BottleOfBlog

Bush's Iraq War Requires Deep Cuts On Defense Spending

WASHINGTON , Dec. 28 - The Pentagon has told the White House and Congress that it plans sharp cuts in the Air Force's program for the F/A-22, the most expensive fighter jet in history, in an effort that budget analysts said was intended to offset mounting deficits and the growing costs of the war in Iraq.

The Pentagon's decision, which four administration and Congressional officials described on Tuesday and which Congress must still approve, comes as the Bush administration is pressing all agencies to scale back spending requests for the fiscal year 2006 budget, which will be submitted to lawmakers early next year.

The White House is under pressure after the November elections to show progress in trimming federal deficits while ensuring that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have adequate armored protective equipment. The cost of operations in Iraq alone are hovering around $4.4 billion a month.

Christ, can you imagine what Republicans would have said about Kerry if he had proposed cutting $15 billion from the F-22 program?

Well, I'm sure you can. It probably would have been something like this bullshitfest.

Course, the difference between Kerry's proposed cuts and these cuts is that Kerry was joined by a broad bi-partisan group of politicians and intelligence officials. These cuts? They have to be made.

And why? Bush's out of control spending, his irresponsible tax cuts, and his costly, ill-conceived war. With this kind of fiscal irresponsibility, it's no wonder Bush has resisted properly equipping or paying our soldiers.

And it's just absolutely hilarious to read Bush's statements over the past year about Kerry trying to cut military spending, about Kerry's "irresponsible" proposals to cut intelligence spending.

Well, you heard the fiction. Now we all get to live through the facts.

More Americans Bleed For Reasons Bush Can't Articulate

BAGHDAD , Iraq, Dec. 29 - American troops and warplanes killed at least 25 insurgents who used car bombs and rocket-propelled grenades in a brazen but failed effort to overrun an American combat outpost in Mosul this afternoon, the fiercest fighting the restive northern city has seen in weeks. Fifteen American soldiers were wounded, military officials said.

The two-hour battle in Mosul followed an ambush on Tuesday night in Baghdad in which insurgents tricked Iraqi police into raiding a booby-trapped home and then detonated a massive bomb that killed at least 7 police officers and 25 others, Iraqi officials said today. Most of the civilian victims were residents of three nearby homes flattened by the blast, the officials said.

Good God. And this gets reported like it’s wonderful. Fifteen Americans wounded. Insurgents now actually attacking American bases.

Christ, what has George W. Bush gotten us into???

Well, whatever. It can’t be his fault. Let’s kill the messenger.

Fuggin' librul media again.

Bush Flip-Flops On Debating bin Laden

CRAWFORD , Tex., Dec. 29 - President Bush took the unusual step of responding today to one of Osama bin Laden's taunting tape recordings, declaring that the al Qaeda leader's call for Iraqis to boycott the elections in January "make the stakes of this pretty clear to me."

Thank God, after 21 months of American involvement in Iraq, someone finally made the stakes “clear” to Bush.

He’s a slow learner, sure. But he ain’t stooped. Or so they say…

"His vision of the world is where people don't participate in democracy," Mr. Bush said of the terrorist leader, who has eluded capture for more than three years now. "His vision of the world is one in which there is no freedom of expression, freedom of religion, and/or freedom of conscience. And that vision stands in stark contrast to the vision of, by far, the vast majority of Iraqis."

And that’s why it was important to catch or kill bin Laden when we had the chance . Instead of diverting our military and intelligence resources to Iraq.

Maybe bin Laden will say something else that will make that “pretty clear” to the Preznit.

Or maybe bin Laden will kill another 3000 Americans and the Preznit will do sum lurnin’ then. Maybe he’ll study on it some. As long as nobody puts it in a PDB since, as we all know, he don't read them things!

Mr. Bush's comments were unusual because in recent years, after once declaring he wanted Mr. bin Laden "dead or alive," the president has usually avoided mentioning him. His aides have said that it would be a strategic error to respond to every one of Mr. bin Laden's tape-recorded threats, or to seem to elevate his status by putting him in a long-distance debate with the president.

And, Jesus Christ, anyone who’s seen Bush debate knows what a worldwide, catastrophic failure a debate between Bush and anyone would be.

I mean, shit, if the rest of the world watched Bush debate, without the benefit of the “liberal” media’s “truth squads”, well, they might think the leader of the free world is an idiot.

I mean, really. They might think we’re all that stupid. And that can't be helpful.

Bush Administration Lack Of Planning, Incompetence Continues To Pay Huge Dividends

BAGHDAD , Iraq, Dec. 28 - Insurgents continued their relentless assault on Iraq's fledgling security forces today, killing at least 23 police and national guard officers in multiple attacks mainly across the Sunni-dominated zone to the north of Baghdad.

