Michigan's Republican Caucus Plays Follow the Leader

Given recent votes in Congress (or votes not to allow votes), the election last November, and recent polling data, it is clear that Bush's plan to "Stay the Course" -- but with more troops -- is not supported by the majority of Americans.

According to Dan Froomkin and the Washington Post,

* 67% of Americans disapprove of the way Bush is handling Iraq.

* 67% of Americans oppose sending additional troops to Iraq.

* 66% support reducing U.S. military and financial support for the Iraqi government if the Iraqis fail to make progress toward national unity and restoring civil order.

* 64% don't think the war with Iraq was worth fighting.

* 58% want Congress to limit the number of troops available for duty.

* 56 percent feel the U.S. should withdraw its military forces from Iraq in order to avoid further U.S. military casualties, even if that means civil order is not restored there.

Froomkin also reports that "63 percent feel they cannot trust the Bush administration to honestly and accurately report intelligence about possible threats from other countries."

Think about it. More than half of all Americans want Congress to limit the troops available for duty in Iraq and they also think we should withdraw existing troops to avoid further casualties.

TWO THIRDS of all Americans disapprove of sending more troops to Iraq, they disagree with how Bush is handling the war in general, and they are tired of paying for this failed neo-con experiment.

Just under TWO THIRDS of all Americans think it was a mistake to go into Iraq in the first place.

But, when asked to vote on just 2 simple and clear statements, except for Congressman Fred Upton, Michigan's Republican Caucus shamelessly supported Bush.

The two questions were simple:

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That--

(1) Congress and the American people will continue to support and protect the members of the United States Armed Forces who are serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq; and

(2) Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on January 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq.

These Congressional Reps Do Not Support the Troops But They Do Support President Bush:

• Joe Knollenberg
• Thaddeus McCotter
• Mike Rogers
• Vern Ehlers
• Dave Camp
• Candice Miller
• Pete Hoekstra

John McCain -- The "Flexible" Candidate

John McCain was for Roe v. Wade before he was against it.

MIGOP Support Bush's Escalation of "Stay the Course"

Yes. The strategy is the same -- stay the course -- Bush just wants to put ~22,000 more troops at risk. And Michigan's Republicans in Congress are lining up right behind George Bush.

Yep. Mission Accomplished. SNAFU.

Justice Scalia's Daughter Arrested for DUI

The uber-conservative Justice Antonin Scalia's daughter was arrested for driving under the influence and child endangerment. So much for Scalia's family values.

Why Hasn't the MIGOP Mentioned That One of their Leaders Has Been Indicted for Rape, Kidnapping, and Aggrevated Burglary?

According to WTOL 11 in Toldedo, Ohio, the chairman of Michigan's Young Republicans has been indicted by a grand jury for 17 charges, including rape, kidnapping, and aggrevated burglary.

Michigan's Chief Young Republican raped a woman in Cleveland last year while at a Republican Convention.

Too bad the Republican's didn't build a separate prison for themselves when Engler was Governor of Michigan or Bob Taft was Governor of Ohio -- with all the Republican's going to prison lately they sure could have used one.

Bush Wants to Cut Budget For Social Security But Increase it For Iraq

How is it that the President is telling us that we don't have enough money to be able to fund social security or medicare, but there is enough to fund an escalation in the Iraq War?

Bush has already wasted $344 billion on his pet war in Iraq. Now he wants an additional $100 billion this year and $145 Billion next year. That is a total of $589 Billion.

That is a lot of money.

Meanwhile he wants to cut $70 Billion out of programs for Americans like Social Security and Medicare.

If we left Iraq now couldn't we use that $245 Billion for Social Security and Medicare? Why does George Bush want to cut benefits for Seniors?

Why does George Bush hate America? Why does Bush like Iraq better than America? Could it be that he and his greedy friends at the Grand Oil Party see the oil there as their personal fortune?

The Real McCain

Bush & Cheney Are Lying About the Power of the "Commander In Chief"

According to this insightful essay, Bush and Cheney are lying about the President's role as Commander in Chief.

His role is more like that of a General who has to report to Congress.

Bush Says He Will "Stay the Course", But As a Compromise He Is Willing To Call It Something Else

In a unexpected compromise, President Bush has decided that as "Commander of the Universe" he is going to "Stay the Course", but that as a token of bipartisanship, he has agreed to call his plan something else.

