Another Failed Promise

Today I heard that our President is breaking yet another promise to the American people. Just a few weeks ago right after the midterms he promised to listen to and consider the recommendations of the Iraq Study Commission when they are released on Dec. 6. Today he said he will not consider any of them unless they echo his current failed policy there. So much for the value of a presidential promise.

Bush maintains that he will allow only total victory in a situation where his commanders have told him point-blank that such a victory is impossible. Why is it impossible? Mostly because of the incredible level of bungling on the part of both Mr. Bush and the members of his administration. He knew even before he picked this war, that he was committing insufficient troops. The first Mr. Bush used 500,000 troops merely to drive Saddam out of Kuwait with no intention of toppling him from power and attempting to pacify the country. Why then did the second Mr. Bush think he could do three times as much with about half the troops?

The problem is that the current Mr. Bush is totally out of touch with reality. He truly believed and still believes it possible to establish a stable democracy in the region. When things started going wrong almost immediately (the violence and looting) he ignored it. When the insurgency began he ignored it. When the sectarian violence started he ignored it. He ignored every time there was a chance to actually make a step toward his stated goal. He stuck his fingers in his ears and screamed "stay the course" to drown out the cries of the dying and the wailing of their survivors.

Now he's done it once again. He's closed the door to possibly the only solution left to us, yet he's equally unwilling to do anything that might make the situation in Iraq any better. By doing so I fear he's opened wide the door to the spectacle of another Saigon with out people leaving in disorder and leaving the country to fall into the hands of radicals and extremists.

Christmas Shopping

There is little I hate more than Christmas shopping. Bah! Humbug! That being said, I am proud to announce that probably 75% of mine is done already. I have five more gifts to buy. One for my granddaughter, one for my sister, one for my daughter's ex and his girlfriend, and one for my daughter's ex's sister.

My sister and the ex's sister will receive gift cards of some sort. One because she is notoriously hard to buy for and the other because she has a severely handicapped child at home and it's easier for her. The gifts for the ex and girlfriend and my granddaughter will be shared gifts with my daughter since we're cutting corners and we can get a nicer gift that way.

I feel proud of myself as I just got that all done this morning. I deserve a piece of pumpkin pie for breakfast as a reward.

Commander in Chief

I've been watching the Republicans scramble since the midterms, especially over the issue of Iraq. The current administration got us into this mess and apparently have absolutely no plan to get us out other than changing slogans from time to time.

You notice I said they have no plan to get us out. It would seem to me that would bother a lot of people, including Republicans. Even the military commanders on the ground over there have admitted they are not winning and have proposed three alternatives, without too many details, none of which involve actually winning.

You would think in the face of all of this that the neocons out here in reality land would finally begin to question the President's wisdom and even intelligence in this war. But what do they do? They attack the Democrats and start screaming that the Democrats don't have a plan to win in Iraq. Well guess what folks? The Democrats don't even take power until January and when they do, guess who will still be the Commander in Chief and making all of the decisions regarding the handling of the war in Iraq? It ain't going to be a Democrat. At best Democrats can give advice.

So when your favorite neocon starts whining about the Democratic plan to win Iraq, remind him or her of two things: Only George W. Bush can develop a plan to get us out of Iraq and only George W. Bush can implement such a plan. Then remind them that they didn't lose the election just because of Bush's war. They also lost because of the corruption, the scandals, and because they accomplished absolutely nothing of significance legislatively for six years, and suggest that maybe they should notice that the finger they are pointing have three more directed back at them.

Do not let them get you defensive. The party hierarchy should start hammering this point home immediately. It was Bush's war before the election and it will remain Bush's war after.

Thanksgiving Eve

Thanksgiving has always been a much larger holiday in my house than Christmas for a lot of reasons I won't go into here. Tonight is Thanksgiving eve. My daughter arrived home from work early. Together we had gathered the necessary piles of food for the holiday.

We have lots of little things we do on Thanksgiving eve. We bake pies and we share champagne in special etched glasses that are used for no other purpose than for she and I to drink a toast or two to the holidays. We cook the eggs for the stuffing and the deviled eggs. We chop veggies for the stuffing in the morning, cook the giblets, and make the jello salad.

Tonight we watched March of the Penguins together. At the end of the movie we shared a piece of freshly made pumpkin pie before going to bed.

Tomorrow we will make stuffing, cook two kinds of potatoes, stuff celery, make relish trays, and put together a big meal fit for an army. Some friends who have nowhere to go for the holiday will share the meal with us. Susan will send pies to her ex and his girlfriend, and his sister and her family (don't ask. My family is nothing if not complicated). And we'll enjoy our time together.

