Friendship is like peeing your pants.......
Everyone can see it, but only you can feel it's warmth
good wedding songs for first dance
1. Amazed Lonestar
2. From This Moment On Shania Twain
3. At Last Etta James
4. Because You Loved Me Celine Dion
5. I Cross my Heart George Strait
6. It's Your Love Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
7. Wonderful Tonight Eric Clapton
8. Have I Told You Lately Rod Stewart or Van Morrison
9. I Swear Michael Montgomery
10. Unchained Melody Righteous Brothers
11. I Knew I Loved You Savage Garden
12. Always and Forever Heatwave
13. The Way You Look Tonight Frank Sinatra
14. I Swear All-For-One
15. True Companion Mark Cohn
16. Endless Love Lionel Richie & Diana Ross
17. I Do (Cherish You) 98 Degrees
18. It had to be You Harry Connick Jr.
19. Could I Have This Dance Anne Murray
20. Here and Now Luther Vandross
21. Truly, Madly, Deeply Savage Garden
22. Everything I Do Bryan Adams
23. Always Atlantic Starr
24. I Could Not Ask For More Edwin McCain
25. All My Life K-C & JoJo
26. This I Swear Nick Lachey
27. Beautiful in My Eyes Joshua Kadison
28. When a Man Loves a Woman Percy Sledge or Michael Bolton
29. Breathe Faith Hill
30. What a Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
31. Can't Help Falling In Love Elvis Presley
32. Unforgettable Nat King Cole & Natalie
33. My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion
34. My Last Name Dierks Bentley
35. I Finally Found Someone Barbara Streisand
36. Love of a Lifetime Firehouse
37. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing Aerosmith
38. Grow Old With Me Mary-Chapin Carpenter
39. When You Say Nothing at All Alison Krauss
40. This I Promise You N' Sync
2. From This Moment On Shania Twain
3. At Last Etta James
4. Because You Loved Me Celine Dion
5. I Cross my Heart George Strait
6. It's Your Love Tim McGraw & Faith Hill
7. Wonderful Tonight Eric Clapton
8. Have I Told You Lately Rod Stewart or Van Morrison
9. I Swear Michael Montgomery
10. Unchained Melody Righteous Brothers
11. I Knew I Loved You Savage Garden
12. Always and Forever Heatwave
13. The Way You Look Tonight Frank Sinatra
14. I Swear All-For-One
15. True Companion Mark Cohn
16. Endless Love Lionel Richie & Diana Ross
17. I Do (Cherish You) 98 Degrees
18. It had to be You Harry Connick Jr.
19. Could I Have This Dance Anne Murray
20. Here and Now Luther Vandross
21. Truly, Madly, Deeply Savage Garden
22. Everything I Do Bryan Adams
23. Always Atlantic Starr
24. I Could Not Ask For More Edwin McCain
25. All My Life K-C & JoJo
26. This I Swear Nick Lachey
27. Beautiful in My Eyes Joshua Kadison
28. When a Man Loves a Woman Percy Sledge or Michael Bolton
29. Breathe Faith Hill
30. What a Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
31. Can't Help Falling In Love Elvis Presley
32. Unforgettable Nat King Cole & Natalie
33. My Heart Will Go On Celine Dion
34. My Last Name Dierks Bentley
35. I Finally Found Someone Barbara Streisand
36. Love of a Lifetime Firehouse
37. I Don't Want to Miss a Thing Aerosmith
38. Grow Old With Me Mary-Chapin Carpenter
39. When You Say Nothing at All Alison Krauss
40. This I Promise You N' Sync
Floyd Landis "say it aint so Joe" becomes "Say it aint roids Floyd"
Floyd Landis
I just wish I hadn't cared. I frankly do not care about the tour de france unless a great american cancer survivor is winning it every year ...sticking it to the french who keep accusing him of but can't prove that he ever cheated. This sucks...completely ...because I actually cared .... Landis was another great story ..completely bum hip and miraculously came from 8 minutes behind to contend for the lead that he eventually overtook ..with a little help.
from espn.com
"The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday." "Testosterone is included as an anabolic steroid on WADA's list of banned substances, and its use can be punished by a two-year ban."
