Pancho's Blog: 01/15/2006

Friday, January 20, 2006

Another Pilli picture

Pilli blogging Fridays

Thursday, January 19, 2006

King George

I do believe that our president has overstepped his boundries. I said on Sept. 11 while watching the replay in the evening that this president would turn himself into a quasi dicator because we are at war. Never did I believe I would be completely correct in my assessment. The only thing that is keeping the contreversy from really blowing up is fear. This fear is a slippery slope that the White House has ridden all the way to this point. Remember he has a mandate 51% of people in this country trusted him with the command of this country and yet he still is failing the Union's people. His war presidency was barely renewed as a magizine subscription you find too bothersome to cancel so you just let it renew itself automaticly. Plus with a Congress completely controled by the Right for the last 6 years and the house for more than a decade we should be happy and in the mist of the most optimistic time in the country. Well it maybe for the rich and famous but the majority is not. Somehow people continue to get laidoff and Katrina did a number to an entire region but the unemployment keeps going down. Someway I beleive before Bush leave the white house (if he leaves) the Unemployment rate will reach 0% yes everyone will be working. How I don't know but that the way the number are going so just be happy. But as I was arguing with someone this weekend, dictatorships are bad. Sure they mitigate regional differences sometime such as Yugoslavia or Iraq, they nonetheless cause pain and represhion for sector of society that are not favored. I don't favor Fidel Castro being a leftist dictator, the dictator is wrong. I am reading a biography of Linclon our 13th president, he repeatedly speaks of the United States as a grand experiment in self-governance, he knew and fought for that experiment to continue and estimated that the experiment would be exported around the world. Well it has been but much as the United States continually deals with its present realities so do the countries that attempt or are forced to adopt democracy. Nevertheless, in fully fledged or even controled sections, self-governance is the only legitimet governing in this world. A government and nation that is respondent to its population and not to the business world or the WTO or foriegn intrest. This is why globalization is scary for many and why it should also be a source of hope. Democracy will help this world realize its potencial but the fasist/dictatorship and Kleptocracy severly dimishes that potencial people in this world have. Therefore a dictatorship no matter what ideological side is evil and wrong and must be actively fought for the shear reason that people are entitled by god to self-governance.

Thanks to Elderd for making me write this hope he or someone comments.

Osama drama

from the liberal oasis.. Pilli pictures come out later.
The Osama Tape
Another Reminder Of the GOP's Failing Terror War
(posted Jan. 20 1:30 AM ET)

1590 days since 9/11 and Osama still has not been brought to justice, nor (as Dubya used to say) has justice been brought to him.

Friendly leaders have been undemocratically installed in Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of democracy.

The Bush Administration has unconstitutionally asserted that Dubya is at the “zenith” of his executive power.

He has used that unchecked, unbalanced, unconstitutional power to allow torture, secret detentions, and warrantless wiretaps.

Unsurprisingly, these undemocratic, unconstitutional acts have not helped defeat the terrorist threat, but have exacerbated it.

Killing or capturing bin Laden immediately after 9/11 might have sent a strong message and severely disrupted the terrorist network.

Now, if we ever do get bin Laden, it will be four or more years too late.

It will be mere symbolism, as the terrorist ideology has already spread thanks to Bush’s neocon program.

Bush and the neocons deserve our deep disdain for putting their dangerous ideological desires ahead of taking care of immediate threats.

But let us not argue that bin Laden should be the be all and end all of a liberal counterterror strategy, simply because Bush has shamefully let him run free for so long.

Getting bin Laden, taking care of unfinished business, may be Step 1 in getting our counterterror strategy back on track, but it is far from steps 2-10.

Steps 2-10 involve junking the failing neocon game plan of phony democracy imposed by unilateral force, and replacing it with credible democracy and the eradication of poverty, fostered multilaterally.

That’s what will sap the Al Qaeda ideology of any rationale, depriving it of sympathy and support from the Arab/Muslim world.

Getting bin Laden’s symbolic scalp, without a substantive shift in foreign policy will be meaningless.

Of course, instead of delving into why the GOP strategy has failed us so, elements of the media are reinforcing the GOP-fed notion that liberals and Democrats are akin to Osama.

Chris Matthews sunk to a new low, saying Osama sounds like Michael Moore. (Calls for a public apology are mounting.)

And the GOP flaks in Scarborough Country are saying Dems are taking cues from Al Qaeda.

Perpetuating the perception that Dems and liberals are weak is what has kept Republicans in power when national security is believed to be on the line.

But it is not Democratic politicians, liberal bloggers, or portly filmmakers that have fed Al Qaeda’s growth.

It is the last five years of essentially unfettered Republican rule, breaking our military, wasting our resources, denying people’s freedom, undermining our moral authority.

Bush is not Osama, and Cheney is not Zarqawi. But they make us weaker by the day.

MLK weekend

I haven't had a more relaxing and chill weekend in a while. As you can ascertain below we took pictures and if you start at the bottom and go up you can kinda trace our weekend. although there was a point when Ciuapilli was in California for a week we drove over and chilled with her and went to the beach. Chill time then we drove back and got a good shot of friendship and friend love. Funny how sometimes just being near people you know and love can alter you mood so. Well here's to a grand new year and changes all around. Taking some classes and they seem exciting. Que dios los bendige. Thanks to all for making it a happy weekend for Mari and I.