The next few weeks will be very stressful and we're facing some hard times, but we'll make it through. For now it is Thanksgiving eve, it's late, and I'm heading to bed. I wish everyone a great holiday. Tomorrow I'll deal with having as a guest a 6' tall male crossdresser and his whatever. That should be infinitely interesting. As I said, life is sometimes quite interesting and unusual around here.

We'll See

I have taken a step today I may live to regret. Then again, maybe not. Years ago I was very politically active, working on campaigns (both parties), and doing a lot of things to get candidates of my choice elected. I did press stuff for a recall campaign that recalled 5 members of a 9 member city council, meeting with other plotters in a sort of seedy waterfront bar to get the information for the initial press release, etc. Was great fun.

Then my ex got home from Vietnam all screwed up and one of the things I had to drop was any political involvement because of his behavior. He would make my life so miserable if I tried to do things that made me happy that eventually I quit. I tried going back many years later, and actually did work a successful campaign for a U.S. Senator. But I didn't follow up.

A couple of days ago I got a note from the Democratic National Committee about a new website for volunteers they have set up to keep their grassroots momentum going for the next two years. After thinking about it for a few days and visiting the site a couple of times, I decided to sign up. I told them what I do and do not like doing, so I won't be asked to work phone banks which I loathe passionately. It's Sunday so I'll see if I get a response. They claim I will.

They also have blogs, groups, etc. so that will give me yet another place to be opinionated. This is a good thing.

Dreary Day

It has been an absolutely do-nothing day today. I awoke around 3:00 and was up an hour or so before I got tired enough to go back to sleep. I was up again before 7:00. No dog this morning; this is a good thing.

The weather is dreary and nasty. It's been storming all day. High winds and copious amounts of rain. I don't even have the ambition to play my games or write or do anything. I didn't even do my laundry which desperately needs to be done. I will definitely do it tomorrow.

This afternoon it was cold and my feet were freezing. I couldn't build a fire. There was little wood in the house and no starter logs. So it was cold on top of being damp and drippy. Finally the lack of sleep caught up and I pulled on an extra sweater and my gloves, then put my afghan over my legs and chest. I was asleep in minutes. I only slept maybe 45 minutes, but it helped a lot. I woke up very warm and cozy. I really hated to move.

I guess I'll dig in my drawers and see if I can find some socks. I'll never get to sleep tonight if my feet are this cold.

I have Insurance

Well ok. I don't yet but I will soon. The first of December to be precise. I got the card in the mail today indicating I have been accepted for the supplemental Medicare plan I chose.

As soon as I am eligible I will locate the nearest clinic and make an appointment to have my two most annoying problems taken care of, if possible. The first will remain between me and my doctor as it's embarassing to admit to, but I understand there is a prescription drug that can stop the problem.

The second is my sleeplessness. I haven't slept through an entire night for close to 20 years. There is a new sleeping pill that doesn't carry a caveat of a risk of dependency. That's all I would need, to find something that worked then discover I could never get off if it. I understand that rebound insomnia is a really difficult thing to deal with. I'm sure I would have less depression and more energy if I were ever truly rested. On the very rare occasions I do sleep and only wake up three or four times in a night I know I feel a lot better. I can just imagine how sleeping 6-8 straight hours would feel.

So I'm psyched. I also got dental insurance which will permit me to get my teeth relined. If I do it in December, then I immediately have the entire years funding when Jan 1 arrives. My teeth definitely need to be relined.

I've been nervous thinking that after all the research and everything that I would be turned down for this coverage. I'm glad I have it. I suppose I'll be getting some sort of membership package in the next couple of weeks. And this coverage also includes prescription drugs, glasses, and a membership in the local YMCA as part of the package. That's more health coverage than I have had in literally 10 years.

Random Ramblings

These are just random thoughts on a cold, wet, windy day. I'm really bored, yet I actually have more things to do than I can possibly get done at any given time.

I have finished my planning for Christmas. I know who I am giving what. The quilt I am making for my son and his wife won't be done by Christmas, of course. I'll send them each a small present with a picture of the quilt attached to it so they can see what they are getting. Works for me.

It's probably not going to be a very merry Christmas this year. My daughter's divorce will be final and she's got some personal problems that may mean she won't be home for the holiday. Unfortunately nobody but me and one or two very close friends know of this and I cannot talk about it at her request.

My feet are cold, but that will change soon as I get ready for bed and crawl between my nice warm flannel sheets. I do need to wash my down comforter though. The dogs have left footprints all over it. The weather has been miserable for a couple of weeks, though it barely rained today.

I just learned that my favorite conveniently located grocery store is going out of business in a couple of weeks. *sigh* I will miss the quality. Albertsons just doesn't cut it.

Tomorrow I plan to get the rest of my housework done, do my laundry, wash the comforter, then dig out a jigsaw puzzle and start working it on the dining room table. I will also finish a book I've been reading and get more writing done. I always have more books to read, a quilt to work on, and an afghan that I am knitting. It's always something. I may toss some Posole together in the crock pot first thing in the morning and let it simmer all day for supper tomorrow night.