Central Iraqi authorities provided no totals for the day's losses, and they have declined to say how many security officers have been killed this year. But based on deaths reported so far, the number is clearly in the hundreds, as insurgents work to destroy the effectiveness of the American-sponsored government.

Civilian officials have also been the targets of murder and intimidation, and today the deputy governor of Anbar Province, the Sunni region to the west of Baghdad, was killed, The Associated Press reported…

Wall Street Millionaires Struggle; Bush Proposes Massive Taxpayer Giveaway of Social Security Funds To Help

The year-end bonus is a Wall Street tradition, and for a second consecutive year, the amounts are significant. Three major Wall Street firms - Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns - have reported record profits for the year and all are said to have given out handsome bonuses.

The totals in 2003 were already impressive: Lloyd S. Blankfein, the president and chief operating officer of Goldman Sachs made $20.1 million, of that only $600,000 was salary; and E. Stanley O'Neal, the chief executive of Merrill Lynch, received a bonus of $13.5 million and restricted stock worth $11.2 million on top of his $500,000 salary. At the other end of the compensation spectrum, an investment banking analyst right out of college would have made a $65,000 salary and a $35,000 bonus last year. An associate just out of business school might have made $85,000 in salary and a $115,000 bonus.

This year, investment bankers are expected to see gains in bonuses of 10 to 15 percent, amid a year-end flurry of mergers.

And that is why we need to make Bush’s tax cuts permanent. They’ve worked so well for all Americans…

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The number of Americans living in poverty jumped to 35.9 million last year, up by 1.3 million, while the number of those without health care insurance rose to 45 million from 43.6 million in 2002, the U.S. government said in a report Thursday.

The percentage of the U.S. population living in poverty rose to 12.5 percent from 12.1 percent -- as the poverty rate among children jumped to its highest level in 10 years, the Census Bureau said in an annual report. The rate for adults 18-to-64 and 65-and-older remained steady.

The bureau also said the share of aggregate income for the lowest 20 percent of Americans fell to 3.4 percent from 3.5 percent.

Official Army Historian Hates America

The U.S. military invaded Iraq without a formal plan for occupying and stabilizing the country and this high-level failure continues to undercut what has been a "mediocre" Army effort there, an Army historian and strategist has concluded.

"There was no Phase IV plan" for occupying Iraq after the combat phase, writes Maj. Isaiah Wilson III, who served as an official historian of the campaign and later as a war planner in Iraq. While a variety of government offices had considered the possible situations that would follow a U.S. victory, Wilson writes, no one produced an actual document laying out a strategy to consolidate the victory after major combat operations ended…

As a result of the failure to produce a plan, Wilson asserts, the U.S. military lost the dominant position in Iraq in the summer of 2003 and has been scrambling to recover ever since. "In the two to three months of ambiguous transition, U.S. forces slowly lost the momentum and the initiative . . . gained over an off-balanced enemy," he writes. "The United States, its Army and its coalition of the willing have been playing catch-up ever since."

…

Army commanders still misunderstand the strategic problem they face and therefore are still pursuing a flawed approach, writes Wilson, who is scheduled to teach at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point next year. "Plainly stated, the 'western coalition' failed, and continues to fail, to see Operation Iraqi Freedom in its fullness," he asserts.

"Reluctance in even defining the situation . . . is perhaps the most telling indicator of a collective cognitive dissidence on part of the U.S. Army to recognize a war of rebellion, a people's war, even when they were fighting it," he comments.

But when liberals say—shit, said years ago—what the official Army historian is saying now, liberals hate America. Liberals are giving aid and comfort to the enemy…

You know who’s really giving aid and comfort to the “enemy”? People who would rather blindly and enthusiastically support a stupid ass plan or a total lack of a plan rather than criticize their Preznit.

Thirteen hundred dead Americans. Two hundred billion taxpayer dollars. No plan. No WMDs. No reason at all.

Who hates America?

Merry Christmas!

You bunch of Christmas hating, secular, communist, liberal bastards, you!

Bush Expands Pell Grants By Cutting Grants To A Million And A Half Students

By raising performance in our high schools, and expanding Pell grants for low and middle income families, we will help more Americans start their career with a college diploma. -- George W. Bush, September 2, 2004, lying through his teeth to the nation.

College students in virtually every state will be required to shoulder more of the cost of their education under new federal rules that govern most of the nation's financial aid.

Because of the changes, which take effect next fall and are expected to save the government $300 million in the 2005-6 academic year, at least 1.3 million students will receive smaller Pell Grants, the nation's primary scholarship for those of low income, according to two analyses of the new rules.

In addition, 89,000 students or so who would otherwise be getting some Pell Grant money will get none, the analyses found…

Beyond the implications for Pell Grants, the new rules are expected to have a domino effect across almost every type of financial aid, tightening access to billions of dollars in state and institutional grants and, in turn, increasing the reliance on loans to pay for college. Taken together, many education experts say, the consequences for the nation's core financial aid programs are among the most substantial in a decade.

