Old Fashioned Patriot

Bush Pays Tribute to Fallen U.S. Troops. How can we tell Bush loves fallen troops? He made so many of them.

The Democrats in Congress appear to be exhibiting symptoms of learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a very real problem. Its effects lead to frustration, depression and the inability to escape negative reinforcers even when the opportunity presents itself. That is the helplessness part of learned helplessness. The learned part also means it can be unlearned.

The components leading to learned helplessness tend to focus on attributional style. Attributional style is a set of reactions we have to events. Some styles help us cope and some styles make us give up. These reactions apply to both good and bad events. Interestingly enough, Republicans show the attributional style that leads away from helplessness and Democrats often exhibit the responses that can lead to learned helplessness.

Memorial Day vacation is upon us. Congress takes it off even though there is a war going on and they chided the Iraq Congress for taking vacation during a war. Democrats had been trained to fear looking weak on Memorial Day so they turned their back on their constituency to give the madman George W. Bush a blank check against Americans' wishes. The obvious solution was not to give him a blank check. Congressional gridlock is often a good thing. No authorization and Bush would have had to compromise. Instead the Democrats caved in. They didn't want to look weak on Memorial Day.

Memorial Day is the we honor our troops for securing our freedoms. Since the Bush junta invaded Iraq it is also the day we thank our troops for engaging in senseless repression, murder of civilians and armed occupation.

This is where learned helplessness kicks in. Bush was in charge on 9/11. His attributional style is it was Clinton's fault (external responsibility) and a temporary setback as long as people give him a blank check for anything and everything. Democrats' attributional style was along the lines of "What could we have done differently and how could we have prevented this?" Democrats internalized the blame even though it was Cheney and Bush who kept the jets from intercepting the hijacked planes. In other words, the Democrats had no responsibility but they felt like they did. Bush and Cheney had responsiblity but they act as if they didn't.

Flash forward to the present Congress. They are clearly given a mandate to get out of Iraq. It is a popular position that Democrats refuse to take. There is an obvious exit and they can't see it! That is learned helplessnes in action or more correctly in inaction.

As Americans, we have given our elected Senators and Representatives power. If they refuse to use it out of learned helplessness then we must replace them with people who can use it responsibly. Alternatively, those in power can learn to act. This would be preferable because it could bring the Bush junta under control sooner rather than later.

George Bush, aWol, did say, "Bring 'em on!"

Bush's handlers appear to be stepping up their psy-ops war on Americans:

• Baghdad raid targets fighters trained in Iran Those must be some really smart bullets they are using.
• From the N.Y. Times:

  The somewhat surprising verdict of most Iraqis was clear. For all their distaste for the American occupation, many of them fear that a pullback any time soon would lead to a violent chain reaction that would jeopardize the fitful attempts at political dialogue and risk the collapse of the Iraqi government.

  We can't leave because there might be violence?
  
• Troop Cut Expected After Iraq Report - The annual "troop cut" press releases have started earlier than usual this year.

Bush gets everything he wants from the Democrats. What does Bush give them in a show of bi-partisanship? Bush said, "It could be a bloody — it could be a very difficult August." which he is blaming on the Democrats.

Sen Edwards, who I chided in the past for his debate performance with Cheney, is about to get my support for his positions on the Iraq funding. Your chance to redeem youself in my eyes? Lead a filibuster against the funding.

Why should Sen. Obama or anyone else care about my support? Because I am like public opinion only sooner.

Impeach the Cheerleader!



Save the World!

Apparently only Emperor George W. Bush is happy with the details of the so-called immigration reform compromise. More prisons and invasion of privacy- of course he would like it.

Dealing with Bush is always a bad idea. Immigration reform is going to consist of national ID cards and more prisons. Show us your papers, citizen. Just the thing the fascists in the Bush junta want.

New York Times says, Inflation Is Tame Despite Rising Gas Prices. They are so busy covering up for the Bush junta they didn't read their own article:

The Labor Department reported today that its overall measure of consumer prices rose 0.4 percent in April after rising 0.6 percent in March.

Much lower and the oil companies will be paying me to buy gas...

Why developers need great monitors.

Bush, Aiming to Quell Violence in Iraq, Plans Talks With Iran. What? Bush must be after those foreign fighters in Iraq. Iraq would be peaceful if Iran hadn't invaded in 2003. What? Are you sure it wasn't Iran?

Iraqi officials discourage U.S. pullout vs. Majority of Iraq Lawmakers Seek Timetable for U.S. Exit

Republican Noise Machine carefully leaves flight suit behind. Cheney threatens Iran with other people's lives.

In '68 Nixon was the peace candidate with a secret plan to end the war. One of many problems with his secret plan was it entailed bombing neighboring countries...

I expressed my dissatisfaction with Democrats kowtowing to madman Bush's desire to keep spending billions to kill Americans and Iraqis. Surprise! Opinion polling backs me up.

The House of Representatives approves 30 billion for Halliburton instead of 120 billion. That's progress! I am a hardcore, yellow dog Democrat, however, if the bunch of pushovers calling themselves Democrats can't stop Bush they aren't getting any more votes or money from me.

They were asking for money. I told them not another penny until they actually stop the Iraq war funding.

Whistleblower vindicated. Bush, yet again, wastes millions of taxpayers' dollars. Of course he doesn't care; his friends don't pay taxes.

Unable to control madman George W. Bush, Congressional Republicans and Democrats decide to pass laws controlling Iraq's government.

Bush keeps saying he wants to compromise but I don't think the word means what he thinks it means. Bush's "compromise" position is "Give me everything I want and remove all the strings." That is not a compromise; it is a temper tantrum.

A compromise would be something like, I won't take a timetable but I will instruct my officials that they can't take the fifth or plead "they can't recall" when Congress investigates war profiteering by Halliburton. That would be a compromise but that isn't on the table either.

Bush's enablers will argue that he is doing this for the good of the troops. Bullshit! The money involved is $885,000 for each soldier in Iraq. They work for a great deal less than that. The billions that Bush wants with no strings attached are not for the troops but for Cheney's Halliburton and the Bush family's Carlyle Group.

They want to kill Americans and Iraqis so they can continue sacking the Treasury. That is not compromise.

Four years ago, Bush played dress up. Watertiger has it in pictures.

Contrary to movie culture, gladiators given the thumbs up were to be killed. Here is the Chimperor giving his Mission Accomplished crew the thumbs up:

By the way the miserable failure search still works on images in Google.