UML Guy has the best description yet of what we are attempting to do in the Middle East–Standing up the dominoes.
For those of you as old as I am, you will remember the opposite which got us involved in Vietnam. In the Middle East, the dominoes have already fallen, and we need to reset them.
Along with real brownshirts, the loonies are proud to offer information to help teenagers and college-age youths convince Mom not to vote for Bush.
I checked the site, and there is some good information. Of course, if you have a broader range of knowledge, these are merely talking points. Here are one each from their categories.
In 2003, despite 16% unemployment among those 18-24, the Bush Administration cut $180 million from youth job training grants.
And how does the government create jobs? Did any of those 18-24 year olds ever avail themselves of any training prior to the cut? And why is the federal government involved in training–I see nothing in the Constitution that allows the government to do anything like that.
In June 2004, the Bush administration proposed eliminating a rule protecting roadless areas of national forest, opting instead to give control over logging and commercial development to state and local officials.
Wow. You mean state and local officials, far more attuned to a local constituency, will have some authority to determine how best to protect the forests?
In 2003, Bush boasted that his tax cuts would provide an average of $2000 for small business owners. However, excluding small-business owners in the top tax bracket (earning over $310,000/year), only 20% will receive this amount. In total, half will receive less than $500 – and the bottom quarter will receive nothing at all.
Why did we exclude that block? Did they not fit the preconceived notion? And doesn’t “average” mean, I don’t know, average?
Since 9/11, the Justice Department under Bush classified significantly more cases (3,500) as terrorism than in the two years prior to the attacks. However, of these cases only 16 defendants were convicted and sentenced to 5 or more years in prison–less than in the two years before the attacks.
Who would have dreamed that law enforcement might be a little more concerned about terrorist activity, and preventing disasters than they were before 9/11? Were any of the others convicted and sentenced to less than 5 years? Were some detained, questioned, and then released? What, exactly, is your point?
In March 2003, lawyers for Defense Secretary Rumsfeld claimed that Bush, and any agents following his orders, were not bound by laws prohibiting torture–including the Geneva Conventions and U.S. Torture Statute–during the duration of the War on Terror.
As far as a “Torture Statute”, I’ve never heard of such a thing. Cite it, please. By the way, the Geneva Conventions apply only to those countries who have mutually signed them. Vietnam didn’t, and the North Vietnamese used that as support in their defense that they tortured Americans. The US has always had a policy of following the Conventions whether the enemy does or not. What Rumsfeld’s lawyers said (if, in fact they said it) is true. That doesn’t mean he advocates torture as implied.
According to a government report, a “pattern of contractor management problems” in the Bush administration has led to cost disputes between the government and Halliburton, which has already been paid $5 billion in taxpayer money.
Funny how no mention is made of the fact that both Halliburton accounting and Pentagon accounting found the problems and did what they were supposed to do: fix them.
In February 2003, the Bush administration demanded that Congress strip $230 million from the budget for vocational/community college education.
Okay, does this $230 million include the $180 million mentioned earlier? Again, education is a local issue. Why is the federal government even involved?
After 2 years of the Bush administration, the percentage of Mexicans holding a “bad” or “very bad” opinion of the U.S. rose from 22% to 58%.
I guess the ones risking death to get from Mexico to the US illegally are part of that 42% that likes us. Or the 36% difference in two years indicates the number of those who like the US who have already crossed the border and no longer show up in the statistics.
As of April 2004, only 10% of Europeans had a positive opinion of George Bush.
He’ll be disappointed to hear that, I’m sure. I wonder if they hate me, too. Yes.
In 2001, the Bush administration disbanded the President’s Interagency Council on Women, as well as the White House Office of Women’s Initiatives and Outreach.
I don’t think Bush has the same concept of Women’s Outreach as Clinton did. Can anyone explain to me why in the world the White House would need such programs?
There are two significant elections this week, and most Americans are minimally aware of either. But we should be.
Australians and Afghanis go to the polls this week to determine their leadership. For Australians, it is business as usual, just as it is here. Latham and Howard vie for the post of Prime Minister, and the race for seats in Parliament are pretty much neck and neck. Slatts, Kev, and Tim have all the specifics. Tim has a poll of Aussie bloggers.
The important issue in Australia is Iraq and Islamicists. Howard is a staunch supporter of both, and Latham is their Kerry.