For now it is just known as, "the plan".

To accomodate Secretary of State Rice, they were going to call it "the augmentation plan", but they decided that sounded too much like a plastic surgery procedure.

Of course "the plan" does not contain any changes to the old "stay the course" plan, and is doomed to fail as well.

In fact, in a good article on the truth about the insurgency, one expert thinks that Bush and Rice are not telling us the truth about Iraq. Shocking.

Cheney Says U.S. Will Be In Iraq For "The Foreseeable Future"

This morning, on Fox News, Vice President Dick Cheney said "we can provide that help by putting additional forces in for the foreseeable future."

Later in the interview, the host, Chris Wallace tried to get Cheney to tell him what the Administration will do if Maliki doesn't cooperate. Wallace reminded Cheney that Bush said " it's not an open-ended commitment"

Cheney's response was "We're focused on making this plan work."

Wasn't that the problem with this war in the first place? They didn't plan for anything other than the initial attack and were taken by "surprise" that there was an insurgency.

Later in the interview Cheney made the bizarre statement that "This is an existential conflict".

What does that mean???

Then Cheney said something that is even more frightening: "It is the kind of conflict that's going to drive our policy and our government for the next 20 or 30 or 40 years."

Then they had this exchange wherein Cheney called the elections "public opinion polls":

WALLACE: Iraq was a big issue in the November election. I want you to take a look at some numbers from the election. According to the National Exit Poll, 67 percent said the war was either very or extremely important to their vote, and only 17 percent supported sending in more troops. By taking the policy you have, haven't you, Mr. Vice President, ignored the express will of the American people in the November election?

CHENEY: Well, Chris, this president, and I don't think any president worth his salt, can afford to make decisions of this magnitude according to the polls. The polls change day by day...

WALLACE: Well, this was an election, sir.

CHENEY: Polls change day by day, week by week. I think the vast majority of Americans want the right outcome in Iraq. The challenge for us is to be able to provide that. But you cannot simply stick your finger up in the wind and say, "Gee, public opinion's against; we'd better quit."

That is part and parcel of the underlying fundamental strategy that our adversaries believe afflicts the United States. They are convinced that the current debate in the Congress, that the election campaign last fall, all of that, is evidence that they're right when they say the United States doesn't have the stomach for the fight in this long war against terror. They believe it. They look at past evidence of it: in Lebanon in '83 and Somalia in '93, Vietnam before that.

They're convinced that the United States will, in fact, pack it in and go home if they just kill enough of us. They can't beat us in a stand-up fight, but they think they can break our will. And if we have a president who looks at the polls and sees the polls are going south and concludes, "Oh, my goodness, we have to quit," all it will do is validate the Al Qaeda view of the world.

It's exactly the wrong thing to do. This president does not make policy based on public opinion polls; he should not. It's absolutely essential here that we get it right.

Gee. I didn't realize I was merely participating in a poll last November. Did you?

Jay Leno Said It Best:

President Bush is expected to announce that he is now sending more troops to Iraq, despite the fact that his generals, his military analysts, members of Congress, and most of the American people are against the idea.

The reason he is doing it?

To give Iraq a government that responds to the will of the people.

Jay Leno

The MI GOP Support Bush's War in Iraq

On his blog, the chair of that Republican Blog (that I won't link to because it is tasteless) states:

Whether we agree or disagree with the war in Iraq at this point is irrelevant-- we must finish what we started. President Bush made it clear tonight that we must continue to be vigilant and that we must also take corrective actions wherever necessary. We must provide our troops with whatever support they need- in man power, equipment, and financing.

The translation:

"Whether we agree or disagree with the war in Iraq at this point is irrelevant".
That means: "Everyone knows this war is a complete disaster."

"we must finish what we started."
That means: "We can't leave yet, defense companies haven't quite bled the taxpayers of this country dry yet. Let's give them another couple years."

"President Bush made it clear tonigh".
That means: "We know he is the worst speaker to ever inhabit the White House. And yes, he did have that 'deer in the headlights look' throughout this last speech."

"that we must continue to be vigilant and that we must also take corrective actions wherever necessary."
That means: "We have to stay in Iraq indefinitely because we have to pretend that we are tough guys and that the Democrats are sissies."

