The Pot Calls the Kettle Black Inside the Beltway Style

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It never ceases to amaze me (and I should have ceased being amazed long ago) about how rampant hypocrisy runs in our nation’s capitol.

As president Obama ramps up his Afghanistan campaign, the holier than thou members of the House and Senate, along with the ever present media talking heads, are screaming about rampant corruption in Afghanistan and the Karzai regime.

These bastions of morality, these followers of the letter of the law, think corruption in Afghanistan is somehow more terrible than the corruption inside the DC Beltway.

My question for all the corruption complainers is - did aliens somehow come in and suck your memories out of your tiny Beltway brains?

Let’s refresh everyone’s memory about corruption in our own backyard:

The Presidency of Richard Nixon - payoffs, burglary, obstruction of justice - the list is huge

The Presidency of Bill Clinton - sex scandal, fundraising crimes, Hazel O’Leary, et al

The Presidency of George W. Bush - Halliburton, Blackwater, Scooter Libby, Abramoff, K Street

Senator John Ensign

Cong. William Jefferson

The Presidency of Ronald Reagan - Ollie North, Iran Contra, John Poindexter, James Watt, Michael Deaver, et al.

Cong. Tom Delay - pre “Dancing With the Stars”

Cong. Duke Cunningham

Former Speaker of the House Jim Wright


You get the idea.

An that’s just national. If you look at any state, you’ll see the same corruption: bribes, featherbedding, kickbacks, manipulation of legislation for personal gain, lying, cheating,…… you get the idea.

Here in Oklahoma, where our Congressional delegation is so hell bent on talking about Afghanistani corruption, have bad memories as well.

Here in Oklahoma we’ve had:


Governor David Hall sent to prison

Governor David Walters pleads guilty to crimes

Former State Senator Gene Stipe - the Godfather of patronage and personal gain while in office

Former State Auditor Jeff McMahan

Former State Rep. Mike Mass

Former Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Reinhart

Senator Jim Inhofe and his insurance company

Senator Tom Coburn and his association with the Senator Ensign Affair

Cong. Mary Fallin and Trooper-gate


The incidents of corruption and scandal on a state and national level go for pages and pages. In fact, if you listed all the political corruption in the US that’s happened in the last 10 years, they would probably cover more pages than the Congressional Healthcare Reform Bill.

The people of the United States are under the mistaken impression that we are somehow better than everyone else, that we’re something to aspire to be like.

Take another look at the brief list of corruption by US politicians.

We have a long way to go before we can lecture another country on their corruption problems.

Countries in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

Same Song, Different War

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For those of us who are old enough, President Obama sounded a lot like LBJ during last night's address to the nation on his intent to ramp up war operations in that insignificant country. 

For you younger kids, he sounded very much like Bush II (I wonder if hes using Bush's speech writer?).

During the height of the Viet Nam conflict in 1967, folk singer Pete Seeger appeared on "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" and sang  "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", a pointed reference to how bogged down the US had become in that ugly, senseless war.

Last night Obama was no different than LBJ.

The rhetoric was the same - we need just a few more troops, a little more time and more tax dollars to win the war.

It was Johnson's constant refrain for Viet Nam,  just as it was Bush II's for Iraq. 

The problem is, we don't have the cash (Wall Street and the TARP companies got it), we barely have the troops and most importantly, Obama, like Bush, is taking on the wrong enemy.

The Taliban is not a global terrorist network like Al Quaeda.  They are all about local control.  Al Quaeda is the one with international terrorist aspirations. The Taliban didn't attack the US on 9-11. Al Quaeda operatives, based in Saudi Arabia, funded by the Saudi's, did.

Obama's speech sounded way too much like LBJ - we can and must bring down the enemy; we're nation building for the safety of the US and the world. 

Please notice how quickly the other countries of the world are ponying up soldiers, materials and money to help.  Yes there are token presences from some of our allies but this is not a global fight.  You dont' see UN troops or NATO troops.  So much for the global fight on terrorism.

LBJ and McNamara had it wrong. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld got it wrong. Now Obama is sliding down the same slippery slope.

Regardless of his stated timetable, you can bet we'll continue to wage some sort of war in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan for many years to come.  We'll do it until we're forced to tuck our tail between or legs and scurry off like the Soiet Union did some 25 years ago. Or like we did in Viet Nam.

This is a mistake.  It will cost American lives, money and stability.  And for what?  One more attempt at nation building?  One more atempt to pretend we're the defenders of the world?

And what will we get in return?  Cheaper poppies?  Hamid Karzai designer wear? 

After eight year's of Bush's war we are still, to quote Pete Seger, "waste deep in the big muddy and the big fool says to move on".

When Seeger sang that song on national TV, the big fool was LBJ.

After last night's speech, Obama picked up where Johnson left off.