First Door on the Left

Another high ranking government official has taken the fall for George W. Bush.

Who do you think will be next?

My guess would be John Ashcroft, but he and Mr. Bush are just so dang much alike that I don’t know if Bush would let him go.

Why won’t George Bush act like a real man and start taking responsibility for his mistakes and misdeeds instead of letting others suffer the consequences for them?

A few days ago I called D.C. Council member David A. Catania a hero for his decision to leave the Republican party over George W. Bush’s support of the Hate Amendment.

Mike Benedetto looks at Mr. Catania’s decision from a different angle — and one I did not think of.

I think Mike may have a point.

Soldiers Facing Extended Tours

Army officials announced yesterday that thousands of active-duty and reserve soldiers who are nearing the end of their volunteer service commitments could be forced to serve an entire tour overseas if their units are chosen for deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.

The order applies to all Army soldiers who are deployed in the future and means that many troops could face extended terms in the military after their formal contracts expire. The Army had previously issued such orders on a unit-by-unit basis, as troops deployed. Now, all soldiers are on notice that if their units are called into the fight, they will go — and stay.

Soldiers will be notified 90 days before their units are to deploy, and by policy, all soldiers must then serve with their units until 90 days after they return. If a soldier’s scheduled service end date falls within that window, he or she will be forced to serve the entire tour.

Call it what you will but this is nothing short of involuntary servitude. I was under the impression that all that ended in this country sometime around the time that Abraham Lincoln was president.

Forcing a person to remain in the service beyond the end of their original commitment is nothing short of a draft. There is no doubt in my mind that if Bush is (re)elected a formal military draft will be instituted. There is already talk of it, but the Bushies know that there is no way it can happen before the election in November. If it did, it would spell certain defeat in the election. Until then, they will just force those already in to stay in.

300,000 Remain Without Power

DALLAS — Severe weather moved through North Texas again Wednesday night, while residents continued to clean up from Tuesday night’s storms.

The entire area was under a severe thunderstorm watch until midnight, as a third line of storms moved in from the west. NBC 5 News meteorologists tracked winds gusting up to 65 mph.

I had a nice entry ready to post about 8:00 last evening. I talked about how lucky we were that we had no major damage (just a few downed tree limbs) from the Tuesday night storm and that we were only without power for about three hours. I was just about to click the button to post the entry when, lo and behold, our power went out. It just now came back on, over seven hours later. I had better hurry and post this before it goes out again!

Like I said, we really can’t complain. Several hours without power and few tree limbs in the yard is nothing compared to what some folks in the midwest have been experiencing this week. My thoughts are with them.