Christian Leftist

Bush just asked for $46 billon more fo the Iraq war for 2007. That would be the last two months of this year, not next year. The Iraq war is not costing us, the American taxpayers, $330 million dollars A DAY. This year, it will have cost us $200 billion.

CNN gives us this statistic: $46 billion would pay for all the yearly costs of the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, and the Treasury combined.

Where is Bush’s soul? War is complicated? Is that the best he can do? Borrow billions a day for foreign countries and patronize us because we don’t understand his logic? What in the Hell is WRONG with this guy?

*cue apoplectic fit*

Larry Craig can’t seem to make up his mind about much of anything these days.

First, he didn’t solicit sex from a police officer. Then, he may have given the wrong impression and merely wanted to plead guilty and sweep the whole dirty affair under the rug. Then, it was in his best interest to shout “I AM NOT GAY!!!” from the rooftops with a 300-lb. bullhorn. A bit later, Craig decided, “I’m sick of this crap. I’ll just quit now while I’m behind. Now, he’s saying he’s not sure, that he wants to fight the accusation made against him but he had planned to not seek re-election BEFORE the scandal broke but he may not quit unless the Ethics Committe finds him guilty of wrongdoing and oh, by the way, his spokesperson says, “There will probably be a new Senator from Idaho come October.”

Guh?

I’m not going to even TRY to tackle this one. Read CNN’s story on the latest about the Larry Craig sex scandal instead, and then blame them for confusing you, not me.

By the way, I think I agree with Arlen Specter on one thing: airport police have far better things that they SHOULD be doing with their time other than waiting for gay men to nudge their boots in restroom stalls.

Everyone hates someone else they haven’t met because they never think they’ll walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. Maybe you’re certain that all veterans are gun-loving warmongers until you go on a camping trip with one of them who happens to be an environmental pagan. Maybe you view all foreigners with suspicion until you find out that the wife of that grocer down the street teaches your children. It’s hard not to take cues from those around you who have already formed intractable opinions on people who they dislike.

Try.

That’s what I want to say when I see these conservative ‘family values’ politicians and their ilk exposed for the liars and cowards they are. Sure, some of them are just misguided ignorant people, but most of them are willfully ignorant and intolerant, especially towards non-Judeo-Christians, leftists and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. How many times must we remind those who insist on dragging religion into the public square that Christ himself said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone?” (John 8:8)

For those of you still hung up over Bill Clinton, let’s take a look at the recent role call (if I’m leaving anyone out, which I’m sure I am, please let me know):

∙ Ted Haggard, the minister of a mega-church in Colorado springs who had sex with a male prostitute and did drugs—meth, I think?
∙ Mark Foley, the Republican congressman from Florida who resigned after a teenage male congressional page turned over explicit instant message conversations between them
∙ Glenn Murphy Jr., the Clark County Republican Party (Utica, NY?) chairman who resigned both that position AND his appointment as president of the Young Republican National Federation after a colleague reported that Murphy, Jr. sodomized him while he was trying to sleep over at his house during a campaign event, also accused of sodomizing another minor several years earlier
∙ David Vitter, the Louisiana Senator? whose phone number appeared on the D.C. Madam’s call list for having sex with one of her call girls
∙ Bob Allen, the Republican elected official from Florida who blamed his solicitation of a police officer to let him blow the officer in return for paying the officer $20 on fear of racial violence from the police because the officer and his friends were large and black
∙ Larry Craig, the Louisiana Senator who pleaded guilty to soliciting sex from an undercover cop in the men’s bathroom at a Minnesota airport and then tried to publicly disavow his plea

The Young Turks, a liberal-leaning blog that does a segment on Air America, has reported on a GOP sex scandal every week for a while now and never run out of material. Now THAT’s sad.

I don’t have a problem with gays having sex. I don’t see why Craig was arrested. It’s the fact that Ol’ Larry has been campaigning to pass anti-gay rights legislation in Congress that really sticks in my craw.

I don’t know, maybe, just maybe we’re all human beings who make mistakes and we shouldn’t try to legislate flawed ideology and force-feed it down the throats of our fellow citizens? Just a thought.

Jared Hubbard and Jeremiah Baro were best friends who went to Iraq. They lived together, laughed together, and died together as snipers during the second year of the second Iraq War. Their families thought it fitting that they be buried together as well.

Now their Central California town is mourning the loss of Jared’s younger brother Nathan, only 24, who enlisted after Jared’s death with their older brother Jason. Nathan was one of 14 soldiers to die when his Blackhawk helicopter crashed due to mechanical failure; Jason arrived on the scene as a rescuer in time to discover that he was the last surviving son.

In a harrowing twist not unlike the plot of Saving Private Ryan, the military has ordered Jason to return home to his family to grieve, before some unseen, violent catastrophe takes the eldest Hubbard son from this earth.

It’s hard to imagine the odds of this kind of event happening more than once. I would think losing one son would have been sufficient service to this country, but the Hubbard brothers felt called to serve, and it’s far better to have people serving who want to be in a war than drafting those who don’t. Still, every tragic loss of life in Iraq seems so empty, so damning an indictment. What is it going to take to convince the rest of the country that we can no longer afford to spend people’s lives in this doomed pursuit?

At least if Bush is too stubborn to withdraw troops from the Middle East, he could consider pouring help into Afghanistan. At least there our military protection has some measure of public support. It’s not too late to save Karzai’s fledgling administration from the resurgence of the Taliban.

It’s cognitive dissidence at its worst. You say a story like this is a pointless loss of life, and conservatives jump on you for saying that ‘a soldier’s death was for nothing.’ It’s not so simple as that. Soldiers die serving their country; the administration that send them on a foolhardy assignment have made the specific outcomes of that task a waste of human life.

I wonder about all of the numerous lives the Hubbard brothers could have helped has they served in a mission that didn’t send them off to die.

Normally I don’t just link to interesting articles without saying something of substance about them, but this is Nicholas Kristof, and the title says it all, really.