July 2005

Well this past week, we heard that Rumsfeld could be
looking at pulling troops out starting as early as next spring, effectively
setting a “timetable” which the President said would not be done. Rumsfeld also
went to Iraq to push the Iraqi government to speed up their work on developing a
democracy and securing their land. So now with that all said lets see how things
are going.

Today we learn about five US soldiers being killed in Iraq
in two separate incidents of roadside bombs. This brings the US total number of
soldiers killed in Iraq to 1796 per ICasualities.org.

We also learned on this day that Iraq is seeking an extra
month to finish authoring their constitution. Something that is sure to delay
troop withdrawals. Glad Rumsfeld went there and told them to hurry it up.

To make matters even worse, Sunni leaders were able to obtain a petition with
one million signatures asking for the immediate withdrawal of US and coalition
forces in Iraq. This was presented at a demonstration outside the Green Zone
yesterday in which approximately 1,000 Sunnis demonstrated.

Just to let everyone know, I made some small repairs to the template today. The expand/contract arrows where not working properly on the date header. Now if you wish to jump from one date to the next on the main page, just click the little arrow next to the date in the yellow box and it will collapse that day's posts down so that the previous day's posts will come up. Also if you contract either a single post or an entire day, the arrow that points to the right no longer has a blue background. Any other problems or areas of improvement are well appreciated. Please either email me at the link to the left or leave a comment.

 

Last week, I changed the archiving system around. Instead of displaying a list of links to archived pages, it now displays a calendar. This is a javascript function, so if you do not have javascript activated on your browser, then it will continue to display a list of archives.

Also at that same time, I installed a blog roll system. I am trying to keep it filled with progressive/liberal blogs. I currently have around 50 listed. If you have a liberal/progressive blog or know of one that is not listed, then please contact me so I can add it to the blog roll.

Anyone else using Blogger.com that would like to use some of the code from my template, please feel free to. If you need any help, then do not hesitate to contact me and I will help you as much as possible.

Bill Frist broke away from the “good old boys” Republican Party today to say he supports stem-cell research. This turn of events have left people in shock, to say the least. This, needless to say, has become the dawn of attacks against the Senate Majority Leader.

"I think a candidate that, that-umm-believes in the destruction of life would have a very hard time appealing to the vast majority of the republicans in this party”, Tom Delay said today while showing his disapproval for Dr. Frist’s medical opinion. True Tom Delay is a man of high morals. He supports the businesses in Saipan. The very same companies that force women to work extremely long hours for little or no pay, while the ones that can not work are forced into prostitution (one was only 14 years old). Oh and if you are a working woman in Saipan and become pregnant, no problem, you will receive the mandated abortion. Sounds like Mr. Delay supports the destruction of life when it supports his financial interests.

Read this Reuters article for more details. I want to give a warm thanks to Dr. Frist however, for voting his conscience and not his political allies.

This week, President Bush decided to once again show his family values. While walking away from reporters, he did something that is starting to become a trade mark, he flipped them the middle finger.

I am not a prude by any means, but for the leader of the most powerful nation in the world to act this way really shows his mentality. Bush talks about family values and devotion to his religion, yet he finds humor in this show of discontent towards the media.

While some stand the ground of it “only being a finger”, others do find insult in it. Road rage has been caused by this gesture, and fights have broken out over it. It can be considered humorous or cute, but not when it is done by the President of the United States.

I am now waiting to hear stories about children getting kicked out of school for flipping the finger to their peers or teachers. I can hear their argument now. “The President does it”. This will lead to some very interesting arguments. Is the President not supposed to lead by example? Well this is his example.