DelawareLiberal.Net

The new guy is a flat out Bushian psycho who is being brought in to expand the war to IRAN. If the Senate approves this nutbag it is “End Times” time.

For over a year now that the Joint Chiefs have been blocking the White House’s efforts to expand the war to Iran. No matter what you might think of Gen. Pete Pace, this really is TERRIFYING news, unless you crave a wider war in the Persian Gulf and South Asia.

Pace has been the most visible symbol of the push-back within the military against the Long War.

George W. Bush, in effect, just fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, USMC. This is unprecedented, as it is the first time the JCS Chair has not been reappointed.

Pace’s replacement will be Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Mullen, if the Senate approves his nomination.

The Admiral appears to be a much more convinced true-believer than Pace. Mullen was quoted in an address earlier this month to naval personnel: http://starbulletin.com/…

“The enemy now is basically evil and fundamentally hates everything we are — the democratic principles for which we stand … This war is going to go on for a long time. It’s a generational war.”

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When a Republican is fired the style guide says use the word “replaced” – when a Democrat is fired the term is “fired”

I’m travelling to Mexico soon (I will have some posts up about that next week)  and my three children need passports.  I have been on the phone all week with the State Department trying to track them down.  They finally arrived in Delaware today.  I would like to thank Jillian from Joe Biden’s office for making that happen.  I have 2 of 3 passports and the 3rd should arrive tomorrow (hopefully) but with the Senator calling about a passport things have a way of working themselves out. 

This post isn’t about that though, the State Dept finally realized they fucked up and were screwing over travellers left and right by not being properly prepaired for something they knew was coming (sounds like a theme don’t it?)
so here is an article that talks about the problem…and the state departments relaxing of the law till September

Now read this juicy comment from Maura Harty, the assistant secretary for consular affairs:

What we did not anticipate adequately enough was the American citizens’ willingness and desire to comply with the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative in the timeframe that they did,” Harty said.

I call BULLSHIT…..Hello! what am I supposed to do when I fly to fucking Mexico bitch? Tell them to fuck off and run past customs? or better yet tell them that I don’t want to comply with the Western Hemispher Travel Initiative? I abstain!  I decline, now let me in! 

I can see it now “Oh, Ok sir, Si’, NO PROBLEM, WELCOME TO MEXICO, Beinvenedo (or some shit like that)”

People have no choice to comply or they don’t go to Mexico for vacation dumb ass.

Last week W. compared Iraq to the Korean War.  The implication of which is that we have been there for 50 years and it still isn’t rosy, but it is stable.  There are many flaws to this argument, and I don’t like hunting for fowl that are maimed and captive.  There is an interesting point that Arianna Huffington planted in my mind, however.  In Korea, we were viewed as a counter-balance to Soviet Communism that was wrecking the country.  We were there to help the Koreans beat back the red scourge.

Arianna gave this as a reason that this conflict is so different.  But I would take it a step further.  We are the force that Iraqis feel needs to be counter-balanced.  AQ is the counter-balancing force.  Can they win, probably not, but they will ensure stalemate.  They will keep the US from achieving their goals in the region.  I like the Red Dawn analogy.  I’m not sure that it is perfect, but it does capture the essence of the nationalism argument.  Even if the US had a dictator (whoops) I would fight to the death any invading force that tried to determine my national destiny for me.

Oh wait, It looks like this was written by the guy that actually worked on 2 of the classified Iraq Assesments.  No doubt he is a liberal pussy, that hates America, works for CBS and doesn’t see all the good that is going on in Iraq (even though he predicted that everything going wrong with Iraq was going to happen)  Regardless, this guy is an asshole and should be put in jail, not like that Patriot Scooter. 

 the weapons estimate was one of only three classified, community-coordinated assessments about Iraq that the intelligence community produced in the months prior to the war. Don’t feel bad if you missed the other two, which addressed the principal challenges that Iraq likely would present during the first several years after Saddam’s removal, as well as likely repercussions in the surrounding region. After being kept under wraps (except for a few leaks) for over four years, the Senate committee quietly released redacted versions of those assessments on its website May 25, as Americans were beginning their Memorial Day holiday weekend.I initiated those latter two assessments and supervised their drafting and coordination. My responsibilities at the time as the National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia concerned analysis on political, economic and social issues in the region
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Well here goes nothing.

