Blogging My Life

If you don't think there are some Americans who are convinced that we are engaged in a Holy War of West vs. East, or Christendom vs. Islam, then take a look at the picture below. This is the Flag Guy. I see him all the time around downtown Seattle. If you look, you'll see an American flag, a British flag and a Christian flag. I think I can make the case for the U.S. having been the 'standard bearer' of Western Culture for the past 50 years. The British flag is representative of our immediate cultural parentage, as it were, (Britain first, then Europe by extension). And the Christian flag represents the tie that binds us in the West, and also is what we're fighting to defend, according to the Flag Guy.

This is The Flag Guy. He's around town a lot. 

In reading the coverage of the prison abuse scandal, it seems to me that the accused soldiers lawyers, and those with a liberal bent are trying to get the soldiers completely off the hook by arguing that the real responsibility lies higher up the chain of command. Now, I firmly believe that, ultimately, the responsibility for an atmosphere that condoned and promoted torture definitely goes all the way up the chain of command to Donald Rumsfeld at least. And I have always said that I don't believe those individual soldiers that are being prosecuted came up with those "stress positions" all by themselves. I think the memos released lately by the administration bears that out. But, and here is where my views diverge from the rest of my 'lefty' friends, I don't think those accused soldiers should get off 'scott-free.' See, I was a soldier. From '83 to '86 I was a soldier in the U.S. Army, serving as a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical Speciali...

We need to be hearing a whole lot more about this . If I recall correctly, somewhere, there exist pictures of G.W. and Kenneth Lay at the opening ceremonies of some big stadium in Texas. So the question is, just how chummy is the Bush administration with Lay and company? And what role did they play in Cheney's private energy policy cabal?

Don't you just long for the days when all we had to worry about was some personal honor lost for the president and the dry cleaning cost of a certain blue dress?

This article points out that the 9/11 Commission's report will probably be the definitive statement of what happened; and, that Bush's reelection could well hang on whether the public believes the administration's account of what happened, or the commission's. The president and his cronies abviously recognize this, otherwise they wouldn't have worked so hard to get some of the commission's preliminary reports "watered down."