The end of a year

I find that this has been a year of ups and downs. Job going over seas. Worked a job that I would have been better suited to when I was twenty. Lost that job when worked ran low and boss started to have fits. Working temp. That has been an eye opener. Finally working steady. Have had a Calling will be starting school either in the spring or fall. Looks like fall right now. But thats OK. All in good time.

Am about to go and enjoy some Coven punch maybe I'll put the recipe for it out later. Right now I am looking towards what should be an interesting year. hope you Gentile Reader are having as a good time and Hope you will be here in the coming year.

Blesses Be All

The First out of the Gate is...

The former Senator Edwards, As every one knows by now he has come out strong and heavy. the real question is will he be able to sustain this energy. Yes, he is first out. Being first out of the gate does not guarantee anything. In fact it almost guarantees a long hard battle.

His platform is one that has the Fox and other conservative wailing. Trying to decry oohh he just Kerry's shadows. Some how I don't really think so. He has by coming out now is showing a certain amount of genius. Yes, all the candidates are going to run on similar themes. However, he was the first to state it in his campaign.

At this point I am willing to bet that Sen. Clinton is having kittens. I think she was hoping that Sen. Obama would be her only headache at least as far as democrats were concerned. And perhaps that Gov. Vilsack. Now she has to contend with someone that comes to the table with an already made base.

He could sweep in to the White House with either Sen. Obama or the Gov. Vilsack as his running mate. Though I am willing to predict that among the democrats its going to be a close run between Edward, Vilsack, and Obama. Forget Sen. Clinton she will be the noise the right will be making.

Currently I think that I can safely predict that the best choices for the democratic party will be one of these three men in one combination or another. Sen. Clinton will have by the time the democratic party selects its Presidential hopeful, it will have sideline Sen. Clinton. The dragon will have to be placated after all. So watch as the three aforementioned gentlemen try and make peace with her.


"We all must take responsibility and take action now to:
Provide moral leadership in the world
Strengthen our middle class and end poverty
Guarantee universal health care for every American
Lead the fight against global warming
Get America and other countries off our addiction to oil "

I took the above off his website directly. This makes for great rhetoric. I hope he really is intending to do more than addressing these issues. We need to do these things we need a person who can at least fight to see that the ball gets started to rolling. Will I vote for this man? At this time I am more inclined to wait and see how this campaign season goes. Cause it sure does look interesting and will be entertaining.

There is only on more thing that I will add to this blog. Out of all the candidates presently in the field. I find that John Edwards who come across as being people. That is being some one that can be related to as a person and thought as being human. Not just as another pol throwing his name in to the hat.

My thoughts on Gerald Ford

Yes, Gentile Reader I know that I should have blogged this days ago.

I remember that he was a good man the last of what the republican party once was. Gerald Ford was a man that knew what was good in a tumultuous time. He was a person who neither sought nor wanted to be Vice President nor President. He stepped up and did all that was asked. Including taking the fall for his party. If there is anything that can be said for this man it is thus. He was the right man at the right time in history. We all were blessed to have him in our midst.

Iran And North Korea

What do these two nations have in common? Both have and are nuclear powers. Both have the been voted unanimously to have sanctions imposed on them. And both interestingly are defiant. The only difference is there politics one is an Islamic dictatorship and the other pretends to be a communist nation. Politics do make strange bed fellows and this must be one of the strangest.

Where North Korea is impoverished Iran is actually quite well off. Benefit of oil. Selling it to both Soviet Russia and now Russia. As well as to China from time to time. Iran has pursued nuclear power since 1979 when the Islamic regime came to power. This is an old issue that has been quietly percolating since that time.

But now the U.N. has decided to do something. Sanctions. Iran and North Korea believe that this is a joke. I wonder is this something that is a new thinking on the part of such countries that have in the past supported and even encouraged these nations to pursue nuclear power. That in spite of what the U.S. has maintained. Such nations with nuclear capabilities can only lead to destabilizing the regions that they are in. As well as being a threat to the rest of the world.

