Let Them Eat Cake

From Frank Rich in the New York Times, 11/13/2010.

"The top 1% of American earners took in 23.5% of the nation's pretax income in 2007--up from less than 9% in 1976. During the boom years of 2002 to 2007, that top 1 percent's pretax income increased an extraordinary 10% every year. But the boom proved an exclusive affair: in that same period, the median income for non-elderly American households went down and the poverty rate rose."

Republican policy has sucked the life blood from the American middle class, with free trade treaties, off-shoring of American jobs and two major stock market crashes during the reign of George W. Bush that crippled the IRAs and pension plans of most average wage earners.

Too bad the Democrats have not been able to grasp these facts and respond to the plight of middle America. I am pragmatic enough, that I went to the polls and voted for Democrats as the lesser of two evils. I realize that with Republicans in power I don't have a ghost of a chance, unless I can stomach a steady diet of cake. However, 29 million voters who supported Obama two years ago just stayed home.

Now Obama just rolls over for Repulican tax cuts for the rich, and I am not happy about it, but not really surprised either. I think Obama's nickname should be Rover, since rolling over is what he does best.

David Sirota Exclusive: UnitedHealth Lobbyist Announces Pelosi Fundraiser As She Begins Backing Off Pub Option

From Open Left:


EXCLUSIVE: UnitedHealth Lobbyist Announces Pelosi Fundraiser As She Begins Backing Off Pub Option

by: David Sirota

Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 17:47

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the first time yesterday suggested she may be backing off her support of the public option. According to CNN, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid "said they would support any provision that increases competition and accessibility for health insurance - whether or not it is the public option favored by most Democrats." When "asked if inclusion of a public option was a non-negotiable demand - as her previous statements had indicated Pelosi ruled out any non-negotiable positions," according to CNN. This was also corroborated by the Associated Press, and by Pelosi's own words, as quoted in those stories.
This announcement came just hours before Steve Elmendorf, a registered UnitedHealth lobbyist and the head of UnitedHealth's lobbying firm Elmendorf Strategies, blasted this email invitation throughout Washington, D.C. I just happened to get my hands on a copy of the invitation from a source - check out this OpenLeft exclusive:

From: Steve Elmendorf [mailto:steve@elmendorfstrategies.com] Sent: Friday, September 11, 2009 8:31 AM Subject: event with Speaker Pelosi at my home

You are cordially invited to a reception with

Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi

Thursday, September 24, 2009
6:30pm ~ 8:00pm

At the home of Steve Elmendorf
2301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Apt. 7B
Washington, D.C.

$5,000 PAC
$2,400 Individual

To RSVP or for additional information please contact Carmela Clendening at (202) 485-3508 or clendening@dccc.org

Steve Elmendorf
ELMENDORF STRATEGIES GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS SOLUTIONS
900 7th Street NW Suite 750
Washington DC 20001
(202) 737-1655

Again, Elmendorf is a registered lobbyist for UnitedHealth, and his firm's website brags about its work for UnitedHealth on its website (Elmendorf was also a chief of staff for Democratic Minority Leader Dick Gephardt).

The sequencing here is important: Pelosi makes her announcement and then just hours later, the fundraising invitation goes out. Coincidental? I'm guessing no - these things rarely ever are.

I wrote a book a few years ago called Hostile Takeover whose premise was that corruption and legalized bribery has become so widespread that nobody in Washington even tries to hide it. This is about as good an example of that truism as I've ever seen.

Health Care According to the Show-Me Institue

Todays News Leader has lots of statistics about health care from the Show-Me Institute, a right-wing think tank funded by wealthy Republican Rex Sinquefield. Rex has shown us all a better world. Envsion this:

Health care for all is just a fantasy.

Let's imagine that Show-Me Institute mogul Rex Sinquefield invested all his money with Bernie Madoff, and now he has fallen on hard times. He can't afford to pay his insurance premiums or pay his doctor or hospital bills. Do we feel sorry for Rex? No, not really.

Rex is having chest pains at 123 Fat Cat Lane in Columbia, MO. But wait, can we send an ambulance out there if we can't make a profit off Rex? Can we admit him to the hospital if he can't pay the bill? No, absolutely not. Money is God in the world of the Show-Me Institute. Rex should know this, it was his brain child of how to make money above all else.

