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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