CRANKY IN THE MIDDLE - Issue 1

Volume 2 - Issue 1 - January 25, 2007


SAME SONG…….SEVENTH VERSE
The new year has arrived with basically more of the same for this small planet we call home……….it’s like deja’ vue…..I always hope that with the changing of the calendar from December to January we will be able to start anew, but the powers that be just seem to like feeding us more of the same garbage and we keep lapping it up. I will say that January has given us some interesting events, plot twists and turns……all the stuff that a good whodunit needs………..let the year begin! Welcome to 2007!

WHAT DO WE WANT?……JUSTICE…WHEN DO WE WANT IT……NOW!!
The firing of the county road supervisor (which was long overdue) has made headlines………the case has been investigated and charges it would seem are about to brought……but wait………now the county attorney has resigned. Now what? Justice is sure getting delayed here. Let’s just hope that justice will be served. Each and every one of the citizens of this county was robbed and I think that each and every one of the citizens of this county deserves to see some justice. Taxpayers are tired of this kind of thing, and for once I would like for those in power to take into consideration how we feel. I don’t like being ripped off…….and I don’t think you do either. Let’s make sure our elected officials provide the oversight desperately needed to prevent this from happening in the future.

“If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.”
--- James Madison

BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD PLACE
Ok………my head is spinnin about this one. So much information and so little time to make any sense of it. The prez calls it a “surge” and Condi calls it an “augmentation”. I did pretty well in school when it came to English, but neither one of these words truthfully describes what the prez is proposing in regards to sending 22,000 more troops to Iraq. “The Surge” sounds like we intend to electrocute the insurgents…….maybe that is the intention? Augmentation………are we giving them boob jobs?…..as in breast augmentation? Whatever the administration is trying to sell this time can only be described as a bad idea. Makes me wonder what they’re smoking. What irritates me is that we are pulling a brigade of our troops out of Afghanistan and shipping them to Iraq for “the surge”. It is believed by most military experts that this is not a good move due to the fact that the Taliban and Al Queda forces are expected to mount a very large offensive against the US and UN troops this spring. Everyone is worried about Iraq, but if we don’t get our ducks in a row in Afghanistan…….we are gonna loose it. The ones we ran out of there are coming back in full force….the country is a mess………and the press really doesn’t talk about it much. The shuffling of personnel and staff in Iraq and in the administration tell me only one thing……..we ain’t seen nothing yet………and it probably won’t be pretty. To quote Stephen Colbert on Bush; “He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday.” I couldn’t have said it better. I do not have trust in this president and I do not have the faith that he will do the right thing, based mostly on his past performance. I don’t think the prez thinks about anything he does and that’s why he’s jumping from the fire to the frying pan on a daily basis. His insistence to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results each time is what Albert Einstein defined as insanity. This is Bush’s last drink at the Last Chance Saloon….if this goes south, Bush will have to accept the consequences of his actions………. and sadly, so will we all.

“Without debate, without criticism, no administration and no country can succeed --- and no republic can survive.”
--- John F. Kennedy

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
I finally saw this movie. I don’t care if you like Al Gore or not…..it’s worth seeing. No matter what the Nero’s of this country say……..this is a problem and we need people to start understanding and taking stock of what we are doing here. This is our only home………where we gonna go if we destroy it? Those chickens always come home to roost.

KEITH IS DA MAN!!!
I am a big fan of Keith Olbermann. In his series of Special Comments on his show Countdown he talks to this president as he should be talked to, and more often than not takes him to the woodshed. Not that this president will listen……..at least Keith is attempting to hold his feet to the fire. It’s unfortunate that the rest of the fourth estate doesn’t follow suit.

THE POLITICS IN YOUR OWN BACK YARD ARE OFTEN THE MOST INTERESTING
The word on the street and the word from the horses mouth have informed me that Bob Stimatze will be running for city council. I for one am feeling very good about this and I think having persons on the council that are business oriented and have a view of what the real world is like will be an asset. Congrats for running Bob.

DID I MISS ANYTHING TUESDAY NIGHT?
Unfortunately I was working Tuesday night, but I have managed to catch the highlights of the SOTU speech on TV and on the internet…….sort of like catching the highlights of a game on ESPN that I just didn’t have the attention span to watch………I will not go into any lengthy breakdown of what I heard………but these are some things that I observed and they don’t necessarily have anything to do with what was said. House member Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had a death grip on Bush when he was signing autographs after the speech……..she just wouldn’t let go of him. Secretary of State Rice looked as if she hadn’t had any sleep or she had taken too many Paxil….she really looked like a person who didn’t want to be there. Vice President Cheney looked the same as he always does…….just setting there like a stuffed and mounted version of himself and probably thinking of how he’s going to lie under oath at the Scooter Libby trial. Nancy Pelosi blinks a lot…..might I suggest some natural tears for dry eye? We heard the same old song about Iraq and some verses on topics this president doesn’t talk about much……like health care, reducing gas consumption, you know domestic issues. What he didn’t say interests me more………not a single solitary word about the Gulf coast and the continued clean up and reconstruction from the damage caused by hurricane Katrina………maybe he forgot. The body language of everyone present in that chamber was mighty interesting. I am surprised that Laura Bush didn’t have Barney with her, because the president said he was going to stay the course even if Laura and his dog Barney we’re the only ones left standing beside him………uh Mr. President…….I think we have reached that point.