Afghanistan is anything but business as usual. This election is their first. Ever.Hamid Karzai faces some 20 others in his bid to retain his position. Prime among his opponents is Abdul Rashid Dostum, who was once Karzai’s military advisor. Karzai is Pashtun. Dostum is Uzbek. So, tribal and sectarian divisions are in play. Slice, who just returned from a tour there believes Karzai will have no problem winning the election. But he must get at least 50% of the vote to avert a runoff–most likely against Dostum.
With virtually every MSM reporter in this country covering our election, we’ll get little info on wither except through internet sources. I would recommend Hook as the man on the scene for Afghanistan, and the above-mentioned Aussies, as well as Arthur and Chris, for word on the Australian election.
And we can smell the fear. Jennings, Brokaw, and Rather are not happy about the spotlight being directed at them by the new media. In particular, the Media Research Center is the main villian.
After years of being able to say anything and get away with it, they are having difficulty adjusting to the requirement for integrity.
Mike, at Cold Fury, offers My case for Bush. It is an absolutely cogent explanation, one that does service to the blogosphere.
No wonder MSM are scared. People like Mike are showing them up daily.
There are some people in this country who take their political cues from people like Elton John and Billy Bob Thornton. Elton takes a cheap shot at Madonna, and Thornton thinks Shakespeare is stupid.
“It’s not that I don’t understand it. But people think if you speak with an English accent it somehow makes you smarter.”
Okay. I’m sure both are far more intelligent than I, and I should be hanging on their every word.
I have been involved in sports all my life. As a kid I played baseball, fooball, soccer, cricket, and basketball. As I grew older I continued playing softball, volleyball, racquetball, and golf, and coached baseball, basketball, and football. As my knees gave out, I could no longer keep up in sports requiring quick changes in direction, and golf became my one activity.
Golf is unique, and that is something I hope continues now that Tiger-mania has died down. What makes it unique is the requirement for a player to understand the rules, and penalize himself for violating one. Some of that has been lost with the huge influx of new players over the last decade. It is coming back.
That integrity is something that can carry over for a child raised in the game. Fair play means far more in golf than in other sports because of it. For that reason, this program in the home neighborhood for Robert Tyre Jones, Jr., is especially meaningful. Bobby Jones was considered a paragon of virtue in the game. He would beat the crap out of you with no remorse, but fair play always ruled.
I bring this all up due to the article I just cited, which I found in a serendipitous way. It combines several of my interests in one successful program. East Lake Golf Club was Bobby Jones’ home course. As a boy and young man, he had a terrific temper. His golf showed it. When things went well, he had a syrupy smooth swing. When they didn’t, golf clubs were broken, and curses filled the air. Once he gained control of his demons, he was unbeatable. His Grand Slam is incomparable, and will never be matched. Unlike today’s version, he won the US Amateur, British Amateur, British Open, and US Open Championships in a single year. To my knowledge, nobody has won all four of those tournaments since, let alone all in one year. Tiger has won all but the British Amateur.
The year before Jones died, the Atlanta Housing Authority opened the East Lake Meadows housing project on what had been the Number 2 course at the country club. By the early 1980s, the project would be better known as “Little Vietnam,” a nickname given for its over-the-top crime rates and drug trade. The housing project crippled not only the lives of those residing within it, but the surrounding community as well. Drug traffickers took over the bungalows lining the golf course and converted them to crack houses. The storied golf club that had nurtured Jones was brought to the brink of bankruptcy. The community that once represented the best of the New Atlanta was now a community without hope.
Tom Cousins, an Atlanta philanthropist, decided he had thrown money around at different “solutions” for years without result, and decided to take on the task himself. He changed the entire area of East Lake by rebuilding the Country Club, tearing down the projects, and building a new community with low- to mid-range housing along with encouraging business growth. The local elementary school was rebuilt, and a charter school has taken its place.
Golf has a role, as well.
Most of the money that Cousins’ foundation put into the East Lake community went into building the Charlie Yates course and restoring the East Lake Golf Club. The Yates course is there for more than aesthetics, though its lush fairways and sparkling lake do create a pleasant environment. Borrowing an idea from golfing legend Chi Chi Rodriguez, Cousins also established a Junior Golf Academy at Yates. The academy is closely affiliated with Drew Charter School and serves as a key youth development program for East Lake kids. To date, the academy has exposed over 1,000 students to the game. To take advantage of the full range of academy activities, students must reach academic benchmarks. The best players who make grades are allowed to travel to golf tournaments. This year, in recognition of the ongoing East Lake relationship with the PGA TOUR Championship, the Junior Golf Academy will become a part of the First Tee Program–a PGA sponsored program to increase inner-city and minority children
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