I mean.... if it proves out that he did it ...HE HAD TO KNOW HE WOULD GET CAUGHT. And ... A MENNONITE !!! The French would almost plant the evidence... but wait ....do you think that might be the thing ? I doubt it ...as bad as the French want to shed an American in this shameful light, I doubt they would risk exposing themselves as trying to cheat a "cheater" ..cause...OF COURSE THEY WOULD KNOW THAT THEY WOULD GET CAUGHT.
Bigger implication here is that in the worlds eye ...this would tarnish Lance Armstrong as well by association ...terrible door being opened here.
Biggest from hero to zero story in a very long while if its true ..wait for the B sample and then.... Landis...give us at least a Jimmy Swaggert lip quiver
I just wish I hadn't cared. I frankly do not care about the tour de france unless a great american cancer survivor is winning it every year ...sticking it to the french who keep accusing him of but can't prove that he ever cheated. This sucks...completely ...because I actually cared .... Landis was another great story ..completely bum hip and miraculously came from 8 minutes behind to contend for the lead that he eventually overtook ..with a little help.
from espn.com
"The Swiss-based Phonak team said it was notified by the UCI on Wednesday that Landis' sample showed "an unusual level of testosterone/epitestosterone" when he was tested after stage 17 of the race last Thursday." "Testosterone is included as an anabolic steroid on WADA's list of banned substances, and its use can be punished by a two-year ban."
I mean.... if it proves out that he did it ...HE HAD TO KNOW HE WOULD GET CAUGHT. And ... A MENNONITE !!! The French would almost plant the evidence... but wait ....do you think that might be the thing ? I doubt it ...as bad as the French want to shed an American in this shameful light, I doubt they would risk exposing themselves as trying to cheat a "cheater" ..cause...OF COURSE THEY WOULD KNOW THAT THEY WOULD GET CAUGHT.
Bigger implication here is that in the worlds eye ...this would tarnish Lance Armstrong as well by association ...terrible door being opened here.
Biggest from hero to zero story in a very long while if its true ..wait for the B sample and then.... Landis...give us at least a Jimmy Swaggert lip quiver
summer 2006 close encounter with mars
from an email i got
"The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within
34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Share this with your children and grandchildren.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history.. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.
NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN "
"The Red Planet is about to be spectacular!
This month and next, Earth is catching up with Mars in an encounter that will culminate in the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287. Due to the way Jupiter's gravity tugs on Mars and perturbs its orbit, astronomers can only be certain that Mars has not come this close to Earth in the Last 5,000 years, but it may be as long as 60,000 years before it happens again.
The encounter will culminate on August 27th when Mars comes to within
34,649,589 miles of Earth and will be (next to the moon) the brightest object in the night sky. It will attain a magnitude of -2.9 and will appear 25.11 arc seconds wide. At a modest 75-power magnification Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. Share this with your children and grandchildren.
Mars will be easy to spot. At the beginning of August it will rise in the east at 10p.m. and reach its azimuth at about 3 a.m.
By the end of August when the two planets are closest, Mars will rise at nightfall and reach its highest point in the sky at 12:30a.m. That's pretty convenient to see something that no human being has seen in recorded history.. So, mark your calendar at the beginning of August to see Mars grow progressively brighter and brighter throughout the month.
NO ONE ALIVE TODAY WILL EVER SEE THIS AGAIN "
Cult Movies List - Wizard Of Oz Wins
All Time Best Cult Movies
A List of a few that could grow
Wizard Of Oz
Monty Python & The Holy Grail
Spinal Tap
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Shawshank Redemption
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Dazed & Confused
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Clerks
Big Lebowski
Barbarella
A List of a few that could grow
Wizard Of Oz
Monty Python & The Holy Grail
Spinal Tap
Rocky Horror Picture Show
Shawshank Redemption
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Dazed & Confused
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Clerks
Big Lebowski
Barbarella
MORE KIA NICE THINGS
2nd generation sportage
great pricing
a little roomier
---------
amanti
premium sedan
jd power most appealing mid-size car
Stepping up a notch from the midsize Kia Optima, the South Korean automaker introduced this new full-size near-luxury sedan after the 2004 model year began. Fitted with a 3.5-liter V-6 engine, the front-wheel-drive Amanti is priced for value
-------------
sedona
iihs
safest mini van ever built
LOW APR / CASH BACK / OWNER LOYALTY
10 YEARS - 100 THOUSAND MILES
great pricing
a little roomier
---------
amanti
premium sedan
jd power most appealing mid-size car
Stepping up a notch from the midsize Kia Optima, the South Korean automaker introduced this new full-size near-luxury sedan after the 2004 model year began. Fitted with a 3.5-liter V-6 engine, the front-wheel-drive Amanti is priced for value
-------------
sedona
iihs
safest mini van ever built
LOW APR / CASH BACK / OWNER LOYALTY
10 YEARS - 100 THOUSAND MILES
Sadler Bolts Yates
elliot sadler--the former jmu student on the nascar circuit is leaving yates racing at the end of this year. yates is also losing dale jarret to michael waltrips team at the end of the season....team owner robert yates said in a statement that he is looking forward to finding a new driver for sadlers number 38it probably won't be danica patrick...who despiten speculation about her heading to nascar after this year, says she is leaning toward staying in the indycar series and making progress toward a new deal for next season.
