Does Bush carry change in his pocket? Has he plunged a stopped-up toilet? Does he know how to pump gas, log in to a computer, use an ATM? Just curious...

Paper Tigers

Once again Little Miss Attila has it all wrong. She views al Qaeda as growing weaker as we track them down. She views al Qaeda as fearful of the U.S. and Britain, that we're powers not to be trifled with, not paper tigers. I would agree with her if not for one problem: By stopping the pursuit of bin Laden in favor of an unnecessary invasion of Iraq showed that stopping terrorism is NOT a priority for the U.S. And from that what do we have - terrorist acts occurring near daily, al Qaeda growing stronger, allies of the U.S. - such as Spain - questioning our motives in Iraq, it's obvious that Bush put personal ambitions above National concerns.

Even if bin Laden is caught and put on display (with or without Hussein), he will likely appear as a grand martyr against the U.S. tyranny, enticing even more volunteers for al Qaeda. The display will come off as nothing more than a pre-election ploy, more macho preening by a power-mad "President". Bush was warned early on that invading Iraq was a bad idea, that likely it would increase terrorism and bring more followers to terrorist groups and that's what's happened. Only recently has the military sought to close the Iraq borders to keep more anti-U.S. fighters from entering. Why wasn't that done immediately after victory?

What Bush should've done is not be so impatient with his private agenda. After the fall of Afghanistan he should have continued the pursuit of bin Laden, even into Pakistan if need be. The U.S. should have then said "Afghanistan harbored terrorists and is no longer. Pakistan is harboring terrorists. We're going after the fugitives. Pakistan has the option of helping us or facing the same fate as Afghanistan." What would Pakistan do? They'd have a cheesed off U.S. on one flank and India on another. Pakistan would have weighed harboring bin Laden versus a complete overthrow and given in. That's a message! The U.S. will track down known terrorists immediately and exhaustively, and you can join us or get the hell out of the way. That's a message! Using the soldiers currently in Iraq, with the budget now wasted in Iraq, with all alies firmly in tow, bin Laden likely would have been caught by now. That's a message!

Once bin Laden was brought to Justice one way or another, Bush could have ridden that wave into Iraq, assuming that the weapons inspectors found any thing.

But Bush had his agenda and a deadline. He couldn't chance the weapons inspectors reporting that Hussein was clean and clear. He had to get Iraq early on for whatever his own reasons were - oil, revenge, control...

And now America is hated, Europe is coallescing into an independent world power, terrorism is on the rise as is the U.S. body count in Iraq. We live in fear not just from terrorists but from our own Government. Is this the New World Order?

Evangelists in Iraq

Front page Los Angeles Times had an article about how evangelists are flocking to Iraq. Who said the Crusades are dead? A year ago I commented that Bush wanting to invade Iraq had many facets (oil) one of which was the religious aspect. That Bush probably views himself as the white knight crusader off to fight the evil heathen. Even Bush used that word "Crusade" in a speech to describe our mission. St. George and the Dragon II.

Yep, we can beat them militarily, economically, and religiously. Next for Iraq - McDonalds and Disney. Resistance is futile! They will become a white bread nation of peons, watching Survivor and Oprah, drinking beer and eating hot dogs. It has been ordained!

Dark Side of the Moon

They fuckin' bleeped Pink Floyd!! Floyd's "Money" always has snuck "bullshit" on to the airwaves - artistic license, freedom of speech, whatever but today on the local radio they bleeped it.

That's one way to sell CDs - "Hear the unexpurgated version of your favorite songs...".

On TV when they overdub naughty words...people who can read lips get to "hear" what we don't. Kind of ironic. Deaf people hearing the truth.

The Dark Side has taken over. Censorship is here. Today, bad words. Tomorrow, bad themes. Your thoughts must be pure - no sex, no drugs, no complaints against the Government!

At least the Internet is safe, right?