Where have all the Yellow Ribbons gone?

It seems to me I'm seeing fewer and fewer yellow ribbon car magnets these days. - I might see only 2 or 3 on the way to work. In the past, I used to see tons. This is really just an impression as I have no data to back this up.
It would have been fun to have charted the "Ribbon to car ratio" over the course of President Bush's war in Iraq and we would have probably seen it trend like this:
Back in 2003 it was probably quite high when we were hearing such optimistic reports as : "My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators."
But as time went on and all of those statements proved to be so much ridiculous claptrap, the ribbon density undoubtedly decreased. News of Halliburton's no-bid contract probably had some negative impact (unless you happened to be one of the lucky Halliburton stockholders). We probably saw a further decrease when it came to light that $9 billion of our hard earned taxes had "disappeared" in Iraq.
Every time President Bush asked for an additional $80 Billion for Iraq, the ribbon ratio probably took a hit.
Additional depletion of the number of Yellow Ribbons came from folks reflecting upon the ratio:

• WMD's found: 0
• Dead GI's: 1740+

Now we've reached the point where the majority of Americans dissaprove of president Bush's war and that sentiment appears to be reflected in the number of ribbons we see.

Take a look around and see if you think the number of ribbons are waning.

Democrats and National Defense

In an article in the Weekly Standard, Fred Barns concludes that we Democrats are about to self-destruct because: "When faced with a choice between supporting or criticizing the use of military force along with a strong national security policy, Democrats often side with the critics. Which is how they fall into the trap, which leads to electoral defeat"

He is off of the mark here. Where it is true that Democrats are indeed among the critics of how this administration is conducting the war in Iraq, most are not calling for an immediate pull-out nor even a set time table.

For example, Senator John Kerry made several suggestions on how to correct much of what is wrong in this New York Times op-ed piece. Note that he is offering a critique of how the war is being conducted; he is not advocating a retreat of any kind.

Read what the Senate Democratic leader Harry Ried says in his response to the President's speech. Read where Senator Dick Durbin says that having a definite timetable for withdrawing the troops is a bad idea (Peoria Journal Star article).

The tired old ploy of painting the Democrats as "weak on defense" just isn't going to work this time.

Senator Durbin's Gitmo remark

Remember the fuss over Senator Durbin's Gitmo remark? Remember the partisan calls for him to resign?

Senator Durbin recently visited a Peoria VFW post; the Peoria Journal Star's Elaine Hopkins reports:

PEORIA - U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., received a cordial welcome from the Illinois Veterans of Foreign Wars Convention at the Peoria Civic Center on Saturday, and in returned pledged to fight for benefits for veterans and soldiers.

He spoke to the audience of almost 300 at the event and received a standing welcome from most in the hall and a standing ovation at the conclusion. Durbin's talk was interrupted three times by applause. There were no hecklers or protesters.

The senator's recent remarks linking the treatment of prisoners at the Army's Guantanamo Bay prison with Nazi and other police-state tactics sparked anger from many groups, including the VFW. But he has apologized for any misunderstandings and did so again to the VFW audience.

(To see the rest of Hopkins' article click here.)

So much for terminally offending veterans.

Beating Aaron Schock may not be that hard!

This may turn out to be a little easier than anticipated. Poor Aaron seems to be upsetting his brother Republicans. Take this blog entry for example. Chris Rhodes seems a bit upset with Aaron for plagiarizing one of his websites. First take a look at this (specificaly the intro) and then take a look at Aaron's website . Notice any similarities? LOL! This is a brazen theft of another's work. Given this example of Schock's "integrity" it might be fun to comb through some of his accademic papers at Bradley to see if there was a pattern of plagiarism! - Are you up to that challenge, Aaron? Honestly Aaron, we've come to expect theft and dishonesty from the Republican party in general - but at least you should have the decency not to rip off your fellow Republicans!

Some more amunition to use against Schock comes from reading the entries in his blog - I highly recommend checking this out as it provides an insight in to the intelectual depth of Aaron Schock's mind. (Sorry, that really was a cheap shot.)

Ready for even more fun? Let's take a look at who gave Aaron Money and see if we can draw a connection between that money and some of the issues Schock champions.Our first stop is the State Board of Elections web site. Surfing through all the contributors, we start to see a theme... Lots of Doctors, Medical Organizations, and Insurance companies are all cozying up to Aaron. Hmmm... I wonder if there is any connection between their money and the fact that several of the issues he is championing concerns Medical Malpractice? In fact he even has a link on his page to some Medical lobbying group!

Corruption in politics is nothing new - but what is really incredible is how low Aaron "sell out price" is! It looks like $8,000 is his threshold! Need Aaron to push a law through for you or even place a link on his website? Get 4 friends to pool together $8,000 and all of a sudden, Schock is very interested in your cause.

President Bush's $27,500 "Birth" tax

I was thumbing through the internet yesterday and came upon The National Debt Clock. The National Debt is a computation not only of the $400 Billion deficit that President George Bush has run up in his 5 years but also the projected interest payments to cover this debt. Currently our National Debt stands a little shy of $8 TRILLION but climbing every day.

$8 Trillion is so huge that conceptually it's hard to grasp, so let's do some manipulations so we can begin to appreciate the enormity... How about calculating your personal stake in President Bush's debt? A rough estimate of the U.S. population is 290 million. Dividing $8 trillion by 290 million gives us $27,586 for each man, woman, and child. Thus, the instant a baby is born he/she is immediately burdened with a $27,500 debt, essentially a "Birth" tax. And thanks to President Bush, a family of 4 owes a whopping $110,000.

How on earth did President Bush turn the surplus that was handed to him by Bill Clinton into the "Mother of All" deficits? In his defense, the economy heading south was part of it. However there are many things he did which exasperated the situation. A significant factor was President Bush's $280 Billion (so far!) war in Iraq (incidentally, over $8 billion of which is unaccounted for!) - and your family's stake in that missing $8 Billion is $108. His tax cuts for the wealthy was another (Did Bill Gates really need the $90,000 George Bush gave him?) And before you get too excited about the $200 tax cut President Bush gave you last year, consider this: at the rate of $200 a year, it will take you 550 years to pay down your $110,000 portion of the "Bush National Debt"

92nd State House District

Which Democrat gives the party the best chance of defeating Aaron Schock? Why?