Oprah Says She Isn't Gay
This is from IMDB.com
Oprah Winfrey has hit back at ongoing reports she's gay by insisting she would have already told fans if the rumors were true. The media mogul has often been linked romantically with best friend and business partner Gayle King, but both claim they wouldn't have kept an affair secret. In the August issue of Winfrey's lifestyle magazine O, the Oprah Magazine, the talk show accepts that some people misunderstand her close friendship with King, but insists they are not a lesbian couple. She says, "I understand why people think we're gay. There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it: 'How can you be this close without it being sexual?'" King adds, "The truth is, if we were gay, we would tell you, because there's nothing wrong with being gay." In the article, Winfrey and King chat about their 30-year friendship, admitting they often speak four times a day on the phone when they're not in the same city. Winfrey states, "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own. Whatever this friendship is, it's been a very fun ride."
I know of Rosie O'Donnell fans who were among the type who frown on the "Ellen Degeres's" of the world who absolutely quit watching and, frankly, quit loving Rosie when she came out ... so I am not surprised that if she IS that she would not tell anyone. Oprah has ..excepting her diets ... avoided scandal for the most part in her rise to and stronghold on the top ... Absolutely someone to avoid controversy at most all costs.
Oprah Winfrey has hit back at ongoing reports she's gay by insisting she would have already told fans if the rumors were true. The media mogul has often been linked romantically with best friend and business partner Gayle King, but both claim they wouldn't have kept an affair secret. In the August issue of Winfrey's lifestyle magazine O, the Oprah Magazine, the talk show accepts that some people misunderstand her close friendship with King, but insists they are not a lesbian couple. She says, "I understand why people think we're gay. There isn't a definition in our culture for this kind of bond between women. So I get why people have to label it: 'How can you be this close without it being sexual?'" King adds, "The truth is, if we were gay, we would tell you, because there's nothing wrong with being gay." In the article, Winfrey and King chat about their 30-year friendship, admitting they often speak four times a day on the phone when they're not in the same city. Winfrey states, "Something about this relationship feels otherworldly to me, like it was designed by a power and a hand greater than my own. Whatever this friendship is, it's been a very fun ride."
I know of Rosie O'Donnell fans who were among the type who frown on the "Ellen Degeres's" of the world who absolutely quit watching and, frankly, quit loving Rosie when she came out ... so I am not surprised that if she IS that she would not tell anyone. Oprah has ..excepting her diets ... avoided scandal for the most part in her rise to and stronghold on the top ... Absolutely someone to avoid controversy at most all costs.
Adam The Healer
http://www.dreamhealer.com/ is his webpage. Not sure after the ABC 20 / 20 story on July 13, 2006? He says what he says and people believe what they believe...but he ultimately says on his website NOT to replace his healing with the advice of your physician. He says he changes his brainwave activity at will on his website and claims he has scientific proof he does this. It says
"Healing energetic fields or influence, on the other hand, should show a brainwave specificity that is unique. One should observe changes in brain function that are not simply indicators of a more relaxed or focused target person. Further, although this remains to be researched, one might expect to find changes in brainwave activity that are specific to the target person’s disorder. For example, there are forms of depression that are associated with specific brainwave patterns in the frontal regions of the brain. If a healer is addressing the depression then one would expect changes in brainwave activity specific to the target person’s type of depression"
Time will tell about Adam The Healer
"Healing energetic fields or influence, on the other hand, should show a brainwave specificity that is unique. One should observe changes in brain function that are not simply indicators of a more relaxed or focused target person. Further, although this remains to be researched, one might expect to find changes in brainwave activity that are specific to the target person’s disorder. For example, there are forms of depression that are associated with specific brainwave patterns in the frontal regions of the brain. If a healer is addressing the depression then one would expect changes in brainwave activity specific to the target person’s type of depression"
Time will tell about Adam The Healer
Jimmy V Don't Ever Give Up
If you are looking for an mp3 of Jim Valvano's famous speech at the ESPY's "DON"T EVER GIVE UP" from about 2 months before he died, the link is here.