Today it appears the U. N. and the rest of the world are finally waking up to this ongoing threat. Amazingly the U.N has taken steps to recognize that threat by imposing Sanctions. This is a good start. Though what will be the next step is now being debated. Iran and North Korea will be defiant in the hopes that history will repeat. The U.N. makes a lot of noise. Then forgets and everything returns to what it was.

Maybe before 9/11. But today both Russia and China are voting along with the rest of the security council. Something that has not been done since The Korean war. Yes, the sanctions against Iran came after some tough notations. However, it is still important that these sanctions still have bite. Which is still far better than some of the sanctions that have been imposed in the past.

The Bush Administration had wanted tougher sanctions. The U.N. is not about to do that. Not yet anyways. Personally I think that Both China and Russia are finally coming around to the idea that nations like Iran and North Korea that have nuclear capabilities are a larger threat than at first thought. Yes, it made sense to use these countries as way to tweak the U.S. nose. Now a new day is a dawning.

A day that has China reevaluating what North Korea means to China and how willing they are to allow a nuclear nation that close to its borders. Both Iran and North Korea have shown that they are willing to to use any means to achieve an agenda. That could include the use of nuclear weapons. Both are willing to use terrorism as a weapon. Both use rhetoric that can be disturbing. As it is not all rhetoric that has been demonstrated from time to time.

So cheers to the U.N. for stepping up. And to both China and Russia for finally recognizing that Iran and North Korea need to be stopped before a tragedy occurs.

And the winner is?

Not any one here that's for sure. Iraq war is going do well that hey why don't we.....expand the military!!! Never mind the Army, Marines, Navy and Air Force are all saying the same thing. Our politicians unable to go up with a viable solution to Iraq, have decided to do the most insane thing they could think of. Well the second most.

The Generals are all saying the same thing. Don't do this. We don't want to add more troops in Iraq. What does Our Dear Leader President Bush want to do? Three guess and the first two wont count. That's right Gentile Reader. Unable to think of anything else. Leaving this mess with any dignity is not even an option. What is left? Send more troops.

Oh the Army is stretched thin. My oh My. Well we can up the recruitment. After all loyal Americans are just frothing at the mouth to go over there and shoot those people. Never mind what that lefty, err that is that fine conservative, Fox station is saying.

What is so unforgivable is that some democrats are actually proposing this same thing along similar lines. What is it with politicians? America is sick of fighting a war that should be over. Iraqs problem is now more about fighting a civil war. We tried to set up a government that would be as close to democracy as could be managed.

The Iraqis are voicing their disapproval of this idea. No matter what our intention were. It is obvious now that Iran and Syria were going to be spoil sports. So what do we do? Invade these countries? There is as a solution out there. What it might be I don't really know. However, I do know that increasing our Military is not the answer.

Unless of course President Bush is thinking of invading another country. Like say North Korea?
The Talks are going no where as predictable. Yes it slow going even under the best conditions. These are not those conditions. But as always Kims diplomats are playing the usual game of holding to the line; We have them and not giving them up.

So are these new incoming troops, if there is any, really going to Iraq? It does make one wonder. Personally I think that One: no politician has any real idea what to do with Iraq. And two: Kim Jong Il had better watch himself especially if we do expand our military.

North Korea is being bold

But just how bold will it be? Yes North Korea is saying it will attend the talks. I am willing to believe that N.Korea is betting that the US will cave. A risky bet. But then Kim has learned a lot over the years. One is always be bold. Never back down till necessary. Then only until the moment is past. Then ignore any agreement previously made. Going back to what ever the original plan was.

The talks in themselves cost North Korea nothing. Kim gets to sound off how everyone is being miserable to him and his impoverished country. expect to see that rhetoric as the negotiations to unfreeze the bank accounts. Also watch as Kim seemingly will give a little only to demand greater from The US, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Kim is a lot of things, but stupid he is not. The only real question is how long until the war?

