It does appear that way, but I would have to say "Not really." The President's penchant for frequent speaking, news conferences, etc. is actually running for re-election and seeking high approval ratings in the polls.
This president has surrounded himself with well-experienced (and agree with his policies) advisors and cabinet members. Most of them served his father. Nearly 100% of them have very strong ties with the Petroleum Industry either by employment or by association. All of them were humiliated when the President called a halt in the original Gulf War, and permitted that despot to remain in power. Their reasoning at the time is that the alternative was even worse. At the time, Iran had just been taken over by the fundamentalists, and was in great turmoil. They also had a bloody nose from their own relations with Iraq, and wanted revenge in the form of a Shi'ite takeover. With the exception of The SecState they are mostly war hawks. Powell himself was considered a moderate. I agree that he has done a really crappy job with the operation of his department. Especially along the lines of resisting and even ignoring any restrictive policies of the old INS. Remember, it is not the INS that grants Visas for entry into the US, this is all done by the state department, with seemingly no oversight. It is this "circle of friends" that off-load much of the executive responsibility that is inherently the president's and frees up his time to be a continuous campaigner. There is still a petroleum company, headquartered in San Antonio, Texas who owns all four of the oil refineries that were built specifically to refine Iraq Crude stock. This company and its executives are part of the President's inner circle and has recently requested Federal bailout because of the lack of crude supplies for their refineries. Former Enron Executives played a very large part in the adoption of the President's energy policies and were also members of his inner circle. The end result is the wide political split all across the United States (not so united, now, huh?) The other extreme is the anti-war demonstrators who were at their peak during spring break, but were organized by Marxist-leaning extreme groups who would have much to gain if the US government and it's economic system were to collapse. Tacitly supporting that movement, is Academia, who is totally out of touch with the rest of the US. I don't know if any of you are old enough to remember the original 3-D photos in which two versions of a photo was viewed through a special dual lens viewer. I forget at the moment what this process was called, however, in our family archives is a 250 photo collection of pictures taken right at the end of WWII at the Concentration camps in Germany, which explicitly depict the results of the Holocaust and is a photo history of the extermination of 6 million Jews. The ovens, gas chambers, desecration of the dead, rape, homosexuality, starvation, forced labor are all clearly shown. An old family friend here is a survivor and I remember as a teen being fascinated by the tattoo on her inner arm. I periodically take out these old photos and go through them to refresh my own memories, and to make sure my own grown children are aware of the atrocities that were committed in the name of Racial Purity by the Nazis. Unfortunately the photos are far too explicit to be scanned and placed on the internet, but I am considering scanning them and burning them on to a CD for archival purposes. One cannot view them without being powerfully moved. I believe that any of the kids out there, who are fond of denying that the Holocaust ever happened who would see these examples, might change their minds about supporting the existence of regimes such as that in Iraq, and other countries, where oppression is the rule rather than the exception. Yes, the US is the only country who has used nuclear weapons against an enemy (Japan) and at the time it was a desperate move to halt a regime who thrived on torture, death, and oppression. There may well be another time when a repeat will be needed, although I hope not. While I am not a Jew, I fully believe that those that would persecute them also persecute me, and that their enemies are my enemies. | | Actually, and this is just my opinion, but a large part of the president's | job is speaking, and the public's perception of their character. Both of | these qualitites are unquestioned in Mr. Powell. | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?forumid=5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/index.cfm?method=subscribe&forumid=5 Structure your ColdFusion code with Fusebox. Get the official book at http://www.fusionauthority.com/bkinfo.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