Thanks, Rex for showing us the error of being kind to each other and ministering to the sick. It's all about money and free markets and yachts for those who pile up the profit.

Great advice from the Show-Me Institute. I think I see the error in my thinking now.

Health Care Is A Human Rights Issue

My letter to the president:


Dear President Obama,

Health care is a human rights issue. It is inhumane to deny access to 45 million Americans. Consider the thousands who line up for free care at tent cities set up by Health Expedition.

We are the wealthiest country in the world. Yet our health care dollars are being siphoned off by insurance companies and the drug industry. Compare our health spending with that of other countries:

Per capita health care spending (2003):

United States: $5711
France: $3048
Germany: $2983Denmark: $2743
Italy: $2314
United Kingdom: $2317
Japan: $2249

All of these countries deliver health care to every citizen, but not the U.S. France is rated #1 by the WHO, while we are rated #37. We can deliver excellence. You as president must stand up to profiteering in the health care business. If you cannot, and deliver us a crappy bill that makes matters worse instead of better, I will not support you in 2012.

We can have a single payer system such as Medicare for all, with supplemental plans, or we can have regulated private insurers and price controls on drug companies as in Germany. Either way the insurance and drug companies have to give up their gravy train.

Sick and dying Americans need your help. My sister was fired after she was diagnosed with breast cancer, presto, no insurance. My friend ***** was just diagnosed with Cervical cancer. She cannot afford treatment, but she has a little equity in a house so does not quality for MedicAid. She is treating herself with a raw foods diet. I think we both know what the end result will be.

Please get yourself together and be an advocate for a health care solution that makes sense. You have a majority in the congress. Make the case for we the people. It is the right thing to do, and it is what you promised us.

Sincerely,

Betty

George Bush, Chirac, The Gog and The Magog

In a revelation from former French President Chirac, George Bush asked him in 2003 to join the U.S. in the invasion of Iraq in order "to thwart Gog and Magog, the Bible’s satanic agents of the Apocalypse."

This comes on the heels of the GQ magazines report on former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld who "attached warlike Bible verses and Iraq battle photos to war reports he hand-delivered to Bush. One declared: “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground.”"

The Charleston Gazette is the only U.S. newspaper to report the Bush-Chirac story and the source comes from an article by James A. Haught, editor of the Gazette, A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush.

Another interesting note gleaned from an earlier Alternet story on the Chirac/Bush encounter:

"There is a curious coda to this story. While a senior at Yale University George W. Bush was a member of the exclusive and secretive Skull & Bones society. His father, George H.W. Bush had also been a "Bonesman", as indeed had his father. Skull & Bones' initiates are assigned or take on nicknames. And what was George Bush Senior's nickname? "Magog"."

My question: was dimwit W. schooled in these nutball ideas by his father, his associates in Skull & Bones, and egged on by cronies such as Rumsfeld? Those bones dudes are like, "secret" so I guess we may never know.

I always thought Bush 43 was an idiot, from the time he stepped on to the national stage and demonstrated that he had not quite mastered third grade grammar. But couple that with a religious fervor that gives W. the yearning for a starring role in his apocalypic vision, and it brings the sad realization that his eight years in the presidency allowed him to bring that horror to life in instigating the Iraq war.

Why We Need Single Payer Health Care

Insurance companies are leeches sucking the life blood from policy holders. Why should any CEO command a salary such as this, when it represents the denial of health care to millions of sick people?

A single payer plan (Medicare for all) will send these people to the unemployment line and give coverage to every American.


ANNUAL COMPENSATION (2006 and 2007):

� Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
� H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
� David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
� Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
� Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
� Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
� Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
� Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
� William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
� Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
� James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
� Cleve L. Killingsworth, President/CEO Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3.6 million
� Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
� Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
� Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
� Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
� Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
� Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
� Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
� Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751

Please Legalize Drugs And Stop The Violence

As the drug cartels terrorize Mexico and various border towns, they are bringing drugs by the truckload to the streets of the U.S.

An article in today's Texas Observer talks about the border towns of El Paso/Juarez, as the embattled citizens of that area cope with the violence and kidnappings.