ESPN Radio is doing their auction to raise money for Cancer Research. GIVE !
ESPN Radio is doing their auction to raise money for Cancer Research. GIVE !
KABC Mcintyre Apology
Mcentire radio apology / Mcintyre in the Morning apology
By Doug McIntyre
Host, McIntyre in the Morning
Talk Radio 790 KABC
There’s nothing harder in public life than admitting you’re wrong. By the way, admitting you’re wrong can be even tougher in private life. If you don’t believe me, just ask Bill Clinton or Charlie Sheen. But when you go out on the limb in public, it’s out there where everyone can see it, or in my case, hear it.
So, I’m saying today, I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. In historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term President in the history of the country. Worse than Grant. I also believe a case can be made that he’s the worst President, period.
In 2000, I was a McCain guy. I wasn’t sure about the Texas Governor. He had name recognition and a lot of money behind him, but other than that? What? Still, I was sick of all the Clinton shenanigans and the thought of President Gore was… unthinkable. So, GWB became my guy.
For the first few months he was just flubbing along like most new Presidents, no great shakes, but no disasters either. He cut taxes and I like tax cuts.
Then September 11th happened. September 11th changed everything for me, like it did for so many of you. After September 11th, all the intramural idiocy of American politics stopped being funny. We had been attacked by a vicious and determined enemy and it was time for all of us to row in the same direction.
And we did for the blink of an eye. I believed the President when he said we were going to hunt down Bin Laden and all those responsible for the 9-11 murders. I believed President Bush when he said we would go after the terrorists and the nations that harbored them.
I supported the President when he sent our troops into Afghanistan, after all, that’s where the Taliban was, that’s where al-Qaida trained the killers, that’s where Bin Laden was.
And I cheered when we quickly toppled the Taliban government, but winced when we let Bin Laden escape from Tora-Bora.
Then, the talk turned to Iraq and I winced again.
I thought the connection to 9-11 was sketchy at best. But Colin Powell impressed me at the UN, and Tony Blair was in, and after all, he was a Clinton guy, not a Bush guy, so I thought the case had to be strong. I was worried though, because I had read the Wolfowitz paper, “The Project for the New American Century.” It’s been around since ‘92, and it raised alarm bells because it was based on a theory, “Democratizing the Middle East” and I prefer pragmatism over theory. I was worried because Iraq was being justified on a radical new basis, “pre-emptive war.” Any time we do something without historical precedent I get nervous.
But the President shifted the argument to WMDs and the urgent threat of Iraq getting atomic weapons. The debate turned to Saddam passing nukes on to terror groups. After 9-11, the risk was too great. As the President said, “The next smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud.” At least that’s what I thought at the time.
I grew up in New York and watched them build the World Trade Center. I worked with a guy, Frank O’Brien, who put the elevators in both towers. I lost a very close friend on September 11th. 103 floor, tower one, Cantor Fitzgerald. Tim Coughlin was his name. If we had to take out Iraq to make sure something like that, or worse, never happened again, so be it. I knew the consequences. We have a soldier in our house. None of this was theoretical in my house.
But in the months and years since shock and awe I have been shocked repeatedly by a consistent litany of excuses, alibis, double-talk, inaccuracies, bogus predictions, and flat out lies. I have watched as the President and his administration changed the goals, redefined the reasons for going into Iraq, and fumbled the good will of the world and the focus necessary to catch the real killers of September 11th.
I have watched the President say the commanders on the ground will make the battlefield decisions, and the war won’t be run from Washington. Yet, politics has consistently determined what the troops can and can’t do on the ground and any commander who did not go along with the administration was sacked, and in some cases, maligned.