Though Kim Jong Il has indicated that he will not give up the new toys. He really has no reason to do that in any case. Short of invading and starting the war back up. I don't really think there is a way at this point to convince or even give the North Koreans a compelling argument to dismantle their program at this time.

However I do take some hope that the talks might slow down this march to war. Maybe we can find an answer that will finally pull this madman back from a very deadly brink. I do think that until Kim is gone we are going to have that war.

North Korea - The next war?

The above link will take you to the article in the Australian paper. The up coming round of talks with this highly volatile regime is about to commence. Only is this round just a step in a what is increasingly becoming a justification to going to war? Kim Jong Ill is not about to stop his countries nuclear program. Washington and now even China are very concerned.

Chinas pronouncement that N. Korea is

"The important meeting of the central committee of the Communist Party three months ago proclaimed that a nuclear North Korea was a formidable challenge to China's "core interests" - a phrase previously used only about Taiwan independence."

Is telling in the most severe way. China has made a misstep in it balancing act of keeping the west at bay. Their catspaw has now become a dagger at their throat as well. With the threat of losing power and influence in Asia as a result. Something Beijing is not going to accept with good grace.

At the end of the day will China accept their catspaw now having some real muscle? Knowing that Kim Jong Ill has the chance to use nuclear toys. It really is more than rhetoric with Kim and Beijing know that fact as well. So it really is not a if question. It becomes a when and where question. The only other question would be how near the US will Kim strike? Or would it be China?

Thats where Beijing worries the most. If N. Korea strikes a Asian target. Asia as a whole will hold China responsible. Even if that target is South Korea. Remember that the Korean war is still active. It is in a perpetual cease fire. The war can resume at any time, in theory. So is Kim Jong Ill looking to restart the war his father left? that is a very good question.

However I think he is really is making a desperate move to keep what is increasingly unstable condition at home. Yes, he is still very much in charge, but for how long? Even a people who have existed under the iron fisted regime like North Korea have revolted. Something that Kim Jong Ill is very aware of. South Korea must look real inviting to a lot of his citizens. China with its own booming economy must look like almost paradise. The rumors that Asia as a whole is making money and doing well has to be worrying the Leader of North Korea.

In a fit of madness North Korea has decided to pursue this march to war. Believing that the US will not attack or even retaliate at this time. My thinking is the Kim will attend this six party meeting if for no other reason than to buy him more time. Knowing that our elections are only two years away and a new US Administration will be in the White House. A new Administration that might not be so willing to go to war.

That decision may not be Washington's to make. Rather it might be Beijing.

President Bush is still not in tune to the reality

Well Gentile Reader How do you like that? Hmm? Our Dear Leader President Bush is a still thinking he is going to get his way no matter what it takes. The Iraq Commission was not as well thought out as any of us would have liked, but it was a beginning. Not a catch all. Though the way its told from some quarters one would presume that very thing.

President Bush in a masterful or Rove maneuver has locked it till after the Democrats come in to the majority in the Houses. This way he does not alienate any more of his party. Though that really is not the reason. The more likely reason is that one must choose your field of battle carefully. Something President Bush might have given more thought before running into Iraq. But thats blood under the bridge.

No he is still trying to "stay the course". No matter how many bodies of our young that must fill the body bags. Our allies are leaving this coming year. The British are ready to go at any time. Thanks to this fool in the White House we are going to be left holding the bag. Or body bag.

Take a look at the war and tell me that we are even fighting the same war that our enemies are fighting. Iraqis want us out. The the Iraqi government needs us there to prop them up. Its Saigon all over. I am old enough to remember the last helicopter leaving Saigon. Is that what we are eventually going to have again?

Another memory of the last helicopter leaving an embattled captital city? While the enemy fighter pour in to the city killing and throwing the government out. Instituting their own brand of government.

Lets face it, those people in Iraq don't want us there. We are seen as invaders. Not as liberators, not as a people who are helping them. If the Iraqi people truely wanted us there, do you think the civil war would be raging? Would the killing be going on to such an extreme if the Iraqi people as a majority wanted us there? What the US and Britain and our other allies tried to help establish?