I am craving something sweet. And it's really time for bed.

I m probably imagining things

I know it is probably all coincidence, but a few months ago I sent the DNC a letter containing the piece I posted here of advice on what to do if they won the election. Naturally they did not even acknowlege getting it, but it's amazing that they have apparently implemented every single I suggested.

I fully realize that most of what I said was purely common sense. Still, today Nancy Pelosi announced a list of things Republicans had excluded Democrats from in the House and vowed to include them as much as possible now that Democrats have power. That was one of my suggestions. I suggested they muzzle Howard Dean until he could be a bit more temperate in how he spoke. He was hardly seen during the election. Others spoke for the Democrats. I suggested they make a list of a few essential things they intended to accomplish, then work across the aisle to make them happen. They've done that. I suggested that they absolutely not get tied up in an impeachment effort; Pelosi has said they will not. I suggested several other things, a total of ten in all, and every one of them has been implemented.

The reason I know it just has to be common sense rather than them paying attention to me is that if they truly were using my ideas, they would have contacted me by now to at least thank me for the advice. I offered it freely but I would have been so totally excited had someone acknowledged it and said thank you. Everyone likes to believe their ideas have merit. I guess I'm no different in that.

Interesting Events

Last night's election was a real eye opener to those on Capitol Hill who arrogantly assumed that the average voter could be scared out of their outrage at the way things are going and scared into voting Republican.

They were wrong. As it now stands the House is firmly in the hands of Democrats even with nine races still outstanding. Of those, one will probably go Republican, three Democrat, and four are just too close to call. One, Louisiana, had so many candidates that it will require a runoff. That one will probably go Democratic as well.

Senate control hovers on a knifeblade. One seat in Virginia which is now undergoing a recount and which is leaning Democratic. If that one tips Democratic, Democrats will control all the chairmanships in the Senate.

What I found more interesting is the reactions from all concerned. Bush is clearly furious and confused. His press conference was all but painful to watch. He accepted Rumsfeld's resignation, which is a good thing, but proved he lied last week when he said he would keep the man until the end of his term. He is now talking concilliation and cooperation, but it's clear that neither appeal to him very much. I believe he has gotten the message but that he got it from his own party.

John McCain just held a news conference, and he's clearly speaking for the majority of Republicans at the moment when he says the war must take a new direction, and that if that means more troops to quell the insurgency and the militias then that is what it will mean. He also pointed out that 19 of the seats that changed hands in the House yesterday did so because of corruption and other scandals. He says he believes Republicans have got to get their act together and return to the basics of Republican philosophy which includes reduced spending, less government, and other core principles. He's clearly chastened and scared for the Senate as well.

Perhaps more surprising though is the tone of the Democrats. It's as if they realize that if they get cocky and stupid then they are in major trouble. They have only two years to pull this all together and make it work. That's not a long time.

It may be enough, however, if they realize that Republicans can only be just so obstructionist without further infuriating voters who are sick of the lot of them at the moment. This is the message I hoped voters would send in this election. Shape up, get back to the people's business, or else. Let's hope it sticks well enough to produce results. Politicians have notoriously short memories.

Bush Caught Lying Yet Again

Honestly, the man has such a problem with telling the truth. This time it has to do with his avowal that if elected Democrats will raise taxes. He is the President. He is the only one who can sign a tax bill into law. Exactly how will the Democrats raise taxes? At best they will take the House tomorrow and by far less than a 60% majority. They probably won't take the Senate.

What this means is that in order to raise taxes, Democrats will have to pass a tax bill through both houses, one of which they do not control, and then persuade the president to sign the bill or override his veto, neither of which they will have the votes to do.

Bottom line? The threat of increased taxes is a political lie, pure and simple unless Bush is planning to raise taxes himself. There's no other way a tax bill can get passed and signed into law.

I have been tagged

I'm not sure what it means entirely, but I will at least try to keep it going to the best of my ability. Here are the rules:

1) Name the person who tagged you
2) 8 things about you
3) Tag 6 people.

Sewmouse tagged me.

1. I've never been in love. Don't expect ever to be at this point and would run like hell if I thought it might happen.

2. I am a good writer, but don't seem to have the impetus to get things finished. I get hung up then don't write.

3. I have not slept through an entire night in about 20 years. Not one night. Not even after surgery. I've even been drugged in the hospital and still was awake a few hours later.

4. I've been fighting chronic depression for most of my life.

5. I always have at least two craft projects going at any one time. Generally it's a quilt, and one other thing. Right now it's a knitted afghan that fascinates me because it's entirely double sided yet is knitted on the same set of needles and each side comes out right.

