Pardon the intrusion Mr. Bush, but isn`t this an emergency?

[democrank]

Mr. President, these holiday getaways are the greatest rejuvenators ever invented. Get out of Dodge, sit back and put your feet up, cruise on the mountain bike, take a few power naps, watch a little football and wait for the personal chef to serve up a meal of perfection. It`s like winning the Publisher`s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes....everyone has servants so nobody is expected to suggest a holiday-cutting sacrifice.

Sorry to interrupt the cushy reclinerfest, but Iraq seems to be on fire, Mr. President. People were burned alive there today. Some just got regular blown up. I saw one photo this afternoon of a young boy who looked like pain was gushing out of every pore, like it was some kind of grownup experience he thought he was too young for.

I`m thinking this war in Iraq was started by some folks who didn`t have a clue and who were too detached to remember the particulars. It reminds me of one of those governmental groundbreaking ceremonies where twenty-three men show up in $4,000 three-piece suits and hardhats, each holding a never-uased shovel. Know what happens after the cameras stop rolling? They leave and someone else digs the hole.

With all due respect, don`t you think it`s long past time you dropped the "bringin` freedom" foolishness and admit this was the biggest blunder in American history? I mean, Ground Zero is still barren as can be and you`re on to Destruction Site #2? We got torture planes, we got mercenaries, we got White Phosphorus, we got commissions to study commissions, but we don`t have an exit strategy? It`s just James Baker on a white horse? Are you kidding me? Shouldn`t you be huddled in your War Room? Isn`t this kind of urgent? More urgent than your fifteen minutes walking around Vietnam?

Wednesday night I got a big lump in my throat. Lawrence O`Donnell was on Countdown talking about what American families should be thinking about as they sat down to dinner the next day.... the war and the soldiers trapped there. Regular men and women turned into targets in a Bush `43 inferno. Inferno....any place of pain and turmoil. This is an emergency, Mr. President. There`s no time for casual second helpings or a Lance Armstrong ride-a-thon. This daily death routine may be a gazillion miles from your precious reality, but the devastation you`ve unleashed can no longer be ignored.

[NanceGreggs]

1. EXCELLENT!!!

Beautifully stated.

:applause: :applause: :applause:

[ima_sinnic]

2. That is some powerful writing--the horror--the UNNECESSARY horror

is unimaginable--and knowing that it was doomed to failure from even before it started makes me sick ...

[Imagevision]

3. No exit strategy? - It's because we're not supposed to leave, like after Japan- Germany?

and Korea... we've built 14 US. bases, we're building a billion dollar+ US. embassy, - Iraq is the 2nd. largest oil reserve in the world, Bush & Cheney first and foremost are oilmen, why would they even consider leaving?

[Malidictus Maximus]

13. Bingo.

You nail it 100%, even the P.N.A.C. couldn't have said it better:-)

[stevedeshazer]

4. k & r

Nicely done, my cranky friend.

[Disturbed]

5. An Emergency was the Terry Chaivo vote for which

Busholini flew back from the pig ranch to DC.

[stevedeshazer]

6. Next to tax cuts, Terri Schiavo was the closest thing to a Republican national emergency.

:(

[democrank]

7. Right, but

an emergency WASN`T Hurricane Katrina because Bush was busy eating birthday cake with John McCain. Someone is doing a heckuva job in the Department of Emergencies.

[Nicole]

8. K & R

:kick:

[Gregorian]

9. It's just proof that he isn't running the show.

We see things differently, the people and the president. And this is never more evident than when he shows us time and time again how unengaged he is.

I mean that common sense can not pull us through these times. This administration is in total contradiction to any kind of rational behavior. Their mission is accomplished. They are making money off the war. I see it in the same way that I see Hitler's regime. How on earth could anyone ever put people in ovens and expect to get away with it. These people are irrational. They are not acting in our best interests. And they are not going to start any time soon.

We either remove them from office, or suffer more of the same that we have had to endure since they stole their first election.

These people are banking that they have so much power that they can actually pull this off and get away with it. Many have. Some are still living.

I have problems accepting something in life that is causing me great anguish. And it has for over three decades. I simply cannot believe it's happening. But I saw Bush coming from a mile away. He's a walking breathing lie. We need to get rid of these people. Not expect them to start performing.

[ima_sinnic]

30. if ONLY I could recommend a post!

my sentiments exactly, and hopefully the urgency of it will reach a critical mass.

[Pierogi_Pincher]

37. The O.P.'s expression is excellent, and your words also ring true.

Initially, it was distress in my soul when the unexpected happened in 2000. Now, as you have succinctly described, it has turned into sheer anguish. What has been wrought upon us and our brothers and sisters on the other side of the world is an abomination.