I watched and tried to justify the looting in Iraq after the fall of Saddam. I watched and tried to justify the dismantling of the entire Iraqi army. I tired to explain the complexities of building a functional new Iraqi army. I urged patience when no WMDs were found. Then the Vice President told us we were in the “waning days of the insurgency.” And I started wincing again. The President says we have to stay the course but what if it’s the wrong course?
It was the wrong course. All of it was wrong. We are not on the road to victory. We’re about to slink home with our tail between our legs, leaving civil war in Iraq and a nuclear armed Iran in our wake. Bali was bombed. Madrid was bombed. London was bombed. And Bin Laden is still making tapes. It’s unspeakable. The liberal media didn’t create this reality, bad policy did.
Most historians believe it takes 30-50 years before we get a reasonably accurate take on a President’s place in history. So, maybe 50 years from now Iraq will be a peaceful member of the brotherhood of nations and George W. Bush will be celebrated as a visionary genius.
But we don’t live fifty years in the future. We live now. We have to make public policy decisions now. We have to live with the consequences of the votes we cast and the leaders we chose now.
After five years of carefully watching George W. Bush I’ve reached the conclusion he’s either grossly incompetent, or a hand puppet for a gaggle of detached theorists with their own private view of how the world works. Or both.
Presidential failures. James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, Jimmy Carter, Warren Harding-— the competition is fierce for the worst of the worst. Still, the damage this President has done is enormous. It will take decades to undo, and that’s assuming we do everything right from now on. His mistakes have global implications, while the other failed Presidents mostly authored domestic embarrassments.
And speaking of domestic embarrassments, let’s talk for a minute about President Bush’s domestic record. Yes, he cut taxes. But tax cuts combined with reckless spending and borrowing is criminal mismanagement of the public’s money. We’re drunk at the mall with our great grandchildren’s credit cards. Whatever happened to the party of fiscal responsibility?
Bush created a giant new entitlement, the prescription drug plan. He lied to his own party to get it passed. He lied to the country about its true cost. It was written by and for the pharmaceutical industry. It helps nobody except the multinationals that lobbied for it. So much for smaller government. In fact, virtually every tentacle of government has grown exponentially under Bush. Unless, of course, it was an agency to look after the public interest, or environmental protection, and/or worker’s rights.
I’ve talked so often about the border issue, I won’t bore you with a rehash. It’s enough to say this President has been a catastrophe for the wages of working people; he’s debased the work ethic itself. “Jobs Americans won’t do!” He doesn’t believe in the sovereign borders of the country he’s sworn to protect and defend. And his devotion to cheap labor for his corporate benefactors, along with his worship of multinational trade deals, makes an utter mockery of homeland security in a post 9-11 world. The President’s January 7th, 2004 speech on immigration, his first trial balloon on his guest worker scheme, was a deal breaker for me. I couldn’t and didn’t vote for him in 2004. And I’m glad I didn’t.
Katrina, Harriet Myers, The Dubai Port Deal, skyrocketing gas prices, shrinking wages for working people, staggering debt, astronomical foreign debt, outsourcing, open borders, contempt for the opinion of the American people, the war on science, media manipulation, faith based initives, a cavalier attitude toward fundamental freedoms-- this President has run the most arrogant and out-of-touch administration in my lifetime, perhaps, in any American’s lifetime.
You can make a case that Abraham Lincoln did what he had to do, the public be damned. If you roll the dice on your gut and you’re right, history remembers you well. But, when your gut led you from one business failure to another, when your gut told you to trade Sammy Sosa to the White Sox, and you use the same gut to send our sons and daughters to fight and die in a distraction from the real war on terror, then history will and should be unapologetic in its condemnation.
None of this, by the way, should be interpreted as an endorsement of the opposition party. The Democrats are equally bankrupt. This is the second crime of our age. Again, historically speaking, its times like these when America needs a vibrant opposition to check the power of a run-amuck majority party. It requires it. It doesn’t work without one. Like the high and low tides keep the oceans alive, a healthy, positive opposition offers a path back to the center where all healthy societies live.
Tragically, the Democrats have allowed crackpots, leftists and demagogic cowards to snipe from the sidelines while taking no responsibility for anything. In fairness, I don’t believe a Democrat president would have gone into Iraq. Unfortunately, I don’t know if President Gore would have gone into Afghanistan. And that’s one of the many problems with the Democrats.
