them and we can get out of Iraq. Maybe the Mormans would prefer to have Israel move to Utah then we could listen to Orin Hatch and other conservative Mormans complain about the Jews taking their land just like the Palestinians do.

How does a Webb/Hagel ticket sound for 2008? That would be a dream come true.

Harriet Meyers, Michael Brown, John Bolton along with Ken Starr are spending their time these days not on the Supreme Court or in the upper echelons of government but defending corrupt x-republican felons from Congress and the White House. Surprised? Not me.

With "w's" primitive political views he will go down in history as the anti-evolutionary Troglodyte candidate. His essence and character can be boiled down to the very basic emotions of hate and revenge. Everything he does politically is composed of these two sinful actions. His whole life has been one of failure and overcompensation by his family. They have covered up all the errors he has made throughout his life ranging from his drug and alcohol abuse to all his failed businesses and political campaigns. He is the kind of guy with such a temper that whenever you played a game of two out of three and you won the first two he throws a tantrum until you made it three out of five. And this has continued his entire life. His family has made excuses for and tilted the playing field in his favor so many times he views his career as God ordained. Now he rejects any effort by his Dad and the many Bush family apologists who helped get him to this point in his life to help bail him out of the Iraq debacle because of his arrogance and pride. He will not admit any error and that is his downfall. He only answers to his false view of God because it is a God he has created in his mind only in order to justify all the death, destruction and fatalistic eschatology he is responsible for. Any other reasonable person would fall on their knees and plead for forgiveness but not "w." No need for that. Little George is relying on his inner-brat, now that things aren't going well and the public is wise to his lies and deceit. Viewing his latest presidential address I was wondering whether he was over-medicated again. He looked so dazed and confused it was frightening. He appeared so unsure of what he was saying that it may have finally dawned on him that even he didn't believe the garbage he was trying to pass off on the public.

The civil war in Iraq has gotten so bad that bush is desperate for a resolution and quick way out. The Shia/Iranians are in control which is bad news for the rest of the Sunni Muslim world and the U.S. Saudi Arabia and Egypt are two of the more powerful Sunni Muslim countries to be warning "w" that something has to be done to get the Shia under control because they threaten the Arab world and will control a vast percentage of the world oil reserves if allowed to control Iraq. The result is that bush is looking for a new Iraqi Sunni strongman very much under the direction of America who will help keep the balance of power between the Sunni and Shia. Sound familiar? Yes, that is exactly what Saddam Hussein was doing during the eighties under the auspices of Reagan/Bush foreign policy. Reagan created the monster that Saddam became and used him to fight Iran in their war and to keep the Shia/Iranians in check. So now we are back to where we started. Who will be the next puppet Saddam? We will see. Until then bush has caused the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's and the casualties of tens of thousands of honorable American soldiers all in the name of politics, getting elected and revenge. The more things change the more they stay the same.

When are our vets going to get the respect and assistance they deserve? It's not their fault that this war was based on lies and that it has been incompetently administered. Bush should be ashamed.

The consistent excuse "w" and his adminstration give for every failure in the last six years has been, "its Clinton's fault." That is always the answer they give. How pathetic is that?

Just watch all the right-wingers in the administration try to change the subject whenever possible. They bomb African sites in order to take away bad headlines from Iraq then they attack and Iranian foreign affairs center in Bagdad in order to provoke a response from Iran so they can find justification to bomb them. Listen to all the right-wing nut cases on the web and radio/TV rail against clowns like Al Sharpton and the Duke Lacrose procecutor just so they don't have to talk about all the failures of this president. It is very telling that when they are proven wrong and rejected by the public they really like to attack the most obvious characters. Maybe they will really go out on a limb and attack O.J. for murdering his x-wife. Now that would be a real stretch. There is safe confort in this but it doesn't really take any courage to go after people like this. They have already been discredited. It takes balls to go after the real culprits of the evil that is perpetrated in our name in Iraq.