Lets be honest the Iraqi people have spoken. Those people are not willing to end the violence whether we are there or not. We are fighting the insurgents. Meanwhile the Iraqis are fighting a civil war.

President Bush is clueless as usual. And the Gentile Reader brings us back to the Iraq Study Group. Because the commision doesn't seem to be any more connected to the reality of Iraq. One proposal is to engage in talk with the same two nations that are fueling this civil war.

We either admit that a civil war is raging or we bury our heads in the Iraq sand. It seems President Bush as well as the politicians in Washington, DC seem to think that if no one say the those deadly words to much maybe the Iraqis will end the fighting and every one will get a long.

My guess is that we will be burying a lot more of our young people, while our leaders argue about reality. Be prepared for that scene of a last helicopter leaving an embattled capital. I hope I am wrong, but unless President Bush and Congress figure this out. That helicopter is going to be the reality.

A few things of Note

Gates has been nominated. Good. Don't envy the man his job. The second time he has had to come in and clean up some Else's mess. Hope he can do it. A military that has watched a lot of career officer go down when they couldn't stomach the insanity of Mr. Rumsfeld. A white house that seems to live in a world all to its self.

But that world is coming apart. Yes, Our Dear Leader is taking advantage of the vagueness of the Iraq Report. To whit: No time table saying just when our troops are to leave Iraq. That gives him just enough room to turn this debacle around and proclaim he "can stay the course." .

But thats what he wants. leave office and dump this tragedy in some else's lap. How sweet for him.

But on to other news. Caught Rev. Al Sharpton the other day one news or other. Not making any more sense now than he ever did. That was until he call Condoleezza Rice an Uncle Tom. Now there was something I haven't heard since I was a kid in New York. Even then it wasn't something that every one recognized.

Mostly He made himself look foolish. Please yes Condaleezza Rice is the white House Tool. She knows it and accepts it. But does that make her an Uncle Tom? If so what does that make Henry Kissinger when he was Secretary of State for Former President Nixon?

The White at the time of the Nixon Administration wasn't as prone to the stupidities we see today, But seriously he had to go where his boss said and do the impossible. He is a Jew and having to get the Arabs to sit down and talk with him was a small triumph all its own.

Today Ms. Rice has built a trust with the world leaders that most are willing to sit down and talk with her before they are willing to talk to President Bush.

And pardon me for begging the question but, does that make her an Uncle Tom? Maybe yes. Most likely no. Why? Really two reasons. One is that she understands the President that Colin Powell never could. Our Dear Leader President Bush makes the decisions. Right or wrong he is the one that in the end is going to do what he wants and no one is going to tell him differently.

I find that Donald Rumsfeld leaving was the most self serving exit that I have had witness in a long time. Please, a memo? Saying that there should be a new direction? Well he does have to leave in a way that he can be employed in the future. Being known as Bushes right hand may not look so good on a resume.

Now the recommendation from the Baker commission. Has a lot of good ideas and some off the wall ones. First it is a bad idea to talk to Iran. Never mind Syria. At this point Iran is hoping to repeat what it did to us in 1979. Lets get to the real point of this Iran is our enemy. It has never made any bones about that.

Engaging them in a dialog about Iraq is insane. So what is the solution? A hard difficult one. One is face the facts that the Iraqi people are embracing those people across the borders. By recognizing that we can fight this war in much saner way. Iran and Syria has stuck their nose where it doesn't belong. So how do we spank them?

The sad truth is I don't believe we can. The way this war has been mismanaged is criminal. It will be a long time before we will be able to do anything. The only alternative is to expand the war. There can be no real way around this. At this point Iran will once more sneer in our faces and once more be able to laugh at the foolish Americans.

Its a shameful day Gentle Reader when you know the enemy, having fought in one war that has gone no where only to find that we missed the real enemy by one country. Only now do we as a Nation find that an old enemy has been the one laughing at us as we fought one war. When in reality it was an entirely different war.

To late now. Continuing the war now will get more young people killed. and not much more than that.