That “booming” economy Republicans have been talking about continues to “boom”!

Economic growth slowed to a 2 percent pace in the late summer, more sluggish than previously thought, as the real-estate bust weighed on overall business activity.

The economy has been losing momentum all this year. The main culprit behind the third quarter’s slowdown was the deepening housing slump. – AP

This of course can only mean one thing. Any day now, the President is going to propose even more tax breaks for big oil companies and the wealthiest Americans to keep the boomtimes rolling along!

The Pentagon wants the White House to seek another $99.7 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to information provided to The Associated Press. The military’s request, if embraced by President Bush and approved by Congress, would boost this year’s budget for the wars to about $170 billion. – AP

In 2006 the discretionary budget for the entire United States Department of Education was $56 billion. Image the kind of impact there would be if some of the $170 billion we’re going to spend in Iraq and Afghanistan this year was spend on education instead?

What happened to “Listening to the advice of the generals on the ground”?

A White House laboring to find a new approach in
Iraq said Tuesday it is considering sending more U.S. troops, an option that worries top generals because of its questionable payoff and potential backlash.

It’s time to admit that an incompetent commander is in charge of military forces and his policies are not only against common sense or against the will of the American people, they’re against the will of the top minds in the United States military.

How many more billion of dollars will be wasted or thousands of lives will be lost while the President ignores consensus and goes with his “gut feeling” about the future of the Iraq war?

At Saturday’s Administrative committee quarterly meeting for the DPW, we did something that most members normally don’t hear about: we gave two employees of the DPW raises to reward them for their hard work during the last year and to bring them more in line with what similar positions earn elsewhere.

I won’t name the people or position in public, but it wasn’t one of the executive members of the DPW, rather a few of the “worker bee” type people on who we rely so much. All to often, the hard work they do goes unrewarded and unnoticed, so when the chance came to vote on the idea – which came about really on a whim – it felt good to give a resounding “aye!” in favor.

Who besides the President and John McCain think sending more troops into Iraq is going to do anything but get more US soldiers killed or injured?

The Bush administration is leaning toward temporarily sending as many as 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, even as the Democrats taking charge of Congress demand a drawdown of forces.

U.S. officials say the increase is needed to make a new push to stabilize Baghdad and to bolster efforts to train the Iraqi army. Wall Street Journal

The American people don’t support it, the miltary leadership seems to be against it, and the Iraqi government is warning against the plan as well. Then throw in the fact that every military advisor I’ve ever heard speak warn that we just don’t have the troops to pull off such a stunt, and well…

Maybe President Bush has had another one of his “gut feelings” about this too, because, you know, those have worked out so well in the past.

Kidding aside, think about it for a minute. In the face of overwhelming advice against sending in more troops, President Cowboy is going to go ahead and do it anyways. If you thought the level of over-confident delusionment the President has exhibited previously was disasterous, this decision to “double down” can only be described as knowingly reckless.

In case you haven’t heard, Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota is in the hospital with a potentially life threatening condition.

Yet, barely 24 hours after he was admitted to the hospital, the conservatives are lining up like vultchers and starting to speculate how great it will be to have the Senate back in Republican control when Sen. Johnson won’t be able to fulfill his term.

A great example of the conservative reaction comes from Milwaukee’s own Patrick McIlheran:

I think it would be a good thing if the Senate weren’t controlled by Democrats…

…I hope that it doesn’t happen, however. For it to happen, a man has to suffer debilitating illness or death. Nothing can make that a good thing.

Translation: I’m saying that I hope he gets better, but out of the other side of my mount can’t hide my excitement that Republicans get control of the Senate as a result.

Ridiculous.

I have a few friends from my South Dakota college days who serve on Sen. Johnson’s staff, and know they’re all going through a tough time right now along with the Senator’s family. Best wishes, and here’s to a speedy and full recovery.

Take your time Mr. President. It’s not like it’s a life or death decision or anything.

President Bush knows the general direction he wants to move U.S. policy on Iraq but won’t announce it until next month, the White House said Tuesday. – AP

Anyone else see this as a a juvenile mentality on the part of the President? Pretending to have the answer while refusing to share it seems a little junior high to me personally.

Where has the “general direction” been for the past three years? If the President really had any clue about what to do in Iraq, he’d have announced it by now. Not put it off in some kind of coy fashion like this in an attempt to make us all think he knew something we didn’t, wouldn’t you say?

