Wednesday, December 20, 2006

:: Morning Muse: Bush, War, Domestic Agenda, White Lies, Intolerance, NASA & Google ::

Sometimes, the headlines say it all:

 

U.S. Not Winning War in Iraq, Bush Says for 1st Time

President Plans to Expand Army, Marine Corps To Cope With Strain of Multiple Deployments

President Bush acknowledged for the first time yesterday that the United States is not winning the war in Iraq and said he plans to expand the overall size of the "stressed" U.S. armed forces to meet the challenges of a long-term global struggle against terrorists.

As he searches for a new strategy for Iraq, Bush has now adopted the formula advanced by his top military adviser to describe the situation. "We're not winning, we're not losing," Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. The assessment was a striking reversal for a president who, days before the November elections, declared, "Absolutely, we're winning."

In another turnaround, Bush said he has ordered Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to develop a plan to increase the troop strength of the Army and Marine Corps, heeding warnings from the Pentagon and Capitol Hill that multiple deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan are stretching the armed forces toward the breaking point. "We need to reset our military," said Bush, whose administration had opposed increasing force levels as recently as this summer.

But in a wide-ranging session in the Oval Office, the president said he interpreted the Democratic election victories six weeks ago not as a mandate to bring the U.S. involvement in Iraq to an end but as a call to find new ways to make the mission there succeed. He confirmed that he is considering a short-term surge in troops in Iraq, an option that top generals have resisted out of concern that it would not help. (more)

On the War, Determined to Go His Own Way

...what else is new. 

Bush Sees 'Opportunities' on Social Security, Immigration

President Bush said yesterday that he intends to work with the new Democratic majority in Congress on a broad range of domestic issues, declaring that despite the impending power shift there are "some wonderful opportunities" to address concerns that have long festered without a political solution.

Signaling a new flexibility on issues in the wake of the Democrats' wins, Bush said he is willing to discuss Democratic ideas for solving the Social Security problem, including tax increases. "I don't see how you can move forward without people feeling comfortable about putting ideas on the table," Bush said when asked about the prospect of tax increases to keep Social Security solvent. "I have made it clear that I have a way forward that can do it [without raising taxes] and I want to hear other people's opinions."

 I think I'm choking to death........

A Bright Ribbon of White Lies

Under the Holiday Wrapping, A Gift to All for Their Faux Pas and Forgetfulness

A Search for Ourselves

User-Generated Content Dominates Google's 2006 Hot List

Episcopalians Against Equality

Read this.....it will make you sick.  

[Excerpt] 

In slamming the door on their American co-religionists, the two largest parishes, which are in Fairfax City and Falls Church, also announced their affiliation with the Episcopal Church of Nigeria. The presiding Nigerian archbishop, Peter Akinola, promotes legislation in his country that would forbid gays and lesbians to form organizations or to eat together in restaurants and that would send them to jail for indulging in same-gender sexual activity. Akinola's agenda so touched the hearts of the Northern Virginia faithful that they anointed him, rather than Jefferts Schori, as their bishop.

Peer pressure played a role, too. Explaining the decision to leave the American church, Vicki Robb, a Fairfax parishioner and Alexandria public relations exec, told The Post's Bill Turque and Michelle Boorstein that the church's leftward drift has made it "kind of embarrassing when you tell people that you're Episcopal." It must be a relief to finally have an archbishop who doesn't pussyfoot around when gays threaten to dine in public.

The alliance of the Fairfax Phobics with Archbishop Restaurant Monitor is just the latest chapter in the global revolt against modernity and equality and, more specifically, in the formation of the Orthodox International. The OI unites frequently fundamentalist believers of often opposed faiths in common fear and loathing of challenges to ancient tribal norms. It has featured such moving tableaus as the coming together in the spring of 2005 of Israel's chief rabbis, the deputy mufti of Jerusalem, and leaders of Catholic and Armenian churches, burying ancient enmities to jointly condemn a gay pride festival. The OI's founding father was none other than Pope John Paul II, who spent much time and energy endeavoring to reconcile various orthodox Christian religions and whose ecumenism prompted him to warn the Anglicans not to ordain gay priests.

NASA Launches Google Collaboration

Web Giant Will Make Images From Space Agency's Missions Accessible to Public

Very cool! 



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3 Comments:

At December 20, 2006 10:23 AM , Blogger zencomix said...

I have trouble reading your Squarespace/Journal home. The left hand part of the posts gets chopped off. Does it work better with a particular browser?

 
At December 20, 2006 11:14 PM , Blogger Social Anniemal said...

Nothing quite says "Merry Christmas" like "draft," does it? But hey, as a friend noted, "at least the soliders' families will get a raise thanks to that minimum wage raise."

 
At December 20, 2006 11:44 PM , Blogger Sine.Qua.Non said...

Zen: That is odd. I use Mozilla's Firefox. I just checked explorer and it looks fine to me. In fact, it looks better with the new IE than the old - where it did not translate well in my opinion - blurry type, etc, colors off,...

The page is 775px wide and the main body about 500px plus margins.

What are you using?

Is this happening on all posts or just the one you were looking at? I have had that happen a couple of times when I post a table, but I avoid that as much as possible. I think I have done it 2-3 times in 1.5 years.

Let me know if it does that on other browsers for you....

pikpr: LMAO on that minimum wage crack. Doesn't that happen over a 3-year period. The draft has never been something this country much cared for, that I can recall. Merry HOHOHO, is right.

 

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