To the Woodshed with the Dems....

So after shaking off the proverbial rust off of my blogging tool kit, I announce my return to this wonderful, but in the case of my blog, seldom read medium. Much has happened in the months since I last felt compelled to sit and share my views with all of you, so many might be wondering what has precipitated my umpteenth return to the blogosphere. Irony my dear friends, simple irony. When I typed in cnn.com today, the same way that I type it in every day, I was in for quite a surprise. For there on the homepage it listed the top stories of the day. Now there is nothing unusual or odd about this at first glance, however, as I looked closer something struck me as odd...the headline for the first story was:

"Deal could mean $70,000,000,000 for war" (that is 70 billion for those of you who are numerically challenged)

then right beneath that story was the #2 story of the day:

"President Bush vetoes child health bill again"

Now I am no public relations specialist, but I would think that the White House would try to avoid having these two stories appear in the same news cycle. As I read on, (and consulted other sources) I couldn't help but wonder what the hell was wrong with our leadership in Washington. This "Democratic" congress, who came to power touting reform, and was elected largely on its promises to lead our country in a new direction, one that did not involve massive military conflicts with vague objectives, and little if any chances of success, has officially and unequivocally soured even this most idealistic amateur politic. There is no logical explanation for the President to veto a bill that aimed to expand health care for poor children. Whats more, even if one were to accept his reasoning that this bill was poorly written and would give coverage to those who didn't need it, the entirety of the bill was $35 billion over 5 years. The President, at the same time is seeking $200 billion (and will apparently get at least $70 billion of it) to continue the war in Iraq.

Now lets assume that the health care bill is bad, and will provide coverage for those who do not necessarily need government health care, certainly this is a better use of $35 billion tax payer dollars. Iraq is a quagmire at best, the largest foreign policy mistake ever made by this country at worst, and is wildly unpopular both here in America and abroad. It is unconscionable that we could spend another $200 billion on war while refusing to fund health care at home. Add to this that we have already spent by some estimates over $450 billion on the war (http://nationalpriorities.org/cms/costofwar) and you can see why my stomach began churning even as I read the headlines.

So, you may ask, where are the Democrats? Why are they not standing up and speaking out about this atrocity? Perhaps the President is too strong? No, he still has approval ratings hovering in the thirty percent range. Well maybe, they don't have the votes? No, again not right, they hold the majority and can influence the swing votes. So why you ask? The answer is simple; they need to get re-elected. What? Thats right, see if a budget is not approved then the Pentagon may start laying off civilian employees. This would cause a serious problem for many politicians who would have to face angry constituents. However, this is not the real problem. The real reason why Democrats in congress are acting like spineless amoebas is that the Pentagon would have to shut down funding to some defense contractors. Defense contractors are major contributors to members of congress on both sides of the aisle. So again it all comes down to money.

It has been almost 50 years since Eisenhower's Military Industrial Complex speach, and his words ring more true today then ever before. I am a Liberal, I am a Democrat, but before those I am an American, and I am disappointed and infuriated by the leadership of my party. If Democratic party wants to count on my vote in the future, then I need the leaders of my party to show that they have ideals beyond wanting to be re-elected. They need to show that they can stand up for what they believe, what they have promised, and what is right.