...While El Pasoans argue over semantics and statistics, residents in Juarez fight for their lives as innocent bystanders in a battle over who will sell cocaine and marijuana to the world’s biggest drug consumer. The Obama administration appears to be looking at the problem from a fresh perspective, shifting U.S. policy to focus more on the promotion of substance-abuse treatment and prevention, and less on the drug war. During her March visit to Mexico, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that battling cartel violence should be a shared responsibility and emphasized that America needs to curb its demand for illegal drugs. That’s a decidedly different political tack from the Bush years, when all the talk was about bigger walls, increased firepower, and Mexico’s responsibility for the problem. Other high-level administration officials have been dispatched to Mexico with messages similar to Clinton's, including Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder...

Let's get real. The only solution to this problem is to legalize drugs and burst the money bubble that is fueling this frenzy. When cartel bosses can make millions, and illiterate street punks can be rolling in dough dealing drugs, there is no "war" that will ever stop the tide of drugs flowing into the U.S.

Another small matter is that the lax gun laws in the U.S. allows unscrupulous gun dealers here to supply these cartels with the weapons they use to enforce the terror they bestow. Guns and drugs flow across the border like water.

So, the bottom line is to legalize drugs, and sell them at low cost to all adults who want them. Put the money used in this futile war into prevention, education and treatment of drug users.

Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea

Bobby Jindal's statements yesterday in support of President Obama, came as a surprise in a recent flurry of Republican teabaggers and naysayers. It was a start, but the GOP have a long way to go before they become a party that makes sense.

Commenter Osage replying on the Huffington Post says it eloquently:


BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA

In order to gain the political control they've enjoyed over the last ten years, Republican moderates and fiscal conservatives made a pact with the devil (faux Christians, bigots and misanthropes) to achieve the numbers they needed to defeat Democrats. They made a strategic decision to manipulate and exploit the ignorance, fears and hatreds of dysfunctional and vulnerable voters in order to win elections rather than lose them by being intellectually and morally honest.

Today, those who conspired with the devil are caught between wanting to disassociate themselves with and or casting out the devil they empowered and the karmic reality that they don't have the numbers to hold on to or regain power without continuing to accept and "advocate" the immoral values, hypocrisies and corruptions that are dividing and destroying their party.

The survival of today's shrinking Republican Party has become so dependent on extremism that they have no significant power left WITH or WITHOUT the support of America's increasingly pernicious lunatic fringe.

The idiom "caught between the devil and the deep blue sea" is certainly appropriate as Republicans are facing the dilemma of choosing between two equally undesirable alternatives that both result in Republican impotence in mainstream American politics. They are suffering the consequences of their treachery.

Their irresponsible propping up of George W. Bush cost them their credibility, and their disgraceful and shameless licking of Rush Limbaugh's storm trooper boots is costing them their viability.

Earl Durnell wrote a letter in today's News-Leader detailing why he is a Democrat. I so heartily agree with every word he said. My reply to him:


Mr. Durnell, What a great letter. I'm a few years younger than you, and we always had electricity, but some of my relatives living further back in the hills were slower to get electricity. If Roosevelt had not taken on the rural electrification project, progress would have been slowed by decades in areas like the Ozarks.

Being a Democrat has always seemed like a no-brainer for me. None of my family has ever made more than $250,000 per year, so they are more concerned with how to pay for college, and how to afford the health care they need, and living through their senior years without being a burden on the rest of the family.

Republicans are funded by corporate fat cats, who care only about the bottom line and how much money they can siphon off the efforts of the working class. That is what "free" trade is all about, their constant mantra of the last few years. It is all about closing our factories, and sending production to countries like China where workers are virtual slaves making a few cents per hour. (But, they are so lucky to have those jobs, we're told!) There are no environmental or safety regulations to worry about either.

The Republican platform of late is to clear cut the forest, neglect the infrastructure, ship the jobs overseas, outsource and privatize everything possible to make a profit for the corportate masters.Wake up, Ozarkers, and smell the economic disaster for the 95% of us who are not in the upper echelon.

Let's get back to the basics of clean air and water, healthy home-grown food, access to education for everyone, decent housing, jobs for everyone and universal access to health care for every US citizen.