The two party system has always been clumsy and imperfect, but it has only collapsed once, in the 1850s, and the result was civil war.
I believe, as I have said countless times, the two party system is on the brink of a second collapse. It’s currently running on spin, anger, revenge, and pots and pots and pots of money.
We’re being governed by paper-mache patriots; brightly painted red, white and blue, but hollow to the core. Both parties have mastered the cynical arts of media manipulation and fund raising. They’ve learned the lessons of Watergate and burn the tapes. They have learned to divide the nation for their own gain. They have demonstrated the willingness to exploit any tragedy for personal advantage. The contempt they have for the American people is without parallel.
This is painful to say, and I’m sure for many of you, painful to read. But it’s impossible to heal the country until we’re willing to acknowledge the truth no matter how painful. We have to wean ourselves off sugar coated partisan lies.
With a belated tip of the cap to Ralph Nader, the system is broken, so broken, it’s almost inevitable it pukes up the Al Gores and George W. Bushes. Where are the Trumans and the Eisenhowers? Where are the men and women of vision and accomplishment? Why do we have to settle for recycled hacks and malleable ciphers? Greatness is always rare, but is basic competence and simple honesty too much to ask?
It may be decades before we have the full picture of how paranoid and contemptuous this administration has been. And I am open to the possibility that I’m all wet about everything I’ve just said. But I’m putting it out there, because I have to call it as I see it, and this is how I see it today. I don’t say any of this lightly. I’ve thought about this for months and months. But eventually, the weight of evidence takes on a gravitational force of its own.
I believe that George W. Bush has taken us down a terrible road. I don’t believe the Democrats are offering an alternative. That means we’re on our own to save this magnificent country. The United States of America is a gift to the world, but it has been badly abused and it’s rightful owners, We the People, had better step up to the plate and reclaim it before the damage becomes irreparable.
So, accept my apology for allowing partisanship to blind me to an obvious truth; our President is incapable of the tasks he is charged with. I almost feel sorry for him. He is clearly in over his head. Yet, he doesn’t generate the sympathy Warren Harding earned. Harding, a spectacular mediocrity, had the self-knowledge to tell any and all he shouldn’t be President. George W. Bush continues to act the part, but at this point whose buying the act?
Does this make me a waffler? A flip-flopper? Maybe, although I prefer to call it realism. And, for those of you who never supported Bush, its also fair to accuse me of kicking Bush while he’s down. After all, you were kicking him while he was up.
You were right, I was wrong.
By Doug McIntyre
Host, McIntyre in the Morning
Talk Radio 790 KABC
There’s nothing harder in public life than admitting you’re wrong. By the way, admitting you’re wrong can be even tougher in private life. If you don’t believe me, just ask Bill Clinton or Charlie Sheen. But when you go out on the limb in public, it’s out there where everyone can see it, or in my case, hear it.
So, I’m saying today, I was wrong to have voted for George W. Bush. In historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term President in the history of the country. Worse than Grant. I also believe a case can be made that he’s the worst President, period.
In 2000, I was a McCain guy. I wasn’t sure about the Texas Governor. He had name recognition and a lot of money behind him, but other than that? What? Still, I was sick of all the Clinton shenanigans and the thought of President Gore was… unthinkable. So, GWB became my guy.
For the first few months he was just flubbing along like most new Presidents, no great shakes, but no disasters either. He cut taxes and I like tax cuts.
Then September 11th happened. September 11th changed everything for me, like it did for so many of you. After September 11th, all the intramural idiocy of American politics stopped being funny. We had been attacked by a vicious and determined enemy and it was time for all of us to row in the same direction.
And we did for the blink of an eye. I believed the President when he said we were going to hunt down Bin Laden and all those responsible for the 9-11 murders. I believed President Bush when he said we would go after the terrorists and the nations that harbored them.
I supported the President when he sent our troops into Afghanistan, after all, that’s where the Taliban was, that’s where al-Qaida trained the killers, that’s where Bin Laden was.
And I cheered when we quickly toppled the Taliban government, but winced when we let Bin Laden escape from Tora-Bora.
Then, the talk turned to Iraq and I winced again.
