First Door on the Left

From today’s NYT editorial…

Three Things About Iraq

To have the sober conversation about the war in Iraq that America badly needs, it is vital to acknowledge three facts:

• The war has nothing to do with Sept. 11.
• The war has not made the world, or this nation, safer from terrorism.
• If the war is going according to plan, someone needs to rethink the plan.

Click on the headline to read the full column. It’s good, though it may be a bit heavy on reality for our conservative friends.

There really are differences.

Democrats
Believe capturing the person primarily responsible for the attack should be a top priority.

Republicans
It’s been four years, and Osama bin Laden is still free, even though Bush’s CIA chief says he knows where he is.

Democrats
Investigate the intelligence failures that led to 9/11.

Republicans
Do everything in their power to block the 9/11 Commission from doing its work.

Democrats
Propose creating the Department of Homeland Security.

Republicans
Push tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

Democrats
Believe we should have stayed the course in Afghanistan, not allowing the Taliban to resurge, the warlords to take power, and the opium trade to skyrocket.

Republicans
Ignore Afghanistan as the situation worsens.

Democrats
Believe that we should be honest with our troops about the reasons we go to war, give them everything they need to be safe, and make sure we go in with an exit plan.

Republicans
Manipulate intelligence to trump up reasons to go to war, don’t give our troops the support they need, constantly mislead the public about the direction the war is going, and fail to make an exit plan. And turn Iraq into the ultimate terrorist training ground.

That’s just the beginning. There are so many more. For example: Democrats believe in individual freedoms and liberties; Republicans believe government should control every aspect of your life (up to and including what you do in your bedroom).

How many more can you think of?

Compare this with this.

Which, to you, rings truer? Be honest.

I originally posted this cartoon on September 1, 2004 (during the Republican National Kerry Bash), but given the events of today, I think it’s appropriate to post it again…

They have nothing else. Honestly, they don’t. They never have.

Tommy DeLay says that Iraq is just like Houston.

Does this look like Houston to you?

The caption reads: “An Iraqi man tries to help a boy with his leg blown off lying next to a bicycle at the scene of bomb blasts in Baghdad, Iraq Thursday, June 23, 2005. At least two car bombs exploded just after dawn Thursday in Baghdad’s middle-class Karada area, a central shopping district. Police reported casualties but had no details.”

Yep, just like Houston.

A total of 60% of registered voters in America say they disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy while 63% of all Americans rate the national economy as bad, very bad, or terrible according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 37% say they approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 59% disapprove.

When it comes to the way Bush is handling his job as president, 42% of Americans approve, 53% disapprove, and 5% are undecided. Among Americans registered to vote, 42% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 53% disapprove.

A total of 58% of Americans say the national economy is getting worse, which is unchanged from May. While Americans are less apt to say their household financial situations are getting worse (50% in the latest survey compared to 61% in May), 51% say they expect their financial situations to be worse a year from now, which is unchanged from May.

Our little survey of a couple of weeks ago was just a bit off, it seems.

Supreme Court Rules Cities May Seize Homes

WASHINGTON (AP) – A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people’s homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

If a wealthy developer wants the land upon which your home sits, for whatever reason, you can now say bye-bye to your home.

I cannot even begin to tell you how much I am against this ruling. It’s sickening, unconstitutional, and most definitely un-American.

House Approves Flag-Burning Amendment

WASHINGTON (AP) – The House on Wednesday approved a constitutional amendment that would give Congress the power to ban desecration of the American flag, a measure rejected twice by the Senate in the past decade but expected to get a closer vote this year.

I know that I, for one, sure feel safer now! Thank you, House!

“Ask the men and women who stood on top of the (World) Trade Center,” said Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif. “Ask them and they will tell you: pass this amendment.”

Actually, I think they would probably tell you “Get us the hell off of this building!” Somehow I don’t think their attention was focused on a flag-burning amendment.

What’s next? An amendment to ban the burning of books? Perhaps an amendment to ban the burning of Dixie Chick CDs? No, I don’t believe the right wing would support either of those. Or would they?

John Podhoretz of the right-wing New York Post does not think highly of Ed Klein’s “The Truth About Hillary.”

This is one of the most sordid volumes I’ve ever waded through. Thirty pages into it, I wanted to take a shower. Sixty pages into it, I wanted to be decontaminated. And 200 pages into it, I wanted someone to drive stakes through my eyes so I wouldn’t have to suffer through another word…

Everything in this book that matters has been written before, and better. Everything else in it shouldn’t have been published.

So, dear conservative reader, I just saved you twenty-five bucks. You can leave your thanks in the comments.

Tommy DeLay obviously does not think very highly of Houston. He is now saying that Iraq is just like Houston…

When House Majority Leader Tom DeLay sat down with reporters on Tuesday on Capitol Hill, he was asked to assess President Bush’s campaign in Iraq and to respond to criticism that the military mission is not going well and the White House needs to develop an exit strategy.

DeLay offered this response: “These things take time and they take a long time, and some people get weary of the constant barrage that we see in the media.

“You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody’d go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways,” DeLay said.

“And if you took that as the image of what is a great city that has an incredible quality of life and an incredible economy, it’s amazing to me. Go to Iraq. And see what’s actually happening there.

“Everybody that comes from Iraq is amazed at the difference of what they see on the ground and what they see on the television set.”

Damn media. Why aren’t they showing us all those car bombs going off in downtown Houston?

Perhaps Tommy should have a sit-down with our new ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. He doesn’t think the country looks much like Houston (unless there is a lot about Houston that the media is not telling us).

U.S. Envoy: Iraq Militants Seek Civil War

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) – America’s new ambassador to Iraq expressed horror Tuesday at the violence wracking the country and said Islamic extremists and Saddam Hussein loyalists are trying to start a civil war.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who arrived from Afghanistan, said militants are using Iraqis as “cannon fodder” in a quest to dominate the Islamic world.

“I will work with Iraqis and others to break the back of the insurgency,” Khalilzad promised on a day that saw more than a dozen gunmen launch an assault on a Baghdad police station, wounding two policemen.

A roadside bomb also killed a U.S. soldier on patrol in western Iraq, officials said, while a mortar attack killed a woman and a child in their home in Tal Afar, 95 miles east of the Syrian border.

“I am horrified by the daily suffering of the Iraqi people. The terrorists attack ordinary people, teachers, doctors, newly trained police and others who are assisting the people of Iraq,” Khalilzad added.