With the pleas for non-partisanship and peace still ringing over Washington, Bush aides announce today that he will completely ignore the will of Congress and the American People and send more troops to violence-ridden Iraq.

Bush decision also come on the wake of a Democratic Congress announcing they want to vote on a troop increase.  Bush’s need for more troops is not based on any rationality, but on Bush’s desire for revenge and control until the very end of his failed administration.  He sees the stance of Nancy Pelosi ("We will not be swiftboated on these issues") and Ted Kennedy (introducing legislation to block funding of additional troops) and Bush refuses to yeild to common sense.

Bush’s claim that he is responsive to what his generals in the field want is a farce.  Because General George Casey disagreed with Bush’s military wishes, he went shopping for another General that holds his point of view.  Insightfully Bush went to the person who was in charge of the failed mission to train the Iraqis to take charge of their own country, Lt. General David Petraeus.  Desirous of a promotion Petraeus agreed to support Bush’s position.  In return Bush promptly promoted him to General and put him in charge of Iraq.  Now when Bush pulls his string, Petraeus says, "More troops.  More troops.". 

You’re doing a hell of a job, Petraeus. 

After four years of a floundering war, hundreds of billions of dollars, and thousands of young American and innocent Iraqi lives lost, Bush is going on television tonight to try to convince the American People that more troops thrown on top of a bad war is a good thing.  It should be an interesting show.

It’s hard to believe.  Just when we need an additional 30,000 troops in Iraq, Bush bombs Somalia today in an effort to kill 3 suspected Al-Aqada men.  In the mean time he killed about 22 to 27 people.

Canada reports that Bush’s hasty strike may have killed 3 Canadians. Good job, B.

 Italy is not too thrilled with the hasty air strikes, either.  According to the BBC:

But Italy - the former colonial power in central and southern Somalia - condemned the US strikes.

Italian Foreign minister Massimo d’Alema said Rome opposed "unilateral initiatives that could spark new tensions".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed "concern" that the air strikes could lead to an escalation of hostilities.

 Most of the European community has condemed Bush’s strike and claims it could lead to the destabilization of Somalia.  Usually when you bomb the crap out of a country, that’s what happens.

Do you ever wonder how the US Army is going to come up with the 30,000 surge in troops that Bush wants to send to Iraq?  The draft?  No, this is our crack military’s answer to increasing the number of troops:  send letters to 275 officers killed or wounded in action urging them to return to active duty.  CNN reported:

"Army personnel officials are contacting those officers’ families now to personally apologize for erroneously sending the letters," the Army said in a brief news release issued Friday night.

The Army did not say how or when the mistake was discovered. It said the database normally used for such correspondence with former officers had been "thoroughly reviewed" to remove the names of wounded or dead soldiers.

 Did they forget that soldiers die and are wounded on a regular basis?  Let’s rotate the recruiters out there for a tour.

In spite of a victory in both Houses, Bush has exercised his first Veto ever and vetoed the stem cell research bill.  According to the BBC News:

Scientists and politicians in the United States have condemned President Bush for blocking embryonic stem cell research that could one day save lives.

 Bush held a press conference where he surrounded himself with adopted embryos trying to give a face to each zygote available for research.  The remaining zygotes will be destroyed as medical waste.

Some of the arguments in Congress against the bill were equally ridiculous.  Some Congressmen showed charts of talking zygotes and tried to pass them off as real.  

 Bush is a caveman that wants to push the US back into the dark ages.  He is an embarrassment that continues to opress this country.

The Dems put out the following:

Alphonso Jackson, the Republican Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, told a story recently during a talk he gave in Dallas. Here’s what he said, according to the Dallas Business Journal:

Jackson closed with a cautionary tale, relaying a conversation he had with a prospective advertising contractor.

"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something … he said, ‘I have a problem with your president.’

"I said, ‘What do you mean?’ He said, ‘I don’t like President Bush.’ I thought to myself, ‘Brother, you have a disconnect — the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn’t be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don’t tell the secretary.’

"He didn’t get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn’t like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don’t get the contract. That’s the way I believe."

You’re probably not too surprised to hear that. Frankly, neither am I. And that’s the problem.