I thought the connection to 9-11 was sketchy at best. But Colin Powell impressed me at the UN, and Tony Blair was in, and after all, he was a Clinton guy, not a Bush guy, so I thought the case had to be strong. I was worried though, because I had read the Wolfowitz paper, “The Project for the New American Century.” It’s been around since ‘92, and it raised alarm bells because it was based on a theory, “Democratizing the Middle East” and I prefer pragmatism over theory. I was worried because Iraq was being justified on a radical new basis, “pre-emptive war.” Any time we do something without historical precedent I get nervous.
But the President shifted the argument to WMDs and the urgent threat of Iraq getting atomic weapons. The debate turned to Saddam passing nukes on to terror groups. After 9-11, the risk was too great. As the President said, “The next smoking gun might be a mushroom cloud.” At least that’s what I thought at the time.
I grew up in New York and watched them build the World Trade Center. I worked with a guy, Frank O’Brien, who put the elevators in both towers. I lost a very close friend on September 11th. 103 floor, tower one, Cantor Fitzgerald. Tim Coughlin was his name. If we had to take out Iraq to make sure something like that, or worse, never happened again, so be it. I knew the consequences. We have a soldier in our house. None of this was theoretical in my house.
But in the months and years since shock and awe I have been shocked repeatedly by a consistent litany of excuses, alibis, double-talk, inaccuracies, bogus predictions, and flat out lies. I have watched as the President and his administration changed the goals, redefined the reasons for going into Iraq, and fumbled the good will of the world and the focus necessary to catch the real killers of September 11th.
I have watched the President say the commanders on the ground will make the battlefield decisions, and the war won’t be run from Washington. Yet, politics has consistently determined what the troops can and can’t do on the ground and any commander who did not go along with the administration was sacked, and in some cases, maligned.
I watched and tried to justify the looting in Iraq after the fall of Saddam. I watched and tried to justify the dismantling of the entire Iraqi army. I tired to explain the complexities of building a functional new Iraqi army. I urged patience when no WMDs were found. Then the Vice President told us we were in the “waning days of the insurgency.” And I started wincing again. The President says we have to stay the course but what if it’s the wrong course?
It was the wrong course. All of it was wrong. We are not on the road to victory. We’re about to slink home with our tail between our legs, leaving civil war in Iraq and a nuclear armed Iran in our wake. Bali was bombed. Madrid was bombed. London was bombed. And Bin Laden is still making tapes. It’s unspeakable. The liberal media didn’t create this reality, bad policy did.
Most historians believe it takes 30-50 years before we get a reasonably accurate take on a President’s place in history. So, maybe 50 years from now Iraq will be a peaceful member of the brotherhood of nations and George W. Bush will be celebrated as a visionary genius.
But we don’t live fifty years in the future. We live now. We have to make public policy decisions now. We have to live with the consequences of the votes we cast and the leaders we chose now.
After five years of carefully watching George W. Bush I’ve reached the conclusion he’s either grossly incompetent, or a hand puppet for a gaggle of detached theorists with their own private view of how the world works. Or both.
Presidential failures. James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce, Jimmy Carter, Warren Harding-— the competition is fierce for the worst of the worst. Still, the damage this President has done is enormous. It will take decades to undo, and that’s assuming we do everything right from now on. His mistakes have global implications, while the other failed Presidents mostly authored domestic embarrassments.
And speaking of domestic embarrassments, let’s talk for a minute about President Bush’s domestic record. Yes, he cut taxes. But tax cuts combined with reckless spending and borrowing is criminal mismanagement of the public’s money. We’re drunk at the mall with our great grandchildren’s credit cards. Whatever happened to the party of fiscal responsibility?
Bush created a giant new entitlement, the prescription drug plan. He lied to his own party to get it passed. He lied to the country about its true cost. It was written by and for the pharmaceutical industry. It helps nobody except the multinationals that lobbied for it. So much for smaller government. In fact, virtually every tentacle of government has grown exponentially under Bush. Unless, of course, it was an agency to look after the public interest, or environmental protection, and/or worker’s rights.