What a bullshitter. Bush hasn’t expanded Pell grants for low and middle income families. He’s reduced them.

The federal government—not Bush—has increased spending on Pell grants. But that’s because—under Bush—there are more low and lower middle income families who qualify for Pell grants.

Bush is cutting Pell grants. And the government might still be spending more on them. But Bush never expanded them. What a joke.

It’s like saying, “I’ve expanded welfare programs” simply because, without doing a damn thing, more people fell below the poverty level.

Well, it isn’t like that. It’s that exactly.

And when more people fell down to the level of qualifying for Pell grants, what did Bush do? He changed the rules. To get rid of ninety thousand students, to cut Pell grants to a million and a half students. To save less than we spend in one week in Iraq.

And he told the American people he was expanding Pell grants.

And he didn’t. And he hadn’t. And he won’t.

Oh, brother.

Who likes this kind of government?

This isn’t even about what Bush is for or what he’s against. He won’t even say what he’s for or what he’s against. I mean, if he's for reducing the amount of students eligible for Pell Grants, he should say it. If he's for increased logging in our national forests, he should just say it. If he's for getting rid of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, he should just say it.

Saying you're for things you are undermining, this isn’t good for democracy.

This is a guy contorting himself sideways, bending over backwards, and throwing his voice to make sure no one knows what he’s really all about.

Sigh.

But What About Our Precious Bodily Fluids, General Myers?

General Richard Myers addressing questions about the horrific bombing in Mosul.

GENERAL MYERS:This attack, of course, is the responsibility of insurgents, the same insurgents who attacked on 9/11, the same type of insurgents who attacked in Beirut, the same insurgents who -- type of insurgents who attacked the Cole, Khobar Towers, and the list goes on.

Christ, these guys get around.

Are they the same guys who blew up the Murrah Building in Oklahoma? The same ones who blew up Harrod’s in London in 1983? How about the Reichstag fire in 1933? Do you think they’re the same guys who killed Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo in 1914?

Just where the hell were these guys when Lincoln was killed?

How are we supposed to believe in our government and our highest ranking military officers when they say shit like that to us?

Like we’re idiots?

Have we had a man as untruthful as General Richard Myers running our military since Vietnam? Have we ever?

It’s no surprise he comes from the Air Force. Curtis LeMay would be proud.

(And, you know, also, an "insurgent" is a person fighting in their own country against their own government. Don't you think it would be just a little reassuring if the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff knew the difference between an "insurgent" and a "terrorist"? Wouldn't that give you at least a little bit of confidence that these guys were kind of starting to get a grip on the problem if they knew the difference? It's a small detail, I know, but these are the guys who are supposed to be on top of the small details. You know, so that giant buildings in Manhattan don't explode again, live, on TV...

I mean, if you don't have an accurate definition of the problem in your mind, if you haven't accurately defined the problem, if you haven't narrowed the issue--Jesus! You don't have a clue about the solution.)

Cue "Ode To Joy"

In the end, what many believe was a stunning surprise yesterday really wasn't surprising at all, not with Derrick Williams having already begun to practice his Joe Paterno impersonation on high school teammates earlier this month.

Although Penn State is several years removed from its successful past, and it might not boast the recent success of fellow suitors Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and Tennessee, the Eleanor Roosevelt High School football star and his family decided that the 78-year-old coach was best suited to oversee Williams's future…

When Derrick Williams ran into Dunbar High All-Met James McDonald and Dunbar Coach Craig Jeffries at a recent photo shoot, the coach asked Derrick for his thoughts on the school.

"And bam! That's when his pants fell down, his eyes lit up and he started talking about Penn State," Jeffries said. "He assured James he would like it, that it was a program on the rise -- he really was selling the program."

McDonald soon committed to Penn State, adding to the team's bounty of high-profile recruits, including cornerback Justin King from Pittsburgh, the highest rated defensive back in the country according to some analysts and a friend of Derrick's from the summer camp circuit.

Sure, sure, I know. Joe will have the best defense in the country, one of the best quarterbacks in the country, two of the best tailbacks in the country, not to mention picking up these kids--the best highschool receiver and cornerback in the country--and he'll squander it all.

It'll still look like play calling out of a hat. Joe will blow his timeouts a minute and a half into the third quarter yelling at refs about whether it should be 2nd and seven or 2nd and six and a half. Joe's idiot son will call hook and ladder plays on third and ten. And by week seven of the season, Joe still won't have decided on who the starting quarterback or tailback is.

I know. I'm destined for an autumn of bitter discontent.

But that's then.

Now?

See you in the Rose Bowl, muthafuckers!

Well, you know. It's Christmas. Almost. A boy can dream.