On purpose, we observed a quiet, no-frills Thanksgiving, and I refuse to have a **Merry Christmas**. Short of putting on sack-cloth and ashes, I will continue in personal mourning until this sickening war-killing is over and done. We will continue to not buy presents or get caught up in the FALSE and TEMPORARY **joy** that one is supposed to feel according to the ad agencies. I cannot in good conscience practice a hypocritical spirit in a time such as this.

Justice is right around the corner.

P_P

[Chomp]

10. Excellent post OP nt

[Bluebear]

11. Now he's off to Vegas & California for some bikin'

Very stressed after the holiday.

[TheCowsCameHome]

17. Maybe a head-on into a tree would jumpstart his brain.

What little their is of it.

[Ilsa]

12. And speaking of Gropund Zero, health officials estimate

that as many, if not more, people will die from having been exposed to toxins at Ground Zero because you wouldn't consider the possibility that the area was so polluted it needed to be designated as such by the EPA and workers sould have worn better gear.

[Doctor_J]

14. The Limbeciles think this is evidence that stupid is a great delegator

and has terrific, calm countenance - like when he sat frozen while the country was under attack.

He is the bubble man - the only thing that upsets him is having his 16 hrs of sleep per day interrupted.

[Doctor_J]

15. Remember in F9/11 when MM told the reporter that * had been on vaction

40% of the time since he took office. The Bushwhore reporter said, "Well that includes weekend". And MM said, "yeah, well, he's still the president on the weekend."

[TheCowsCameHome]

16. Great post! But alas, Bush has no idea what he's done. And never will.

If only he could understand what his war has caused. But it would take a human being, unlike the fool in the White House, to begin to comprehend......................

[sellitman]

25. You are correct!

If only he could understand what his war has caused. But it would take a human being, unlike the fool in the White House, to begin to comprehend......................

Lastlaughing08 ....you pegged it. Even my two most conservatively acquainted friends and family have admitted this War is a huge mistake. These are drip dried Repukes who have backed this boy turd from the get go.

[illinoisprogressive]

18. I think what frustrates People the Most

about this war is not knowing why. We heard all the selling points for it: WMD, Freedom, ect. and some still believe the garbage but, most don't. They want to know why we went there and why almost 3,000 of our people died and why 65,000 Iraqis died and thier country torn to shreds and is now in anarchy.
We want to know.
There is speculation from Bush getting excited about the neocon agenda, to cheney running the show and taking it on himself, to wanting to get revenge somewhere for 9-11, anywhere, to getting Saddam because he tried to kill his dad because his dad never finished the job, to starting the rapture, ect.
But, we really can only speculate. And while speculating trying to understand why he clings so stubbornly to a failed policy in a failed state that is killing our kids.
We want to know.

[understandinglife]

19. Happy to see this on the DU Homepage. Well done.

:toast:

Thank you,
Bob

[classysassy]

20. Exit strategy

BRING BACK THE DRAFT,Shrubs backers will demand an end to his madness.

[tblue]

28. Yep! That'll do it.

[Cameron27]

21. Excellent post!

The bush dictionary doesn't include the words consequences or responsiblity.

[bullwinkle428]

22. This is such a fantastic piece. I wish everyone could take a few minutes

of their time just to read this, and consider what's happening outside of their own personal events...

[malaise]

23. Great post n/t

[Disturbed]

24. "the same way that I see Hitler's regime."

I disagree! Hitler was in charge. Busholini is a pathetic, arrogant, Sock Puppet.

Why did the Bushoini Regime illegally invade Iraq?

There are various reasons: Oil, water, regional dominance. Busholini's reasons?

He stated them before he was selected. He said that he would finish the job his father failed to do and if he had the political capital that he would overthrow Saddam. 911 gave this Asshole that excuse. The Multi-Corps and PNAC pushed the illegal invasion from day one of this illigitamate Regime.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

26. I'm antireligious, but, BLESS YOU FOR THESE WORDS!

beautiful.

[DemReadingDU]

27. Great post, thank you

K&R

[SunDrop23]

29. This happened because they hate our freedom.

SARCASM.

[MODemocrat]

31. This is beautifully written and expresses my feelings

My husband and I were discussing this topic today, and thinking of how much money the president is
wasting on all his hop-skipping around the country. We wonder how many of the homeless people could have been given a warm place to stay; how many of the elderly could have paid their utility bills; how may children could have had a new winter coat, and bought their school supplies; how many sick people could have used some of the money to help pay their doctor bill, and buy their medicine.
I'm sitting here typing this and crying because my heart is breaking for all the misery surrounding us. I've been donating to various organizations, and it's so hurtful to see these loving and caring parents looking through the thrift stores for good "used" merchandise for Christmas. They don't have
an extra penny to waste. George has all the luxuries at our expense, and does nothing for it.