I’ve talked so often about the border issue, I won’t bore you with a rehash. It’s enough to say this President has been a catastrophe for the wages of working people; he’s debased the work ethic itself. “Jobs Americans won’t do!” He doesn’t believe in the sovereign borders of the country he’s sworn to protect and defend. And his devotion to cheap labor for his corporate benefactors, along with his worship of multinational trade deals, makes an utter mockery of homeland security in a post 9-11 world. The President’s January 7th, 2004 speech on immigration, his first trial balloon on his guest worker scheme, was a deal breaker for me. I couldn’t and didn’t vote for him in 2004. And I’m glad I didn’t.
Katrina, Harriet Myers, The Dubai Port Deal, skyrocketing gas prices, shrinking wages for working people, staggering debt, astronomical foreign debt, outsourcing, open borders, contempt for the opinion of the American people, the war on science, media manipulation, faith based initives, a cavalier attitude toward fundamental freedoms-- this President has run the most arrogant and out-of-touch administration in my lifetime, perhaps, in any American’s lifetime.
You can make a case that Abraham Lincoln did what he had to do, the public be damned. If you roll the dice on your gut and you’re right, history remembers you well. But, when your gut led you from one business failure to another, when your gut told you to trade Sammy Sosa to the White Sox, and you use the same gut to send our sons and daughters to fight and die in a distraction from the real war on terror, then history will and should be unapologetic in its condemnation.
None of this, by the way, should be interpreted as an endorsement of the opposition party. The Democrats are equally bankrupt. This is the second crime of our age. Again, historically speaking, its times like these when America needs a vibrant opposition to check the power of a run-amuck majority party. It requires it. It doesn’t work without one. Like the high and low tides keep the oceans alive, a healthy, positive opposition offers a path back to the center where all healthy societies live.
Tragically, the Democrats have allowed crackpots, leftists and demagogic cowards to snipe from the sidelines while taking no responsibility for anything. In fairness, I don’t believe a Democrat president would have gone into Iraq. Unfortunately, I don’t know if President Gore would have gone into Afghanistan. And that’s one of the many problems with the Democrats.
The two party system has always been clumsy and imperfect, but it has only collapsed once, in the 1850s, and the result was civil war.
I believe, as I have said countless times, the two party system is on the brink of a second collapse. It’s currently running on spin, anger, revenge, and pots and pots and pots of money.
We’re being governed by paper-mache patriots; brightly painted red, white and blue, but hollow to the core. Both parties have mastered the cynical arts of media manipulation and fund raising. They’ve learned the lessons of Watergate and burn the tapes. They have learned to divide the nation for their own gain. They have demonstrated the willingness to exploit any tragedy for personal advantage. The contempt they have for the American people is without parallel.
This is painful to say, and I’m sure for many of you, painful to read. But it’s impossible to heal the country until we’re willing to acknowledge the truth no matter how painful. We have to wean ourselves off sugar coated partisan lies.
With a belated tip of the cap to Ralph Nader, the system is broken, so broken, it’s almost inevitable it pukes up the Al Gores and George W. Bushes. Where are the Trumans and the Eisenhowers? Where are the men and women of vision and accomplishment? Why do we have to settle for recycled hacks and malleable ciphers? Greatness is always rare, but is basic competence and simple honesty too much to ask?
It may be decades before we have the full picture of how paranoid and contemptuous this administration has been. And I am open to the possibility that I’m all wet about everything I’ve just said. But I’m putting it out there, because I have to call it as I see it, and this is how I see it today. I don’t say any of this lightly. I’ve thought about this for months and months. But eventually, the weight of evidence takes on a gravitational force of its own.
I believe that George W. Bush has taken us down a terrible road. I don’t believe the Democrats are offering an alternative. That means we’re on our own to save this magnificent country. The United States of America is a gift to the world, but it has been badly abused and it’s rightful owners, We the People, had better step up to the plate and reclaim it before the damage becomes irreparable.
So, accept my apology for allowing partisanship to blind me to an obvious truth; our President is incapable of the tasks he is charged with. I almost feel sorry for him. He is clearly in over his head. Yet, he doesn’t generate the sympathy Warren Harding earned. Harding, a spectacular mediocrity, had the self-knowledge to tell any and all he shouldn’t be President. George W. Bush continues to act the part, but at this point whose buying the act?
Does this make me a waffler? A flip-flopper? Maybe, although I prefer to call it realism. And, for those of you who never supported Bush, its also fair to accuse me of kicking Bush while he’s down. After all, you were kicking him while he was up.
You were right, I was wrong.
The Boston Red Sox
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