Uncle Sam Wants You 20000 Dollars worth

By Paul Peete

All Rights Reserved

Since the Army recruiters have fallen short of their goals the last couple months even after the standards were lowered, age limit of recruits raised, and even arrest records overlooked in some cases, Uncle Sam is opening his wallet to entice the nation’s eligible citizens to enlist. Twenty Thousand Dollars if you agree to report within thirty days is the new incentive on top of the Fifty Thousand Dollars available for college already a recruitment perk. It speaks volumes as to the impact the nation’s attitude about this war is having on the military.

The politicians like to tout it as the all-volunteer services but a more accurate name is the Mercenary Military. Now this “Quick Shipper” bonus is being offered to those who are motivated by the cash; the economically disadvantaged. It has been the policy for quite some time to offer those with specialties in short supply in the military who reach the end of their commitment to offer larger and larger reenlistment bonuses and use all sorts of coercive techniques to push in theatre re-ups. It should be a cause for concern to all of us that the military is being supplied with soldiers whose loyalties are to the dollar and not their patriotism. Will they come home with their deadly training and experiences and use that same mentality to keep getting ahead. We saw what happened after the Viet Nam War how some veterans who were trained killers came back and caused an increase in violent crime.

We taxpayers are going to pay for this new incentive, lets hope that we don’t continue to pay after the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan end.

The Incredible Imperial President

By Paul Peete

The latest position by the White House, that the Justice Department has no authority to even consider the issue of Executive Privilege in the matter of the firing of US Attorneys in the Congressional investigation, is indicative of this Administration’s utter contempt for any oversight of Presidential prerogatives. By claiming that the US Attorneys are appointees of the President and therefore under its control, preempted from even investigating the issue posits a circular logic that tears to shreds the concept of separation of powers and the Constitutional intent of having coequal branches of governance.

Of course this should come as no surprise since this administration is accustomed to operating in a power vacuum ever since the Supreme Court in the 2000 Florida fiasco brought it into the White House. The subsequent Bush Supreme Court appointees insure that if the issue winds up in the High Court for final adjudication, the decision is predictable. I am a citizen with no legal or historical background other than a general knowledge; but all it takes to see where this is headed is common sense. President Bush has built a wall around the actions and decisions of his administration that makes a mockery of the concept of separation of powers. It galls me that we, through our elected Congressional representatives, are powerless to even challenge in the Justice Department, Executive claims of privilege.

While it is the President’s appointee who heads the Justice Department and its Attorneys serve at his pleasure, to deny them even the opportunity to rule on matters of privilege, regardless of the fact that Gonzales is sure to rubberstamp Bush’s position, he refuses to posit the issue before his hand picked Justice Department. Even a subsequent appeal to the Supreme Court would most likely back him. The Bush Administration in this latest act destroys even the already suspect appearance of the Balance of Power. With the judicial deck so obviously stacked in his favor, what does the administration have to fear?

Could Republican Congressional realization of the national disgust with the Bush Administration cause them to fear having this much power concentrated in the hands of a Democrat taking the White House in 08, forcing them to rethink the maintenance of an imperial executive branch? I can only hope that those entrusted with the legal system have enough sense to recognize that this administration is due to vacate the office in less than two years, that is if Bush doesn’t pull a Musharraf like power grab and refuse to leave at the end of his term. Based on the disparity in campaign cash pouring in and the polls showing Republican discontent with their own choices, they know in their heart of hearts a Democrat is likely to win in 2008.

Even the thinly constituted Democratic Congressional majority, so far stymied by the Republicans from exercising any counterbalance to Bush, may seize their sole alternative of issuing contempt citations and enforcing them in-house as the last level of safeguard against Bush. After all, a runaway Hillary or Barack White House should send chills through the Republicans and encourage them to maintain their counterbalance over an Imperial Executive.

He Said She Said

By Paul Peete

All Rights Reserved

Boy we finally have a contest in the Democratic Presidential race. Barack and Hillary are letting it rip after they had differing opinions of the rightness of talking to despots if elected. Barack gave Hillary the opening by answering without hesitation yes to a question posed by a citizen as to whether he would meet with the leaders of N. Korea, Cuba, Venezuela and Iran in his first year in office. She said that the Presidency is too prestigious an office to allow despots to use it as a propaganda opportunity. She scored one for the experience argument by seeming more cognizant of the protocol of the office, but she went too far the next day when she said it showed his naiveté. That freed Obama to attack her as naïve to vote to authorize Bush to attack Iraq on the premise that he would try diplomacy first. And he is free to operate with the gloves off now. He can say that he tried to stay above the fray but he can’t run away from a bully even if she is a woman trying to act like a man.

The old saying is that you can’t un-ring a bell! Well the bell for round one has rung and both Obama and Clinton are going at it like heavyweight contenders. A little he said she said is what this Democratic contest needed. So Hillary is trying to paint Barack as a rookie politician and Barack is going at her as a Bush-lite member of a political establishment that has run this country to the state we find ourselves in now. Barack is stressing the new direction he would take the country in. He even is characterizing himself as strong enough to have no fear of talking to anyone and smart enough to stand up to any attempts at upstaging American interests. But there is a wild card in this deck who goes by the name of Bill. America knows that Bill was able to stand on the world stage with anyone and come across as the leader of the free world.

What Barack has to do is paint Hillary as the wife of a great leader who was treated like a princess during her years as first lady and a Senator for just one term before he was elected. He must somehow feminize her role as first lady without trying to seem sexist, which would invite a racist perception of him to creep in. Hillary has to continue to act like the nomination is already hers and that Obama and Edwards are duking it out for the possible vice presidents job. John Edwards has to somehow get in this fight as something other than the referee and find a way to throw punches at the two of them and hope he can land a sucker punch while they aren’t focused on him. His populist theme has yet to make a dent in the frontrunners lead. Even his admission of making the mistake on the vote to authorize the war did little to force a similar concession from Hillary.

Edwards’s wife has been trying to engage Hillary in the femininity argument but she better be careful that she doesn’t make John Edwards look more feminine than Hillary. Having just gotten away from being pasted with the hair bit, the YOU Tube video of John combing his hair to “I’m so pretty” gave an interesting assent to Ann Coulter’s fag reference and John’s soft nature runs against the grain of America’s macho GI Joe image of its leaders. Remember the “who would you prefer to have a beer with” that Bush swaggered in on over a true war hero turned thinker!

So Obama gets to show a toughness now without seeming like the angry black man America so fears. And Hillary is stuck now having to face again an issue that was pushed to the background in recent weeks as she appeared well on her way to cinching the nomination. Edwards has to look tougher and get the blood boiling in the Democrats for a change. Carrying his home state in the early primary is a must for him, perhaps the only hope for him.