 When I left the Navy in 1996 I moved back to Delaware.  Wilmington specifically.  I had 3 little girls and very little money.  I left as an e-4 and was happy as heck to get a job at Sears in Prices Corner I got a huge increase in my salary and was able to convince a mortgage broker to give me a mortgage for $70,000.00.  I used my VA Loan chit and bought my very first house.
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Well the big news this week was that Jack Markell has announced that he is running for Guv’ner. This will potentially set up the best campaign that we have seen in this state since I’ve been of voting age. All over it this week was Tommywonk with the pre-announcement and then the announcement coverage. More coverage at Liberal Delight, Kavips, and DWA here, here and here. Nancy is in also. Over at FSP they are trying to put on a brave face.

Speaking of FSP, there are some weird things going on and MOTSmitty has come out of the shadows to post on it. It looks like some angry Republican has an ax to grind and they are doing it with postcards mailed to the delegates. The first was posted on DWA last Friday.

FSP is also starting to feel the heat that is the DelawareLiberal.net radiator. According to technorati, FSP is worth more than Our Humble Blog. Methinks the County Chair doth protest too much. Plus Mitt is probably pouring money into their operation…

Congrats go out to the bloggers that had a hand in killing HB 161, including Dana and the Irish Phone Boy. Looks like we can finally have tax increases in Wilmington to fix the sidewalks!!! 🙂

On Bills that we should support, CBS has a call to action to support a bill to be introduced by Smitty’s and my rep, Dick Cathcart. Looks like the goal is to keep poop out of Lums Pond. Sounds good to me.

Kavips wants us to stop looking our local gift horse in the mouth. Seabiscuit starring Joe Biden. OK, I get it, it’s a horse race. We have some strong starters and Richardson is fading. Joe could be #4. Dennis McGlynn is just trying to figure out how he can make money betting on it.

Nationally, Ryan at Liberal Delight points out that Wyoming Senator Craig Thomas passed away this week. In Wyoming, if the Senator is a different party than the Governor, the Senator’s party nominates 3 people for the Governor to select to finish the term. The result? We don’t have the sort of vulture mentality we had when Tim Johnson had a stroke. We should look into that…

Ever vigilant, Tommywonk fills us in on another hurdle that Bluewater has gotten past.

Mike Mahaffie has a poll that he wants us to take about the readership of state-level political blogs like this one.

Merit-bound-alley has returned with a killer post about Politics and Religion.

Duffy at Pencader Days has a post about how even Peggy Noonan has given up on Mr. 32%.

MOTNewbie has officially hung up his “CLOSED” sign. I’ll probably drop his blog from the blogroll next week, but you can expect to see him posting over at FSP as MOTSmitty until Dave kicks him to the curb. I may do the same for the Liberalgeek blog.

KarmicJay has thankfully gotten back to full blogging strength. He has a great reason why you should buy your food from the local farmer.

Protack has a post on the problem with tax rebates in Brandywine.

Over at FSP, Dave is giving his O-face over Frank Luntz’s analysis of the Republic debate. I was struck by the part at the end of the clip when Luntz talked about how neither side is listening to the other. It doesn’t really bode well for Democracy, if you ask me.

Gazizza has a post about the Catholics Against Rudy website going up. Now I have a reason to root for Rudy.

Over at JttR, it is the return of the inane. Things That Are Bad is back, new and improved. Ryan laments the lack of international soccer on TV. Dude, If we had more soccer on TV, when would we have time to show Dancing with the Survivor All-Stars Idol?

Kilroy seems to be the only one talking about the smackdown delivered to Christina this week. Go get ’em Kilroy.

Hube administers a smackdown of his own on Fulcher and Jensen and their tin foil hats.

That’s all for this installment. We have passed the 3,500 Americans soldiers dead mark and at least 64,879 Iraqis have been killed. Bush is giving Merkel a backrub at a resort in Germany.