That which is Tollerable - Will Not Be Changed

Today, March 19th is the tenth anniversary of the start of the Iraq War, which has virtually defined our foreign policy over the past ten years, and concerning which so many lies have been spoon fed to us by the government.  We know it wasn't "weapons of mass destruction".  President Bush told lies when he said that the inspectors were kicked out of Iraq, and that's why we had to go in now, but in point of fact, the UN inspectors were never kicked out of Iraq and continued to do their job and continually did not find any evidence of "weapons of mass destruction".  Sixty Minutes proved in an exposee a few years ago that reports about Iran stratigic capabilities were deliberately falsified and that George Bush knew it was a lie the minute he came out of his mouth.  This is what those on the right continually deny the reality of.  They keep insisting that 'It was a mistake anybody could have made", but the truth is our going to war in Iraq was no "mistake' but part of a planned attack that dates to early 2001 to pre 9 - 11 times.  Chaney and Bush were obsessed with Iraq literally since before they assumed office.  And now over four thousand are dead.  We were told the War would cost only fifty Billion.  Donald Rumsfeld said "This effort may last six weeks - perhaps longer- - I doubt it will last six months".  George Bush ordered the Navy to put up that sign on that ship of "Mission Accomplished" for his great "May Day" speech of 2003.  This is the one where they carefully manovered the ship about to get the most optimal lighting for the cameras.  We were told that Iraq would finance their own reconstruction "Out of the profits they make on the Oil".  There was a service man who was interviewed on the Randy Rhodes program today with all sorts of stories to tell.  The dumbest thing we did was to disband the Iraqi army so that looters ran rampent making more work for us.  Also we forbade any member of the Bath party from occupying a government position in the new government.  So those with any administrative abilities at all to help build Iraq- - we got rid of- to insure a maximum state of Chaos in Iraq, and also insuring that we would stay much, much longer than anybody supposed.  We know that Dick Chaney wanted to turn control over Iraq to Haliburten, which he was C E O over.  Even on that Service man's second tour of duty in early 2005 he supposed we would be getting out soon, and was very disillusioned to learn that we had no intention of getting out.

WASHINGTON — Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who 35 years ago discovered the bullet-riddled body of the gay activist Harvey Milk, reacted with anger on Tuesday that gun control legislation the Senate is to consider next month will not include the reinstatement of an assault weapons ban, a measure she had fought desperately to keep.    “How many assault weapons do you need circulating?” Ms. Feinstein said to reporters, noting that her bill, which had almost no chance of a hearing in the House, exempted many weapons. “To have these mass killings is such a blight on everything that America stands for.”  At a Senate hearing last week, Ms. Feinstein said that she still could not get out of her mind looking for the pulse of Mr. Milk, her colleague at the time on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and in the process “putting my fingers in a bullet hole.”   Senate Democrats plan to introduce after the Easter recess a bill widely supported by both parties that would increase the penalties for people who buy guns for those barred from having them, known as straw purchasing. But Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, told Ms. Feinstein on Monday that her assault weapons ban would not be included in the bill.  “I tried my best,” Ms. Feinstein said with obvious disappointment. “My best, I guess, wasn’t good enough.”   Earlier this month, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed four pieces of gun legislation: the straw purchasing measure; the assault weapons ban, which included limits on gun magazine sizes; a grant program for school security; and enhanced background checks for gun buyers.   The Senate bill is likely to include the school safety measure, and it may be expanded to include the enhanced background checks. But Mr. Reid is weighing the relative merits of bringing that measure to the floor, which for now has limited support from Republicans.   Mr. Reid said he would allow the assault weapons ban and the limits on magazine sizes to be offered as amendments, Ms. Feinstein said.   “I have said I want people to have the ability to vote on” various gun measures, Mr. Reid said on Tuesday. “My job is to find one of those that I can bring to the floor.” Mr. Reid said that while he felt sympathy for Ms. Feinstein, her bill had far fewer than the 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster. Mr. Reid will introduce the one measure that does have ample bipartisan support, the straw purchasing provision, which would make the already illegal practice a felony and increase penalties.   But a bill that is limited to stemming straw purchases would be all but certain to enrage groups that have been seeking broader legislation. They want measures that would make it more difficult for criminals and mentally ill people to obtain firearms and would limit the size of magazines.   Whatever congress was supposed to get done we were mentioning over a week ago by late March- - well late March is upon us- - and congress is no closer to accomplishing so many of these vital objectives. The point is that when all is said and done, Congress may drop the ball of significant gun legislation as well as dealing with the debt ceiling crisis, or for that matter dealing with some of the massive defense department waste like John Boehner getting jobs for weapons manufacturers where - - like the F 22 first developed in 1988 it has proved utterly useless as a weapon because it’s virtually unflyable for any sustained period of time.  There are many such military white elephants that are protected by Congressmen for their districts.

It is said that what is still tolerable, we will not change.  But two things became "intolerable" to me and so today I took what may be sucessful action on both of them.  My brother called me in the morning just to talk, apparently.  There is no new news on Mom but she’s seeing the doctor today.  My brother seems less concerned than he was last week.  My brother was curious about my food situation and I told him I had taken no real action.  But then I broached the idea that I owed the bank money and that the phone company hiked my bill by a new $3.50 charge.  He said he’d refer the matter to Judy.  Judy called back and was helpful and said she would speak to the phone company about it.  Judy called back an hour or so later to say that the problem had been taken care of and that the charge would be removed from my bill.  The phone company did not profit from this particular charge so were happy to remove it.  Hopefully this will get me out of hock with the bank a little, but perhaps not in three days.  I can’t risk it.  Judy also mentioned six potential causes of my inability to gain weight.  These are diabetes, cancer, low level infection, tape worm, taburculosis, thyroid condition, and that’s it.  I wrote down these words on a separate page and ripped the page out.  I was correct in assuming that Dr. Saran would be here later in the day.  He was and I went through this list of six items.  Dr. Saran said of those items- a thyroid condition was the most likely, and he scheduled a blood test for that.  My blood pressure was 124 over 78, which is pretty much entirely back to normal.  So at least I don't have to worry about My blood pressure.

Pope Francis was officially installed this morning and carried live at one o clock on ABC and I have seen none of it but can only presume it can be found on the internet.  In the Pope’s hominy he was admonishing the people, in Italian, to remember the poor and the powerless.  Vice President Joe Byden, himself a Catholic, was the US delegation representative.  How interesting it is that they will refuse comunion to anyone favoring abortion- - but they won't deny it to people who favor the death penalty, even the Church is on record of being opposed to the death penalty.  The Church has announced they are opposed to War, too.  The church loves to talk about the virtue of having celibate priests - but will not say a word about alcohol abuse or the effects it can have on people as far as getting into auto accidents- - or raping sixteen year olds at parties.  When was the last Homily you heard a Catholic official give condemning the Mafia?  So the Church is highly selective about what it preaches against.  One individual from the Other Side of the Void, and that would be Stewart Sutcliffe- - says this deal about betraying his fellow Cardinals to the repressive dictator government- - - "Is a deal breaker for me".  Stewart cannot endorse this Pope.