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Tom Murphy,
June 13, 2007
You'll recall that before September 11, the so-called intelligence community
had information that Osama bin Laden planned to mount an attack within the US,
possibly using airplanes as weapons. It knew most of the
terrorists-turned-hijackers were in the US. And it knew some took
lessons to fly - but not land - 747s. The problem was that the FBI had so much
other information, those details got lost in a big, giant dung heap. And so the
terrorists were able to destroy the World Trade Center with airplanes seven years
after other terrorists attempted to destroy the World Trade Center with a truck
bomb. Since then, we've been barred from taking four-ounce tubes of toothpaste onto
planes, but are we any safer? The prisoners at Guantanamo - who, no doubt,
include some very, very bad people - have been held without charges or due process. We've
adopted interrogation techniques that the rest of the world calls torture. And
we invaded Iraq, killing tens of thousands of people (including 3,500 Americans), because the White House
claimed it had WMD's tucked under every bed. Now the FBI
wants to start keeping 6 billion dossiers in an effort to identify
suspected terrorists in the US. That's about 20 files for every man, woman and
child in America. What would happen then? Nobody knows, but it's a fair guess
that the FBI would start watching your every move, arresting people who read the
wrong books, and listening in on citizens who talk to other citizens who read
the wrong books. All this can lead to only one thing: a bigger and smellier dung heap. The
best way to protect our freedom is to exercise it.
Tom Murphy,
June 12, 2007
Whether the president succeeds or fails to drum
up GOP votes for his immigration bill, one thing is already clear. The
president quacks like a duck and limps like a duck. His own party has shifted
far to the radical right, with about 10 presidential candidates (it's still hard
to tell if a couple will run or not) making Mr. Bush look like a San Franciscan.
(Make no mistake, he's not.) This is somewhat reminiscent of what happened to
Arnold Schwarzenegger in California after he pushed his conservative agenda two
years ago. He lost badly; all his initiatives were defeated at the polls. And
the talk then was that the governator would simply have to serve out his term
quietly. To his credit Schwarzenegger did something else. He truly committed
himself to working with the Democrats controlling the state legislature, and
he's accomplished quite a bit since while raising his own approval rating in the
process. Bush would be wise to borrow a page from Arnold's play book. As things
stand, the Republicans are yielding the middle of the road to the Democrats, who
will enjoy an easy victory in November 2008 if things don't change. By working
more closely with Congress, the president can still establish a positive legacy,
raise his dismal approval rating and bring his party into a better competitive
position for next year. Or he could limp and quack his way to the end of his
term, then watch the ulta-conservatives destroy what's left of the Republican
party.
Tom Murphy,
June 8, 2007
Was it just me, or did anyone else notice how happy Mr. Bush looked at the G8
conference. Whether debating greenhouse
gas levels with Angela Merkel or feuding
about missiles with his good buddy, Vladimir, the president seemed far
more relaxed than he has in many months at the White House. He even seemed to
walk with a bit more spring in his step. But now it's back to work, and several
ugly things happened in the few days the president was busy across the pond. The
immigration bill, one of the president's pet projects, is dying
rapidly because Republicans aren't following Mr. Bush's lead. It has gotten so
bad that Harry Reid is asking Bush to help drag in some votes. War Czar-to-be
Doug Lute testified before Congress that he's worried the Iraqi's won't
be able to perform according to plan. And he also admitted that he's had doubts
about Bush's troop surge plan, which has led to a rising number of American
military and Iraqi civilian deaths. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted that
Guantanamo inmates should have access
to US courts, something the president has been trying very hard to
avoid. Several GOP senators have announced they think the president needs a new
war strategy (which the Democrats have been saying for a couple of
years, by the way). The leading Republican candidates for president said on
national TV that they
don't think Bush is doing a good job. Finally, a new poll shows the
president is at his
lowest approval rating ever with just 32 percent of Americans giving
him passing grades. None of this is going to sit well with the president. Maybe
he should go back to Europe.
Tom Murphy,
June 3, 2007
Months go by. Years go by. Things don't change, at least not the way we'd
hope. The Iraq war deepens, killing more Iraqis and Americans four years after
the US sought "regime change" in Baghdad. The rich get richer, notably
the oil companies. The poor get poorer as mortgages get pricier and income
falls. It's no wonder thousands
of Europeans are protesting the state of the world as the leaders of the
most powerful countries gatherer for the G8 conference. But all the protesters
aren't in the street. Bush
faces opposition from Europeans over his global warming plan and the war
in Iraq. One can only hope they'll pursuade him to soften his stances on both.
Maybe then things can begin to change, for the better.
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