This, that, and t'other

When Saint Reagan pulled the U.S. military out of Lebanon after the attack on the Marine Barracks in 1983, no one accused him of "cutting and running", or of dishonoring the dead by prudently getting the living out of harm's way.

Saint Reagan talked with Gorbachev, the leader of the Evil Empire. No one accused him of appeasing the godless Commies.

Nixon has a solid foreign-policy achievement to his legacy: establishing diplomatic relations with the godless Chinese Commie bastards!

Anyone can talk with friends. It's not that hard... it's even enjoyable. Even arguing with friends is a pleasant way to spend an evening. It takes courage and character to talk with your enemies.

After deliberately walking away from negotiations with North Korea at the beginning his first term, W has spent the past year trying desperately to achieve some claim to diplomatic fame by belatedly engaging the godless Korean Commies. (Recall, W even publicly dissed SecDef Powell when Powell had the audacity to suggest that W's Administration would take up talks with N. Korea where Clinton had left off.)

W similarly walked away from the Mid-East negotiations Clinton had nurtured. Now, in his final year, he hopes to get something - anything - on paper - a lasting legacy in the region. Pitiful.

Whate'er became of Cheney's energy policy, formulated - as best we can tell - by his OilPatch buds? Facing $130/bbl oil, Dick has been remarkably silent.

And just a reminder:

THE PRESIDENT: "They will try to hide, they will try to avoid the United States and our allies - but we're not going to let them. They run to the hills; they find holes to get in. And we will do whatever it takes to smoke them out and get them running, and we'll get them."
[President Urges Readiness and Patience, Remarks by the President, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Attorney General John Ashcroft
Camp David
Thurmont, Maryland, 15 Sep 2001]

Followed shortly thereafter by

[Mullah] Omar: "I am considering two promises. One is the promise of God, the other is that of Bush. The promise of God is that my land is vast. If you start a journey on God's path, you can reside anywhere on this earth and will be protected... The promise of Bush is that there is no place on earth where you can hide that I cannot find you. We will see which one of these two promises is fulfilled."
[Mullah Omar - in his own words,
Wednesday September 26, 2001
The Guardian]

W hasn't even pretended to go after bin Laden or Mullah Omar. Never bet against a mullah!

W's legacy? An impoverished America stuck in an unwinnable war that is costing $100,000,000,000 per year, oil at $130/bbl, gas at $3.75/gal. An America whose Dept of Justice and close Presidential advisors authorized torture. An America whose government spies on its own citizens with no legal or judicial authority. An America whose military - though spending $500,000,000,000 per year on high-tech gadgets - is losing two wars to third-world guerilla forces.

If you like where the country is today, if you like the direction it's headed... by all means, vote Republican!

Stop the madness!