..........I'm back for 2007!!!!

I hope everyone in the blogesphere had a great Christmas and New Year celebration. Our break was a busy one. The family and I left for Walt Disney World right after school on December 20, stayed in the WDW parks through Christmas Day, drove home on December 26 (got back home at 7:00 PM), washed clothes/re-packed our suitcases, met the band kids at 1:45 AM on December 27 for rehearsal, loaded the buses at 3:30, and departed for Memphis, TN at 4:00 AM. We stayed in Memphis for the Liberty Bowl, performed with LeAnn Rimes at halftime, went to Graceland, and departed Memphis for home on December 30. We arrived home on December 31 at 12:30 AM, went to church at 11:00, and rested through January 1. I had a teacher workday on January 2 and the kids came back to school on January 3.

Well, here we are, back in the saddle again. We have a new congress and a new chairperson of congress. I know everyone is excited about that. Change is going to be the agenda in Washington, D.C. through the election cycle that hits us in 2008.

I enjoy keeping-up with our politics. There is always some good debate to be had with every issue in America. I watched the President's speech last night. He seemed very nervous and uncomfortable. First, he chose to stand behind a lectern; and two, his reading of the prompter was not very fluid. If his intention was to sell us on the new strategy in Iraq, he failed miserably. He did not know his speech well enough to present it to a national audience. With all the breaks in the dialogue, I felt like I had cue cards on my forehead and he was looking right at me. It was so unrehearsed and ineffective. I guess you could say, ineffective or not, he is the President and he has the power to do whatever he wants in this case. This is only a small part of the failures of this administration. Liberal media or not, there is enough media controlled by the Republicans to use it to their advantage if they wanted to do so. Ronald Regan did just that, and he pulled the country together. I can't believe that a President in wartime could not use the media any more effectively for the cause that this President has. Don't blame the liberal media for this lack of communication. President Bush has never tried to connect to the people. Like it or not, this arrogance has cost the Republican party the Congress and Senate. What a "lame duck" administration. It reminds me of the "do nothing" atmosphere of the Carter years. President Bush has surrounded himself with "old school" buddies of his father that have lead him into this failure. I don't have confidence in our President. I have never thought him intelligent enough for the job. His buddies have lead us into a disaster with Iraq. I have fought the comparison of Iraq and Vietnam from the beginning, but the parallels are becoming clearer each day. We went into Iraq for what reason? The real reason didn't work, so we called it "freeing the Iraqi people from an evil dictator", so we could establish a democracy in the Middle East. We went into Iraq/Vietnam to force democracy on people who did not ask for it. We destroy the country and attempt to have them rebuild, only there are forces who drive the conquered into civil war. We defeat the enemy in battle, drive them off occupied ground, then we leave; only to have the enemy re-occupy the ground again after we leave. We say that "if we only had more troops", then we could win the day. Support for the war has reached an all time low as we pour thousands of additional troops into the region. The parallels are there. Americans are slow learners. Our arrogance of military might and world position got us into Vietnam and it has got us into Iraq. The outcome will be the same, and America will have egg on her face once again. The bravery of our troops in Vietnam and Iraq is without compare. I respect these soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines more than you can imagine. We owe our veterans the deepest respect and honor. Our leadership has let them down and has let the country down. I hope the new direction will work. I was very suprised to hear the Commander in Chief admit to the mistakes in the beginning of the conflict. He shouldn't have apologized, he didn't come up with the strategies - have Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld apologize! My gosh, we can't even hang Saddam without screwing it up! I am so frustrated with all of this. I still have the image of our President in one of his public appearences leaning over a lectern, pointing towards a reporter saying, "......you've got to remember, this is the guy who tried to kill my dad!"

Sorry for the ranting. Frustration speaks in long sentences. For the next post I'll put up some pictures from the Liberty Bowl and talk about that.

God bless all our troops serving in Iraq/Afganistan, those who have served, and those who will depart soon to serve. You have our greatest respect and America is proud as you perform your duties with honor.