"We must provide our troops with whatever support they need- in man power, quipment, and financing."
That means: "Look, we couldn't afford to provide all those troops with bullet proof vests or armored vehicles. We spent that money on Haliburton and they have a remarkably high profit margin -- which we are certain is unrelated to the fact that Dick Cheney still runs the place and still collects a salary from Haliburton. We do support the troops. Because we need them for photo ops.


So, putting it all together, what he really said (with a few added transitional words and phrases) was:

• Everyone knows this war is a complete disaster, but we can't leave now because defense companies haven't quite bled the taxpayers of this country dry yet. Let's give them another couple years.
• We know that Bush's speech didn't present anything new or give you any confidence that this plan was different from his other failed plans.
• Afterall, he is the worst speaker to ever inhabit the White House. And yes, he did have that 'deer in the headlights look' throughout this last speech.
• But we have to stay in Iraq indefinitely because we have to pretend that we are tough guys and that the Democrats are sissies.
• Look, we couldn't afford to provide all those troops with bullet proof vests or armored vehicles. We spent that money on Haliburton and they have a remarkably high profit margin -- which we are certain is unrelated to the fact that Dick Cheney still runs the place and still collects a salary from Haliburton.
• We do support the troops. Because we need the troops for photo ops.
  
  

I Still Think This is the BEST Response To Bush's Plan For Iraq

The Michigan GOP's 10 Principles of Conservatism

The Michigan GOP recently published an entry entitled "10 Principles of Conservatism". We are reposting it here with a few minor editorial changes.

Ten Principles of Conservatism

1. God is a Republican
God is a Republican and should be visibly present in all public buildings. Right below large photographs of Ronald Reagan.

2. Life Is Important -- But Only If Declared So By a Republican
If you are poor or in a country we have unlawfully invaded, well then your life is worthless. Of course if we believe there is political capital to gain, we will falsely declare you to not be brain dead and we will spends millions of taxpayers dollars trying to convince the Courts to violate the law. Then we will declare all judges to be activists. By "activist" we mean judges that disagree with us.

3. Marriage and Family Come First, Unless You Are Gay
One of the core tenets of the Republican Party is to preserve at least one class of scapegoats. Right now we only have liberals and gays to pick on. Since we can't seem to stop liberals from getting married, we are determined to stop homosexuals.

4. Freedom is Liberty and Ignorance is Freedom
If we keep the wealthy wealthy, then we will always have an underclass. And by "underclass" we mean the middleclass. And if we deprive the middleclass of education by destroying the public school system through vouchers and other means of drastically underfunding it, then we can keep the middleclass ignorant. That way when we tell them they are free, they won't know enough to question us.

We will be able to enter their homes without knocking, listen into their phone calls without warrants, open their mail without cause, deprive them of trials at the whim of the Executive Branch, and still tell them that they are free. Oops. We have already accomplished this step.

5. Private Property is the Servant of Freedom
And therefore Servants, i.e., the middleclass shall not be allowed to own property. Since that pesky constitution allows them to own it, the only way we can keep property for ourselves is to make it so expensive that the middleclass can't afford it on the tiny salaries we pay them. Particularly when they have to spend most of their income on healthcare!

6. Government is the Seed of Tyranny
So we have to make certain that government remains in Republican control. We are much better at being tyrants than those sissies who run around demanding truth, justice, and the American way.

7. The Constitution Means What We Say It Says
Many of the problems in U.S. government would be resolved if the government would quit whining and just listen to the Imperial Republican President. Especially after he declares the Constitution unconstitutional and appoints himself the King.

8. Taxes Are Justified Only to Fund Necessary Government Spending
And by "necessary government spending" we mean Corporate Welfare. Like billions of dollars in subsidies to Big Oil.

9. National Defense Is Just That
The first duty of the federal government is to defend the American people against foreign enemies. Even when we have to make up the threat so that we can start wars so that we can make more money off of our stock in war profiteering corporations.

10. We Should Strive to Give Our Children a Better Country
And by "better country" we mean a Republican run and Republican owned country. Of course by "children" we mean children of Republicans.

The Republican Party is a Christian Party -- No Jews Allowed

If you have been suspicious that the Republican Party is merely an offshoot of Christian Evangelists, the Michigan GOP has just confirmed your suspicion!

On December 23rd, they posted a huge picture declaring it Jesus's Birthday.

Mmm. There is no mention of Hannukah on the blog.