Wednesday's Becoming My Political Rant Day...

But really, I only have a few things to say about it today.

I understand why President Bush's approval rating is so low. I get it. What I don't get is why Congress' approval rating has dipped so very low.

Okay, yes, I understand that number one priority for Congress (in the eyes of most of the people who voted them in) is to get the troops out of Iraq. I am all for this. I will not go into my views on that, because it's a separate issue.

The number one priority for Congress is to get on with the day-to-day business of being the Legislative Branch. This means passing laws and so forth. And yes, they did try to pass some bills for troop funding which included timetables for withdrawal. I guess a lot of people looked on the efforts of Congress on this front and decided that the Democrats tried twice and gave it up for good.

Look at the Bush Administration's record: Every time Congress and the White House disagree on an issue to such a degree as the War, they fight to a stalemate until Congress takes a scheduled break, then Bush uses his Executive Privelege to pass whatever law he wants in whatever terms he deems acceptable.

I agree that it would have been nice if Congress had sent identical withdrawal bills to the Oval Office until either Bush signed it or there were enough votes to overturn the veto, as Kucinich and John Edwards both wanted, but let's face it, Bush would have vetoed and vetoed and vetoed and then signed a bill into law while everybody in Congress was at home for 4th of July break. The truth is, the troops are there and as long as they are there, they do in fact need money. So Congress did what is supposed to happen in a Democracy; they compromised. Perhaps they bent a little more than Bush did in their original principles, but you can rest assured Bush would rather have signed a bill without benchmarks, and also a bill that funded the war until next year. What we got is not what anybody wanted, and so I understand, but people, it wasn't from lack of trying.

Anyway, when it comes time for the next bill, the Democrats may have better luck because it won't be just the Democrats. You may have noticed many Republicans breaking with the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, and therefore you may see many people in Congress calling for timetables, and for withdrawal.

I have not read the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report, but I have heard a fair amount about it on The Diane Rehm show and Talk of the Nation, and I understand that many Republicans who are now against the Bush policy are citing the Baker-Hamilton Report as the document to be looking at when reassessing the war policy.

There are many other issues tied to this, including troop support and how the term "war" is not truly applicable...just a funny little tid bit before I close out the rant. In real war, a soldier can not be held and charged with murder for killing a soldier on an opposing army. A soldier can be held accountable for war crimes if crimes were committed primarily against innocent civilians. However, in this "War" on Terror, there is no army opposing, thus the rules of "War" do not apply. A soldier fighting for the Taliban Government in 2002 can actually be convicted of murder if he killed American Military personnel, just as a man who murders a bank teller in Michigan can be convicted. But, again, that's the funny thing about this "War" on terror; where the murderer in Michigan and the soldier in Afganistan are no longer similar is when it comes to being imprisoned. By law in America, if you commit a crime you can only be held if found guilty, and you are guilty until proven innocent. But in war, if you are a soldier and are captured by the opposing side, that side can hold you indefinitely, until the war is ended and terms of peace are drawn up. So these soldiers we pick up we treat as criminals but we hold them as prisoners of war. It's ridiculous, because as there is no opposing nation, the war can never be ended and so these people will, in fact, be held indefinitely.

So yes, that's my little tid-bit, which was actually quite a bit longer than I intended it to be.

So, the Tour de France is back in action, and though I thought it would be hard to get into, I found myself this morning intently refreshing the live coverage on cyclingnews.com.

Let's go David Millar!

Alright, so, give me your Free Write Friday Suggestions and keep asking me questions as well.