Republicans have pulled all politics to the corporate view, its time to pull back to put government once again in the service of the people in both parties.

Bailout Fixes Problems, Sadly NO

Sadly, No has a few words on the financial meltdown. Enough said.


Nov24
We Eated It
Posted at 18:34 by Gavin M.

Fed Pledges Top $7.4 Trillion to Ease Frozen Credit


O hai! Here’s your US Goverment, Mr. Obama. Sorry we spended it all, hehe.

Blitzkrieg On Afghani Brides

From TomDispatch, Nov.12, 2008:

On the day that Americans turned out in near record numbers to vote, a record was set halfway around the world. In Afghanistan, a U.S. Air Force strike wiped out about 40 people in a wedding party. This represented at least the sixth wedding party eradicated by American air power in Afghanistan and Iraq since December 2001.

American planes have, in fact, taken out two brides in the last seven months. And don't try to bury your dead or mark their deaths ceremonially either, because funerals have been hit as well....

Read the entire article here.

Paul Krugman Wins Nobel Prize For Economics

I've been following Paul Krugman's column and blog in the New York Times lately, trying to make sense of the financial meltdown. He has often been the lone sane voice speaking out in a crowd of tinkle-down economists. Congratulations to him on his Nobel Prize for Economics.

From Editor and Publisher:


Krugman Wins Nobel Prize for Economics

By E&P Staff Published: October 13, 2008 7:45 AM ET

STOCKHOLM He's been hailed of late for being basically right in his months and years of warning about a coming financial crisis. Now New York Times columnist -- and Princeton professor -- Paul Krugman has just been awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics.

A favorite whipping boy for conservatives, he's been getting more and more time on TV lately as a political/economic commentator.

Krugman, 55, won the Nobel economics prize on Monday for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity. He formulated a new theory to answer questions about free trade, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

The McCain Campaign, Short Version

From the comments at today's Huffington Post:

comment by thegreatgiginthesky:

Why don't I save us all the time and effort it takes to tune into the debate to see what McCain has to say about the issues

McCain's answer on the economy - "I know how to fix the economy"

McCain's answer on the war on terror - "I know how to win a war"

McCain's answer on healthcare - "I know how to fix healthcare"

McCain's answer on taxes - "Obama wants to raise taxes"

McCain's answer on the environment - "I know how to fix the environment"

--and from Gina322

And don't forget "I know how to catch Bin Laden"

The Zombie Of VooDoo Economics Resurrected

From a comment on the blog of Paul Krugman:

Combine:

*the economic skills of Herbert Hoover,
*the foreign policy acumen of Lyndon Johnson
*the compassion of Calvin Coolidge
*the good luck of Jimmy Carter
*the voodoo witch doctor of Ronald Reagan (contributed by bettyb)
*the brainpower of Warren Harding
*the respect for civil liberty of John Adams (Alien and Sedition Act, anyone?)
*the honesty of Richard Nixon
*and the incorruptibility of Ulysses Grant in a suitable mixing bowl and thoroughly whip. Add at least 3 tsp of an economic deflationary death spiral caused by free-market fundamentalists, rational choice theorists, neoclassical economists, and associated right-wingers, bake for 8 years using a greased, Teflon-coated pan in an oven set to 700 billion degrees.

Serve with braised filet of Rand, spleen of Mises, or liver of Gekko, and finish with a savory demi-glace of privatized profits and socialized losses.

Serves 300 million with all the CheneyBushPaulsonMcCainPalin they can eat.

— Posted by katana0182

The Free Market Created A House Of Cards

As we see the continuing implosion on Wall Street, it's apparent now to everyone that this economy of unregulated "free market" wheeling and dealing was just a house of cards inflated by hot, stinky air.

A market with no rules and regulations is what the fat cats have foisted upon us, and by adding that deceptive word "free" they have convinced the rank and file voter that these policies were best for the U.S.

Everyone, including Republicans, Democrats, financial executives and gurus need to come clean about their part in allowing this colosssal market failure to happen. We must have assurances that this will never happen again.