The Republican culture of corruption has so infected our government that we aren’t even surprised to hear a cabinet secretary talk about the "logic" of potentially illegally awarding federal contracts based on political affiliation. That’s right — if this story is true, it is probably illegal. Our taxpayer dollars are required by law to be spent based on merit.

Just when you thought the Republicans were thoroughly distracted with the immigration issue, Frist throws the dumbest idea to date on the Senate floor: offering a $100 gas rebate to the American People. But not ALL of the American People - just those who paid taxes. The ones that do not make enough to pay taxes get a poke in the eye (the one’s that probably need it most).

Now for the dumber than dumbest: the National Anthem should be sung in English only. Bush said last week it should be sung in English only. Somebody should have told him that during campaign time when he was courting the Hispanic GOP vote. It was blaring everywhere on each Hispanic campaign event. BBC called Bush clumsy for the remarks - everyone knows he’s just dangerous.

Bush asked the Congress to give him the line-item veto in his latest radio address.   The line-item veto would allow the president to eliminate a single item in a tax or spending bill crafted by Congress.  Sound familiar?  It should.  President Clinton received it in 1996 and used it 82 times before the Supreme Court struck it down in 1998.  

In his majority opinion Justice John Paul Stevens upheld a lower court’s decision, concluding "the procedures authorized by the line-item veto act are not authorized by the Constitution."

If Congress wants to give the president that power, they will have to pass a constitutional amendment, Stevens said. "If there is to be a new procedure in which the president will play a different role in determining the text of what may become a law, such change must come not by legislation but through the amendment procedures set forth in Article V of the Constitution," Stevens said.

So what is more important here in terms of ammendments?  Gay Marriage or line-item veto?  Let’s also watch and see if it ends up at the Supreme Court again.  In the 6-3 decision, the justices opposed to the Clinton line-item veto were Stevens, Rehnquist, Kennedy, Souter, Thomas, and Ginsburg.  Scalia, O’Connor, and Breyer voted for the line-item veto. 

With O’Connor and Rehnquist replacements, will the Court show partisanship?  Will the Congress give up the power to declare war as well as the power of taxation to the president?  Will George be King?  God help us all.

In the wake of all the backlash on the United Arab Emerate deal (in which Bush want to give control to our ports to a Dubai company), Bush is trying to look tough on terrorism again.  He tarnished his own reputation by selling control of our American Ports to the UAE and now he is backpeddling to try and gain the confidence of Americans again. 

According to ABC News, Bush made a detour on his way back from a visit to India to make an unplanned visit to Afganistan.  At a press conference he called at the  Bagram Air Base , Bush, said he was ‘confident’ the fugitive al-Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden will be ‘brought to justice.’

This is a 180 degree flip flop from the 2002 press conference at the Whitehouse where Bush answered a question from a reporter asking why Bush rarely mentions Osoma bin Ladin with, ‘So I don’t know where he is.  You know, I just don’t spend that much time on him, Kelly, to be honest with you.’

According to the Internation Herald Tribune, Bush was not greeted with flowers and chocolates during his trip to India this week.  When Clinton visited, he addressed the Indian Parliment, but Bush did not do this for fear of the reponse he would likely receive from "hostile politicians".  In New Delhi, it was reported thousands of muslim demonstrators chanted sloagans such as, "Death to Bush",
"Bully Bush go Home", and "Killer in Town".

Six years of ruling with an iron fist makes it hard to back down.  After all, when you are always right, how can you possibly admit you may have been a bit hasty? The Bush administration has spent 6 years trying to convince Americans that Arabs are the enemy and it’s making it hard for them to make the Congress roll over as usual.

The newest spin on the Dubai Port deal has the UAE company itself asking Congress to review the transaction.  Dubai executives and lobbyists are hard at work trying to sway the Republican congressional leaders who have been threatening to support some form of Congressional action next week including legislation to block the company from taking over.

Their first attempt to quell the controversy was an offer from Dubai on Thursday to close the deal but to "segregate" the American operations until further briefings were conducted on Capitol Hill.  Fortunately Congress did not buy it.