On the news, the media always start with "THE DEMOCRATS" are complaining about Bush being gone from the
whitehouse..yada yada yada...Well, it seems to me that EVERYONE in this country should be outraged about this irresponsible president, and the money he's blowing just to get some photo ops. It really sickens me that he doesn't seem to have a care in the world. Oh, sure, he's pretty slick at fooling some people into thinking he gives a damn.

I'm so glad Bush will be history in two more years, or before, if we're lucky.
:mad: :mad: :nopity: :nopity: :grr: :grr: :thumbsdown:

Thanks to the Voters for our newly elected Democratic Congress and Senate, come January 2007.
:toast: :dem:

[valerief]

32. So since all the cockroaches have fled the kleig lights of war, is

Nancy Pelosi in charge now?

[Greylyn58]

33. Very Well Said...

and extremely well written.

Like you, I became choked-up just thinking of all the families whose loved ones are not here, but serving in that hell-hole Iraq. I also thought about the soldiers in Afghanastan...the pResident's other war. While the carnage hasn't been as bad, we still have soldiers fighting and dying in that country too. And I know their families what them home as well.

[ninkasi]

34. I cannot stress strongly enough

how important, and timely, your post is. It's an incredibly great piece, written with deep feeling, and covering the things that need to be said. You have shone the beacon of truth onto the ugly reality that hides behind the lies that the Bush administration has spewed. You are right...we have unleashed nothing but death and destruction onto the Iraqis. They did not choose, nor did they invite, this immoral war.

Too many are suffering for me to feel any deep sense of joy at my own blessings. Too many are being sacrificed so that Bush and his ruthless cronies can feel good, and reap more and more wealth for themselves. In the meantime, people who did not want, nor did they cause, this war, are suffering for Bush's decisions. I wonder if the stain on America's soul can ever be erased. I wonder if we can ever again live in a country which we are proud of. I wonder many things, but most of all, I wonder when this madness will stop.

[democrank]

39. ninkasi....Such profound meaning in your words.

"Too many are suffering for me to feel any deep sense of joy at my own blessings."


During Thanksgiving dinner, I could think of nothing other than Lawrence O`Donnell`s last few seconds of the Countdown segment when he choked back tears over this war and the comparatively few Americans called to sacrifice for it. For our part, temporary empathy just won`t do. We must forcefully demand an end to this horrific disaster.

[mc jazz]

43. yes, exactly

I just want to speculate on what the light at the end of the tunnel might be
What if things get worse and worse, that reading between the lines you believe this
Not only in Iraq's torment but linking in with related things like the war spreading, the economy, resource depletion and democracy at home. My view is we still have the sum of what we want, it has not changed. But history does show a struggle to be heard and listened to as people, and many times peace being made. We're entering that kind of stage where ordinary people will join in, the 60's strikes me as this kind of reaction so we must be due another. It seems passe to mention it because we only have to wait but maybe its already happenning. The 60's set the scene for a generation and anything is possible with wisdom, they predicted many of our current troubles then, in what will be quite a revolutionary atmosphere. This is the kind of thing I see happenning and something to hold on to. This isn't an intellectual thing for me and I read the news every day but I have to believe this can be changed

[ninkasi]

49. We have to do something

Welcome to DU, mc jazz. All of my children were born in the sixties, so you must know how familiar I am with the way things were then. We felt that we were on the verge of a great change, that love and peace could prevail over the same old tired, stale blatherings of politicians and religious leaders. We had JFK, and felt that the times were magic. We could live our dreams, and expand our universe, and reach out to everybody else, regardless of race or sex.

We were against the war, we were against living simply for the sake of making money, and living smug lives oblivious to the pain of others. Something happened, and some of us gave up, and some sold out, and some risked the ridicule of being called nothing but old hippie burnouts. We retreated, some of us, into music, and raising our children to be different, and trying to leave not the imprint of jackboots upon the land, but just the faintest trace of feet which stepped lightly.

Some of us dropped out, realizing that we were beating ourselves bloody against a wall of ignorance and stubbornness. Many of my friends have now become stirred up again, because the sheer evil, and destructiveness of the Bush administration is the most toxic of any we have ever seen. I find that I have renewed old friendships, because I knew that they would understand, and agree, about the danger America has been placed in due to the neocon savages.