And please, all of the right-wingers who scream constantly about the evils of socialism--take a long period of introspection about what that word means as U.S. taxpayers take responsibility for shoring up these bloated too-large-to-fail financial institutions.

Oh, and in the meantime, we can't put in place a program for taking care of the healthcare needs of all Americans. This is the way it goes, we bail the fat cats out as they bring us to the brink of an economic disaster to rival the great depression, but when we ask for healthcare for all to be administered by an equitable, single-payer system they refuse by calling it "socialized medicine".

Take a long breath of that hot, stinky air and then think about whether you want this current crop of Republicans to continue in power.

I'm voting for Obama/Biden. Time for a sea change in Washington.

Slate's "Hillary Deathwatch"

I just sent a letter to Slate. Their Hillary Deathwatch feature, which now boasts 45 entries beginning 3/27/08, has long pissed me off. If by chance Obama had been on their shit list, they would not have gotten by with this crap. My note to them:

If The Tables Were Turned...

This Hillary Deathwatch thing you have done is so uncool, not to mention tacky and biased.

Every president and many candidates lives are under the threat of physical harm. If the tables were turned and your miserable website supported Hillary over Obama, you would not have gotten away with this for one second.

I hope you at Slate, and the rest of the biased media assholes are happy now.

Thank You, Hillary

Dear Hillary,

Thank you, for the strength and determination you have shown during the course of this campaign. Although, I'm disappointed with the outcome, I know that your candidacy has furthered the cause of all Americans, especially the 50 plus percent of us who are women.

I will now throw my full support behind Senator Obama, and your endorsement of him highlights all the reasons why we must elect a Democrat this fall.

But, please know Hillary, that if you seek any future office, that I will be first in line to support you with my donations and volunteer in any way I can on your behalf.

Sincerely,

Betty

99 Problems, Sweetie

Obama dismisses a question from a woman reporter yesterday, calling her "sweetie." As pointed out by Shakespeare's Sister, it's not the first time.

Elizabeth Edwards is notably absent from her husband's endorsement of Obama, having gone on record recently endorsing Hillary's health plan as superior. John made a point to state that his wife was not a part of his link-up with Obama.

Obama is riding high on a wave of support from Hillary-haters, most of whom do not criticize her platform, but instead resort to misogynist slurs ranging from Chris Matthews' "She-Devil" to Randi Rhodes' "fucking whore" comment. And then there's Olbermann who suggests that a super delegate should take Hillary into a room "and only he comes out," as a part of the ongoing Why Won't The Stupid Bitch Quit saga. Even Charlie Rose has chimed in on that one several times.

Shakespeare's Sister has an ongoing Hillary Sexism Watch which is now up to post #90.

Marie Cocco weighs in at the Washinton Post today:

Misogyny I Won't Miss

I will not miss seeing advertisements for T-shirts that bear the slogan “Bros before Hos.” The shirts depict Barack Obama (the Bro) and Hillary Clinton (the Ho) and are widely sold on the Internet.

I will not miss walking past airport concessions selling the Hillary Nutcracker

I won’t miss episodes like the one in which liberal radio personality Randi Rhodes called Clinton a “big [expletive] whore”…

I won’t miss [nice use of anaphora!] Citizens United Not Timid (no acronym, please), an anti-Clinton group founded by Republican guru Roger Stone.

I won’t miss political commentators (including National Public Radio political editor Ken Rudin and Andrew Sullivan, the columnist and blogger) who compare Clinton to the Glenn Close character in the movie “Fatal Attraction.”

The airwaves will at last be free of comments that liken Clinton to a “she-devil” (Chris Matthews on MSNBC, who helpfully supplied an on-screen mock-up of Clinton sprouting horns). Or those who offer that she’s “looking like everyone’s first wife standing outside a probate court” (Mike Barnicle, also on MSNBC).

But perhaps it is not wives who are so very problematic. Maybe it’s mothers. Because, after all, Clinton is more like “a scolding mother, talking down to a child” (Jack Cafferty on CNN).

When all other images fail, there is one other I will not miss. That is, the down-to-the-basics, simplest one: “White women are a problem, that’s — you know, we all live with that” (William Kristol of Fox News).

Most of all, I will not miss the silence.

