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SkipBurns.com
Friday, June 11, 2004



It just gets curiouser and curiouser. Now that the Justice Department is on the record as having told the President that torture is Ok and the State Department is on the record as having told the President that torture is not OK the President does not want to be on the record at all. All he will say is he told everyone to follow the law.

Of course the law for interrogating the Taliban was different than the law we followed for interrogating the al Quaeda by Presidential approval meanwhile no one is laying claim to the nudist camp law we used for for interrogating the Iraqi's.

The Administration's Shopping Mall Law approach to legal justification is sort of like the company that keeps two sets of books. One for the IRS and another for themselves. Of course you used go to jail for that, or you could the last time I checked, but then that was before the new variable legal code so who knows? After all, the easiest way to avoid breaking a law is to write it.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 2:22 PM EDT
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Thursday, June 10, 2004



Attorney General Ashcroft seems to have opened a real Pandora's box with his evasion of answering questions from members of the US Senate about authorization of torture in Iraq and elsewhere.

His attitude seems to be that "the end justifies the means" and his failure to answer questions about who knew what implies actions may have been authorized by the President that now might seem embarrassing. Fits right in with "pre-emptive wars" and "compassionate conservatism". We can call it "technically tolerable torture".

Nixon denied knowledge of Watergate. It didn't work. Clinton denied a relationship with Monica. That didn't work either. People didn't believe them, so my advice to the President is to take a different approach. Simply say you didn't understand what you signed. Even the Democrats will believe that.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 8:17 AM EDT
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Monday, June 7, 2004



Ronald Reagan has passed on. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with his positions on issues it was hard to argue with his likeability or his belief in his principles. He will be missed by some for his policies, by some for his commitment, by all for his gift for unassuming humor.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 1:29 PM EDT
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Friday, June 4, 2004



If you're in the market for a job these days the CIA may be just the place for you. Lots of openings what with everybody resigning. On the other hand if your looking for job security the "Agency" may not be the place for you.

This move to "abandon ship" is probably the beginnings of the unraveling of the Bush Presidency. When the "high up" troops start looking for an out it usually means the mutiny is not far behind. The "money people" will be next in line to desert followed by a media "feeding frenzy".

At some point in November it finally gets around to the "little guy", the voter, who performs the final act but the business end of it has already been done by then.



Posted by donburnshomepage at 3:22 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, June 4, 2004 3:32 PM EDT
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Thursday, June 3, 2004



Well I've picked on the President enough lately, mostly because he makes it so easy. To be fair I probably should take a shot or two at Senator Kerry who after umpteen years in the Senate and over a year on the campaign trail still seems to be best known for having a lot of hair.

While I can't much say what he's for other than being against whatever President Bush is for, to some people that may be enough. However, that is probably not enough to win.

His issue on Iraq is the same as the President's only different and better.

His position on the economy is more jobs, better jobs and limited outsourcing which is kind of what the President says publicly only Kerry will do it different and better.

And he wants to increase taxes because we can't support the programs we have in place now while the President wants to give more tax breaks to keep people from using the programs that won't exist because he doesn't want to pay for them. Either way somehow I think we lose.

Maybe if he just campaigned on the issue of making the system work the novelty might take the country by storm....but I doubt it. Too revolutionary.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 1:11 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, June 3, 2004 3:15 PM EDT
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Wednesday, June 2, 2004



People are getting tired of hearing about Iraq. That's because bad news tends to wear you down. So let's look at some of the good news.

First, Canada, where the 911 hijackers actually came here from has not invaded the United States as part of a pre-emptive war to pre-empt our pre-emptive invasion of Canada for being a center for terrorist activity. Apparently the President is not keen about visiting our troops on the Artic Circle and hasn't read about Canada having oil and he may be wary of trying to find WMD's (which they probably bought from us) under all that snow. Maybe next year.

Second, we are not in a Great Depression...........yet.