I can hardly post this I’m laughing so hard.

Ultra-wingnut (A term I save for special times such as this) publication World Net Daily science writer is claiming that soy based products are the real “cause” of homosexuality.

Yes, soybeans. And no, I didn’t copy and paste this from The Onion:

Soy is feminizing, and commonly leads to a decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality. That’s why most of the medical (not socio-spiritual) blame for today’s rise in homosexuality must fall upon the rise in soy formula and other soy products

It gets better!

Worse, there’s now scientific evidence that estrogen ingredients in soy products may be boosting the rapidly rising incidence of leukemia in children.

“Scientific evidence” not worth citing or sourcing apparently. Who knows, maybe it’s from the same scientists who claim soy makes you gay? And just think, if soy makes you gay, then eating beef must make you more of a man!

Like Rock Hudson! Or the Rev. Ted Haggard!

This kind of hard hitting research also answers the question of homosexuality throughout history and why leading evangelical preachers have been brought down in scandal in recent months. Obviously, someone was poisoning them with soy.

Go and read the entire article for yourself if you have five minutes to marvel at where the Christian Right is at these days.

Remember, God not only hates homosexuals, he hates soy.

Another Republican – Tom DeLay this time – faces an unwillingness to accept responsibility for the problems in Iraq. The new narrative from looney land is the failure to win in Iraq is really the fault of the Democrats, media, etc… DeLay had this to say on Fox News last night:

It’s the fault of the liberals and the media and the Democrats, that from the very beginning have tried to undermine the will of the American people to fight this – Tom DeLay

Never mind that Republicans have controlled power in the entire Federal Government for the duration of the Iraq war, or that DeLay himself was a top leader of said party during that time, or that the news media played the role of administration suckup for the first few years of the war in order to get the best “embeded” gigs with the military… Much less an entire media empire which itself still refers to anyone against the war as “surrender monkeys”.

It was all the fault of the Democrats, the minority party, according to DeLay. This is a great example why American’s threw out Republicans in last months elections: Republicans just refuse to own up to their mistakes and continue to assign blame to everyone except themselves for the failures of the last five years.

Anyone listening to Tom DeLay attempt to blame Democrats or the media for the problems in Iraq knows where the real problems lie, and his kind of behavior only re-enforces their pre-existing opinions that the Republican leadership’s only answers are to blame soeone else for their mistakes.

That kind of strategy isn’t working now nor has it been working for months, yet people like DeLay stay the course despite the reality of the situation.

Sound familiar?

Two Republican State Senators want to cut one of the primary benefits for Wisconsin lawmakers who are State employees:

Sens. Ted Kanavas (R-Brookfield) and Alberta Darling (R-River Hills) unveiled a bill today that would end the ability of elected officials and cabinet secretaries to turn unused sick leave into a retirement benefit.

The problem with this is someone like Alberta Darling doesn’t need the health insurance benefits in question because she’s already wealthy enough to not need it.

Sen. Kanavas even went on to say that benefits should be eliminated all together for legislators. Again, that’s great if you’re a wealthy lawmaker, but what about lawmakers who you know, might need that health insurance down the road?

“No state office holder should be receiving sick time benefits. These people should be elected for public service and not personal gain. I am going to fight hard to eliminate this loophole in the law.”

What about citizens who want to run for public office though but can’t afford it? For those legislators that have a fair amount of pre-existing wealth, fringe benefits like health insurance might seem like a waste of resources.

But if legislation like what Sen. Kanavas and Sen. Darling is passed, it will only raise the bar for those who choose to run for public office in Wisconsin. No longer will it be a simply a matter of personal sacrifice and dedication, but potential candidates would also have to weigh the fiscal sacrifices of running for office.

Imagine how many good potential candidates would be kept out of State politics if they had to not only take a pay cut, but lose benefits like health insurance? Anyone with a family would be automatically precluded from running unless they were wealthy enough to pay for their own health insurance and didn’t need the benefits most of us rely on from our jobs.

And that’s exactly what we need less of in Madison and Washington D.C. – super wealthy politicians who have no idea how important things like insurance are to average people like you and me. That’s why this proposal is a bad idea for Wisconsin. We need more “regular” citizens in office and fewer wealthy politicians.