I will not miss the deafening, depressing silence of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean or other leading Democrats, who to my knowledge (with the exception of Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland) haven’t publicly uttered a word of outrage at the unrelenting, sex-based hate that has been hurled at a former first lady and two-term senator from New York. Among those holding their tongues are hundreds of Democrats for whom Clinton has campaigned and raised millions of dollars. Don Imus endured more public ire from the political class when he insulted the Rutgers University women’s basketball team.

Would the silence prevail if Obama's likeness were put on a tap-dancing doll that was sold at airports? Would the media figures who dole out precious face time to these politicians be such pals if they'd compared Obama with a character in a blaxploitation film? And how would crude references to Obama's sex organs play?

There are many reasons Clinton is losing the nomination contest, some having to do with her strategic mistakes, others with the groundswell for "change." But for all Clinton's political blemishes, the darker stain that has been exposed is the hatred of women that is accepted as a part of our culture.

Obama has played into this theme with his mime of the rapper Jay-Z's 99 Problems(but a bitch ain't one) during one of his campaign speeches, to the delight of his supporters.

I guess there are at least 99 reasons why my vote for Obama will be half-hearted in the fall, if it comes down to that.

Idiot Warmongers

I have noticed for the last couple of days, all of the Republicans and their Neo-con henchmen are interjecting Iran into comments on the most recent Iraq status report by General Petraeus.


From Think Progress:

Lieberman, Bennett, And Kristol See Petraeus Hearing As ‘An Argument’ For ‘Going Into Iran'

During their appearance before the Senate on Tuesday, Gen. David Petraeus and Amb. Ryan Crocker accused Iran of “funding, training, arming and directing extremist ’special groups’ in Iraq.” “I think one might look for a reconsideration in Tehran as to just where they want to go in Iraq,” said Crocker. “This would be an excellent time for them to reassess.”

Liveblogging the hearings for the Washington Post, Fiasco author Thomas Ricks pondered what Crocker could have intended with his “reassess” comment, considering that “there will be a new American president in place in less than a year“:

But he also said, “This would be an excellent time for them to reassess.” What does he mean by that? Why would Iran want to adjust their relationship now, when there will be a new American president in place in less than a year? Or is there some sort of implied threat there: You guys better get smart, or this president still has time to pound you?

It is unclear whether such a veiled threat was Crocker’s intention, but some on the right are certainly seeing his and Petraeus’s testimony as cause to begin talking about striking Iran again.

On his radio show this morning, Bill Bennett told the Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol — who had a personal meeting with President Bush yesterday — that a “conclusion” he drew was that the hearing was “less an argument for getting out of Iraq than going into Iran.” After suggesting that Iran may “have to pay some price at some point on their own soil,” Kristol said that President Bush authorizing an attack of some kind before he leaves office is not “out of the question”:

BENNETT: Do you think there’s any chance that, and we won’t ask you to reveal anything confidential, do you think there’s any chance that we might take some action against some aspect of the Ira…against Iran, let’s put it that way, before the president leaves office?

KRISTOL: We didn’t really talk about that, in all honesty, directly. I don’t think it’s out of the question. I think people are overdoing how much of a lame duck the president is.

Appearing on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show last night, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said that he wished the Bush administration would tell the Iranians that “unless they stop it, we’re going to take action.” “I’m not talking about all out war,” added Lieberman before saying, “they ought to believe that we’re going to hit those training camps.”

Bush and the Romance of Soldiering

This quote is from a Reuter's article (3/13/08) detailing President Bush's videoconference on the current situation in Afghanistan:

"I must say, I'm a little envious," Bush said. "If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed."

"It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you
know, confronting danger. You're really making history, and thanks," Bush said.

I seem to remember vividly, his evasion of service in Viet Nam, and this account from his professor at Harvard Business School. From a 2004 CNN interview:

Yoshi Tsurumi, in his first on-camera interview on the subject, told CNN
that Bush confided in him during an after-class hallway conversation during the 1973-74 school year.

"He admitted to me that to avoid the Vietnam draft, he had his dad -- he said 'Dad's friends' -- skip him through the long waiting list to get him
into the Texas National Guard," Tsurumi said. "He thought that was a smart thing to do."