George Bush: Cock-eyed optimist...

Just once I'd like the president to come out and say: "Quite frankly, the Union could be in a much better state. It's not doing too good." But it always seems to be going very well in the president's estimation. Maybe we always seem to elect optimists.

For those of you who made it through all yesterday's State of the Union address, I'm sure you know by know the president covered very little new ground. Mostly he spent time on the usual list that we have grown accustomed to or expect. Iraq is a huge success, trial lawyers and activist judges are the reason you have no job or health insurance, let's all agree to hate gays, let's all agree to like black folk, etc. Pretty routine stuff.

He added a new one to this list last night. The president proposed a radical new change to social security: eliminating all security from the program. For everyone 55 and over, you're in the clear. He promised nothing would change. For everyone else, benefits would be reduced when we come of old-age. Oh, but those Republican sweethearts are nice enough to allow us to then put some of our money and put it into the stock market. How nice of them! It's all the buy-in of a 401 K plan with none of the flexibility or security! This is the same terrible predatory worldview that outfits every check-cashing place with lottery machines. The stock market is a gamble, with the only guaranteed winners the brokers whose fees we'll all be paying and men like the president who hate Social Security for moral reasons. Bush lied about the program's outlook in 2042 becoming bankrupt and exhausted. That's just not true by anyone's measurements. There is no crisis that requires any more than small adjustments. The only things bankrupt and exhausted here are the President's ethics. I suggest investing in shares for candles and cat food now if you want any hope of a return on your retirement fund.

There were a few other mentions in the State of the Union that caught me by surprise and were just laughable. The best moment came when he announced that the First Lady is now in charge of gangs in the country. "Taking on gang life will be one part of a broader outreach to at-risk youth, which involves parents and pastors, coaches and community leaders, in programs ranging from literacy to sports. And I am proud that the leader of this nationwide effort will be our First Lady, Laura Bush." At this point, people started to puzzlingly clap as Laura stood up and started to curtsey. Look out, all you bitches. Polly Pocket is in the hizzouse. Hollah!

Blame it on the rain...

Ted Kennedy speaks. Bush should listen.

The United States should start to withdraw militarily and politically from Iraq and aim to pull out all troops as early as possible next year, Sen. Edward Kennedy said on Thursday.

After Sunday's Iraqi elections, Kennedy said President Bush should state he intends to negotiate a timetable with the new Iraqi government to draw down U.S. forces.

At least 12,000 U.S. troops should leave at once, Kennedy said, "to send a stronger signal about our intentions to ease the pervasive sense of occupation."

The Massachusetts Democrat, who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq, became the first senator to lay out a plan for Bush to start withdrawing troops a day after the Pentagon (news - web sites) warned lawmakers that strikes by insurgents may increase after Sunday's elections [...]

"We now have no choice but to make the best we can of the disaster we have created in Iraq," Kennedy in a speech to the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. "The current course is only making the crisis worse."

He said the indefinite presence of U.S. troops is "fanning the flames of conflict" in what has become "a war against the U.S. occupation."

Thank you Ted! Finally someone of national prominence is saying what a large percentage of the country has been feeling. Now I'm not sure if I even favor the complete removal of US forces, but we need to figure out when we can leave. Hopefully, with Kennedy coming out in favor of withdrawal, the nation can now have the debate. Too bad it looks like republicans are doing what they love to try: squashing debate by attacking the debater.

Glenn Reynolds, Ann Coulter, and FOX News hosts lashed out at Kennedy and the "Left" for calling bullshit what it is. Rather than question the bullshit rationales for war, and rather than question the incompetent waging of the war by this administration, they want to talk about Kennedy's patriotism.

Expect more of this. This war is long past lost. Time to pack it in, and save the lives of our men and women in uniforms left to be saved.

In the feverish minds of the war apologists, it doesn't matter that no WMDs were found, that torture chambers are still open for business, that this war is now rivaling Saddam's brutality for sheer number of Iraqis killed, that the Army, Marines, and National Guard are all having trouble recruiting, that our equipment is degrading to the point where we're creating a hollow military, that the war is costing us $200 billion and counting, that Israel is not safer as a result of this war, that nearly 1,600 allied troops and counting have died on this fool's errand, that the US's original choice to lead Iraq -- Chalabi -- was an Iranian spy who told our enemies that we had cracked their communications code, that most of Iraq is not under government control, that terrorists are now using the lawlessness in Iraq to recruit and train a whole new generation of terrorists, that our "Coalition of the Willing" is now a mere shell of its former self, that the world hates the United States, that the Euro is suddenly the hot currency, that Europe and Asia are both creating security organizations excluding the US, and that tens of thousands of our soldiers are coming home physically and mentally maimed.

None of that matters to them.

But they see the war getting out of hand. They've see our chances of victory go from little to nothing. And they've got to blame someone. Anyone. And of course, it can't be Saint George, because he's perfect and can do no wrong. So blame Kennedy. Blame Boxer. Blame France. Blame Canada. Because it is they who have botched up the Iraqi campaign to the point of no hope. If it wasn't for them, our troops would still be basking in a flood of rose petals.

But at the end of the day, whether they'll ever admit it or not -- we were right, they were wrong. Reality isn't too kind to faith-based lunatics.