Why right-wingers so bitter? When even reasonable republicans attack the president for his incompetent administration of the war you know something is not right in Foggy Bottom. Chuck Hagel, Norm Coleman and even Richard Lugar are only three of the many republicans who are livid with the prospect of continuing our failed myopic misery in Mesopotamia under “w’s” leadership. What is it about right-wing neo-cons and their fundamentalist sycophants, (Mitch McConnell, Lieberman and McCain) that make them ignore reality? The public is so far ahead of the administration on this war. Bush is in a corner of his own making and he is a very dangerous man in this position. He won’t even listen to his own father. Look for him to strike Iran and Syria rather than admit his failure in Iraq. Republicans know the reason they are out of power is because of his intransigence and end-times ideology. Dry drunks are scary animals. Messianic demagogues can not accept any views other than their own delusional dreams. Continued casualties and extended tours of duty for already exhausted and depleted national guard troops is zapping the last bit of patriotism out of the public. Why not just admit we want the oil and retreat back to bordering countries. “w” will not risk leaving before his term in office is over. He will let the next administration do that so they can take the blame for the failure in Iraq. This is the tactic of an arrogant megalomaniac. History will not be kind.

Will the Church evolve? That is a question that has been asked throughout recent history. The Church was one of the last to accept the principles of science. Yes, they rejected the scientific fact that the earth was not the center of our universe. They viewed science as anti-religion yet had no problem with medical discoveries providing cures for centuries old illnesses. They believe in a merciful God but also that he allows fatal illnesses for babies. How do you reason away the contradictions? They are still afraid of scientific facts such as evolution and global warming. They also continue to view women as second class citizens and not worthy of the same level of religious competence that men have always enjoyed. Primary to most of these views is the fundamentalist view of the Bible as being literally infallible. They justify all their prejudices by declaring their particular Biblical interpretation to be the only correct interpretation. These are the same people who rail against homosexuals and claim that theirs is a worse sin than greed, needless war or heterosexual adultery which are a few of the more commonly accepted forms of sin the present day conservative Church accommodates. How fast will the modern day Christian Church evolve into a more reasonable and logical institution? Only time will tell. Until then, superstition and ignorance will reign supreme in the fundamentalist Church of today.

Where did all the big bad bitter Bush boys go? A year ago all you could hear from the right-wingers was how righteous and triumphant "w" was. His arrogance knew no limits and he said he was going to use the political capital he had accumulated in what ever way he wished. Now the only people who even listen to him are the gullible bloviating back-woods Baptists from Bush country and bitter wanna-be's.

I get such a kick out of seeing right-wingers make fools of themselves. They seem so bitter when someone speaks truth to their inane jiberish. It is comical to watch them mimic Hannity and other right wing clowns when they attack such easily discredited political characters. Their wise-as*s comments are an indictment on their own pathetic ideas. Neo-cons, please keep it up. I love it.

Remember when conservatives said that a rising tide lifts all boats? The problem is the only boats rising are the yachts. Is this not class warfare? Relative the Healthcare, why not Medicare for all? Corporate profits are up 21% but workers income, inflation adjusted, has fallen and worker benefits are continuing to erode.

The Christian imperative is to Return good for evil rather than an eye for an eye. Revenge only begets more revenge. Vengence is mine sayeth the Lord!

I’ve been so busy with the imaginary War on Christmas that I almost forgot last years New Years resolution; to end the very real, Iraq War. One step in the right direction has already been accomplished. The institution of what used to be called Constitutional oversight which prior to w’s ascension to power thanks to the non-partisan Supreme Court, was called “Checks and Balances or the Balance of Power.” Back in the 60’s when I was a teenager, a similar war was raging in Vietnam and the democrats controlled both the Executive and Legislative branches of government and the result was the same as what we had under the last six years of Republican rule. I personally feel that government works best when there is balance to our institutions. That’s how our founders designed it. The problem is that only the president can start wars or end them and "w" is not very good at listening to reason. Based on my liberal Constitutional secular views I feel the best way to end this war is to institute the draft again. Yeah, let’s have a lottery like we did in 69. No deferments and all people in all financial classes are eligible up to age 55. Then we’ll see how popular and gung-ho republicans are for this war. If we had this kind of draft earlier in the sixties even “w”, Cheney and rest of the neo-cons in the Whitehouse would have seen first hand what war is all about and I doubt we would have our precious blood and treasure still in Iraq today. Bring back the draft and the public will look at War in a totally different light. Then maybe we would have some balance in our politics also.