The complete and total delusional miscalculation of what would happen in Iraq by the Bush administration became obvious once again this week. It has become obvious we are not being greeted with flowers.
The True Cost of War

In anger and embarrassment, Congressional Republicans are scrambling to repair a budget shortfall in veterans’ medical care now that the Bush administration has admitted it vastly underestimated the number of returning Iraq and Afghanistan personnel needing treatment. The $1 billion-plus gaffe is considerable, with the original budget estimate of 23,553 returned veterans needing care this year now ballooning to 103,000. American taxpayers should be even more furious than Congress.

Rather than being a case of cold hearted callousness on the part of Republicans, as many on the left have claimed, it appears that underfunding the Veterans Administration may simply be another example of gross incompetence on the part of the administration and the unwillingness of Republicans to go against the administration.

The Capitol’s Republican majorities have shown no hesitation in signing the president’s serial blank-check supplemental budgets for waging the war, yet they repeatedly ignored months of warnings from Democrats that returning veterans were being shortchanged. One Republican who warned of the problem - Representative Christopher Smith of New Jersey - lost his chairmanship of the Veterans Affairs Committee after pressing his plea too boldly before the House leadership.

But partisan resistance melted in a flood of political chagrin once the administration admitted the budget error, which was first discovered in April but only now disclosed. The explanation offered - the gaffe was due to using dated formulas based on prewar calculations - left Republicans sputtering all the more.

Take note of the reason: “the gaffe was due to using dated formulas based on prewar calculations“. The prewar calculations were off by an order of magnitude. There is a word for that, incompetence.

I went through my e-mail today, and I came across a piece from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. On my own blog, I have remarked on the DCCC’s penchant for filling my inbox with messages that ask me to “please send money.”

A recent e-mail, dated June 23, came with this subject line:

Don’t Let the GOP Buy Another Election!

And how can I prevent the GOP from buying another election? By … ahem … sending money. E-mails like this threaten to break the Irony-O-Meter.

Goldstein demolishes the “Chickenhawk” rhetoric.

This will be my last post here until Tuesday, so I leave you some topical quotes…

“This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”

-Elmer Davis

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

-Thomas Paine

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.”

-Thomas Paine

“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”

-Franklin D. Roosevelt

Happy 4th, Americans.

It’s always weird hanging in someone else’s digs, but I told Jack that I would at least put up one post before I skipped town myself.

And I’ve been meaning to link Ophelia for over a week now on her gay stereotype bashing post. A young one in blog years, and yet, she’s got the idea.

It’s interesting to gain a new perspective.

Pam discussed this several months ago, and I linked her on it. We wondered why so many homosexuals have seemed to define themselves by their homosexuality.

Ophelia blames Hollywood for handing down that definition, rather than the gay community. And I say: How can you not blame Hollywood? Those feather-muckers.

I will say this, at least of late, the movement seems to have gotten away from the “nasty, sickly, disease-ridden” stereotypes, and more towards the JUST JACK! overly animated type from Will and Grace.

That’s our fault. As humans, we find comfort in stereotyping, almost as much as we are enraged by it. And as an audience of this generation, we seek comedic relief as a refreshing contrast to the world’s coming to an end! mentality of the late 80’s.

And so here we are…

Regarding our position on the bell curve of balance - on ALL of the issues - I have to question where we stand.

I can’t help but wonder how close we are to “as good as it gets.”