6. I'm retired now, but not from choice. After my last job I was unable to ever find another one and chose to retire so I would have an income. I'll be 65 in another month and a half.

7. I live with my daughter. It has worked out ok most of the time, though I could certainly do without a lot of the high drama that goes on around here.

8. I was born in Alaska, and have visited all of the states but New England. I have also visited Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, England, and Germany. I love to travel and were I rich I would be on the go constantly. Well, that's not entirely true. I love visiting new places. I actually hate to travel. I need a teleporter.

I'm adding a fact #9. I don't know six other people to tag.

A Closer Look at the Bush Tax Cuts

This election year about all Republicans have to boast about seems to be Bush’s tax cuts. They pin all of the economic growth and job creation on these cuts. Democrats, on the other hand, point out that the cuts are unfairly weighted to benefit the top 1% or so of taxpayers, who are receiving 300% of the tax savings as are average middle class taxpayer. This is a percentage not a dollar amount. It means that rich people are getting three times the percentage of tax cut as is the middle class, not just that they pay more taxes. A fair tax cut is the same percentage across the board regardless of how much you earn. This intrigued me, so I went looking for facts. This is what I found. My sources are listed at the bottom of this essay.

Citizens for Tax Justice and the Children’s Defense Fund point out that over the ten-year life of the Bush tax cut (remember congress always intended the cuts to be a temporary boost to the economy) the top 1% of taxpayers will realize nearly half a trillion dollars ($477 billion) in tax savings. This cut is designed so that the very top tax payers receive progressively larger cuts each year until 2011 when the law expires. The first year of the cuts the amount averaged about $12,000 per taxpayer.

By contrast, 75% of families and individuals making less than $73,000 a year (and that’s most of us) received ¾ of all the cuts they will receive in the first year, and those averaged about 350 per taxpayer.

The writers conclude that making the current cuts permanent will reduce Federal revenues by $1.7 trillion through 2014, a figure that includes the added interest on the national debt. They also project added budget deficits of $20 trillion across that time with no clear material benefit to the average middle class taxpayer. The Brookings institution estimates that this would amount to about 1.8% of the GDP.

A second negative is that because of these factors, an additional 44 million people would see their tax bill grow appreciably when they became subject to the Alterative Minimum Tax (AMT) by 2014.

More telling, the Congressional Budget Office estimates the cost of making the costs permanent at $1.6 trillion over ten years. However, people at the Office of Management and Budget point out a buried clause in the budget that hides more than another trillion dollars in lost revenue.

The explanation of why this is so is complicated. At the time these tax cuts went into effect (Bush wanted them to be permanent), Bush also attempted to make a change in bookkeeping methods that would effectively remove the true costs of the cuts from the main budget. In the words of a Washington Post writer this means that “If you tell Congress the cost of making those tax cuts permanent lawmakers might have second thoughts about doing it.” In 2004, 2005, and again this year, Republicans have submitted legislation to make this bookkeeping change. It has been voted down each time.

Another thing the administration lauds publicly is that its tax cuts have resulted in significant job growth. According to a watchdog group called Jobwatch, however, it is increased Federal spending and not tax cuts that have created the bulk of jobs created over the past five years. They point out that if the tax cuts were responsible for job growth, then the bulk of the new jobs would have been created in the private sector with its own funding.

The Department of Defense estimates that since 2001 it has added 1.495 million jobs to the private sector through its own spending. Another 1.325 million jobs were added through increases in non-defense discretionary spending, for a total of 2.2 million new jobs directly attributable to increased government spending, not private enterprise. This does not include jobs created by increases in mandatory government spending and I could find no figures to account for these.

Monthly job growth since 2003 has been approximately 50% of that during the previous administration and real wages are lower by 22 cents an hour since June of 2003. Since March 2001, the United States has lost approximately 659,000 high paid information jobs. Add the loss of manufacturing jobs and this figure rises to over 2 million.

Since November of 2001 the economy has added 1,93,000 jobs in education and health services, and another 1,087,000 in the hospitality industry. These jobs in general pay appreciably less than the jobs we’ve lost. These figures would be appreciably different if the Bush administration had succeeded in a change it proposed to job reporting rules that would have allowed them to mask the enormous decrease in manufacturing jobs by re-classifying burger flipping and other restaurant jobs as manufacturing jobs.

The bottom line is that the Bush tax cut are nowhere as clearly beneficial as Republicans would have us believe, nor are they producing the number of new jobs we have been told once you factor out those jobs created by profligate government spending. The facts certainly open the door to discussion. I would urge people to read the information and to search out more information on their own.

Sources:

http://www.ctj.org/html/gwb0602.htm

http://www.brook.edu/views/op-ed/gale/20040121taxcuts.htm

http://www.brook.edu/comm/policybriefs/pb101.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/17/AR2006021701848.html

http://www.jobwatch.org/