Last year, I went to a Christmas party at the home of someone from my past. We had not seen each other for many years, but those years fell away like nothing. I met new people, some who were with Amnesty International, I met people who were earning a reputation singing, and playing music, and I ate, and hugged, people whose lives had changed dramatically since the late seventies, when I saw them last. We mingled, and ate, and danced, and listened to music just being written that night. The ages ranged from teens to seventies, but the common thread was the desire to vote the whole destructive conservative movement out of existence for a long as we could.

Change is happening. Change will come, but we have to bring that change about. It will not blossom overnight without dedicated caretakers. There are so very, very many talented and gifted DUers here, that I hesitate to post as often as I would like, simply because I am so outclassed in expressing my thoughts. That is no matter, because the important thing is that the thoughts are posted, and turned over in our minds, and acted upon. If DU were an opera, we would have many gifted singers. I am content to be a spear-carrier, in the background, but adding my voice to the chorus which will sing in a new era of change.

[OneBlueSky]

35. "but these are just Iraqis . . . not, you know, like REAL people . . .

damn, you'd think there was something wrong with Iraqis dying . . . you know, of course, that it is Iraqis who are killing our brave troops over there . . . so I say the fewer the better . . . but thanks for thinking of me" . . . George . . .
:sarcasm:

[puebloknot]

36. Right on the nose! Nail on the head...

...and every other cliche I can think of that says what we're all thinking here at DU.

Comparisons to Caligula rise again in my mind. We can't let this charade continue!

[barbtries]

38. this should be

on the front page of every newspaper in the land. thank you for reminding us of what war really is. once again and for always, death and destruction. from your pen to their ears, amen

[Alamom]

40. Democrank, you have touched those thoughts & feelings

within us that we must keep controlled or "we" might go insane....

Everything you speak of, is INSANITY.

Your post caused me to stop and think for a moment of the brutality that has become the norm for the people of Iraq and for our Military.

The reality.... I don't have to read this..... my brain "HAS BEEN & WILL BE" stuck on,

WE are in a horrible war in Iraq for no reason,


until someone does SOMETHING & I can't change the channel.


Reality sucks today and has for a long while.




Reply # 38...I agree wholeheartedly. This is what the country should be seeing on every TV channel and every (Newspaper) Frontpage.

[Vinca]

41. I've been wondering why Congress is out of session while Iraq burns.

Shouldn't these folks forego the turkey experience in favor of some honest, nonpartisan, problem solving? When I saw Shrub pardoning the turkey (which was, by the way, the brightest mind there), all I could do was wonder how many people were dying in Iraq at that very moment. Cancel all holidays until further notice - there's nothing to celebrate.

[GenDem]

42. This says it all and

I thank you for saying it.

[nealmhughes]

44. Is it not evident that whilst Mr. Bush's mother cannot allow her beautiful mind to be sullied

by images of war that her husband and son have wrought, that Mr. Bush fils cannot allow either his beautiful mind or body to be sullied by the travails of war.

Mr. Bush fils is the "decider" and deciding is hard work. So hard in fact, that Mr. Bush fils has decided to do nothing. It is called "stay the course." But, of course, in spite of numerous recorded times of Mr. Bush fils having used this phrase, he now denies having used it.

One supposes that the "rush" that the younger Bush gets from an exhilirating long bike ride in the mountains of Maryland allows him to a fleeting moment of cocaine-like ecstacy, a "flash back", if one will allow, of "the good ol' days."

No, Mr. Bush, let us cry for the dead and lament for the wounded. You are much too important to do it as an individual. Your imperium would be damaged were you to mourn as President. No, bike on as we watch our real wages fall and a country be 2/3 destroyed, and our own Gulf Coast resegregated. Bike on, O Noble Cyclist of State! Bike on!

You have truly earned a rare spot in the annals of US history, unfortunately it is alongside Warren G. Harding and James Buchanan -- yet both of those at least had some redeeming personal qualities.

[ananda]

45. We talked about art, lit, and..

we talked seriously about the war and global warming.

The issue of getting out of Iraq seemed most urgent,
along with doing something about gw.

[Swede]

46. When you see him shaking with laughter,you know he doesn't care.

Not one little bit.

[11 Bravo]

47. Damn, I wish I could write like that! Beautifully said!

:toast:

[DesertRat]

48. AMEN! k&r

[tinfoilinfor2005]

50. He only shows enthusiasm when he is either hustling for money

or cheer-leading for votes before an election. When he is plugged in between twenty American flags and set down before a handpicked crowd of people who grin adoringly and cheer his every word. Other than these times, he is glum or short tempered or dismissive, or just plain bored. It truly frightens me that our country has two years left in the hands of this over-indulged, self righteous, destructive man/child.