And Third, and most important, according to the Constitution the Presidency cannot be outsourced to China, however in response to the possibility, the President plans to propose another Constitutional Amendment prohibiting either married or unmarried Democrats from occupying the office.




Posted by donburnshomepage at 2:40 PM EDT
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Tuesday, June 1, 2004



The problems in Iraq just keep multiplying. In thirty days we are going to turn control of the country over to an interim governing council. The position of President of the Council is between a 45 year old fellow who questions how we've gone about things but encourages Iraqi's not to attack US forces and our hand picked 81year old fellow who believes we should stay as long as we want.

In other words it's between a young Democrat and a doddering Bush Republican, Iraqi style. Sounds to me like they have the makings of a democracy already if we were smart enough to keep our nose out of it, but we won't and that will doom it before it gets off the ground.

Hard to teach someone else how to be democratic when you got all your jobs by getting around the democratic system in the first place.



Posted by donburnshomepage at 1:13 AM EDT
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Monday, May 31, 2004



It's Memorial Day. Usually that's the day when we visit cemeteries, plant flowers and enjoy the Spring weather. This year however seems to be a little soggier than most and it's raining across most of the country. Except that is, in the Southwest. There they have a drought. Places like Nevada and Arizona are pretty dry. The water in the reservoirs is at an all time low and everybody is converting their lawn from grass back to a desert motif.

Of course, for those of us in the greener parts of the country this is a bit hard to understand. Our concept of Nevada and Arizona is that they were a perpetual drought to begin with and if they didn't have rain for 2000 years there was not much expectation they were going to be blessed with hurricanes because some new Pilgrims from Massachussetts decided to settle there and convert Pheonix into New Boston.

I'm not saying you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but it's going to cost you a darn sight more'n the ear, the sow, the silkworms, the tailor, the tanner and your paycheck all thrown together and when your done Mother Nature's still going to leave you with a silk purse that looks an awful lot like a sow's ear.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 10:56 PM EDT
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Tuesday, May 25, 2004



The President spoke last nite and told us what we already knew. In other words, things ain't good and will probably get worse and to top it off he'd already fallen off his bicycle.

Most people assumed he was talking about Iraq, but the truth is he could have removed the word Iraq from the speech and we still would have learned that things aren't good in...............

Afghanistan, where the warlords are running the country, in Pakistan where unrest and a military coup in a Muslim nuclear power could change things overnight, in North Korea where we have ignored the attempted sale of nuclear materials to Libya, in the United States where we have almost doubled gas prices in six months, started inflationary pressures, run the national debt to the limit, outsourced everything including government services and our army and in the rest of the world who essentially don't like us much anymore.

Other than what was said, and what wasn't, it was a pretty good speech all around.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 12:46 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, May 25, 2004 12:50 PM EDT
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Monday, May 24, 2004




The Bush administration, having brought this Ahmad Chalabi fellow from the United States to Iraq as America's answer to Saddam Hussein, having given him a small fortune in American money and having proclaimed him as the solution to Iraq's need for an American friendly government seems to have reversed itself. Now that everyone in Iraq hates Americans it is a bit disconcerting to hear that American troops and Iraqi police raided his home and office, seized computers and papers and have accused him of feeding sensitive information to Shiite-led Iran.

I'll tell you this beats any miniseries I've ever seen. The plot has more twists and turns than a dozen afternoon soaps. If nothing else we will all stay tuned just to see how it turns out.

Tonite the President is going to give us the next episode with a national speech from the Army War College telling you about his up till now secret plan for Iraq. Don't expect to learn too much as it's still a secret, the administration is still trying to write the surprise ending and they need to have you "stay tuned", at least until November 2nd.

Personally, I think Chalabi is going to make a great Iraqi President, now that we have discredited his American credentials, tied him to the Shiites who also dominate Iraq and set him up as the prime anti-American candidate with our money in his bank account. Oooops. Did I spoil the finale'! Please disregard the last paragraph until after November 2nd.
After all, this is Washington, not Hollywood.


Posted by donburnshomepage at 10:36 AM EDT
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