The strategy at the White House has changed with respect to the Iraq War. We are now attempting to withdrawal just as soon as we have trained enough Iraq security and military forces. Bush wants to make the withdrawal appear legitimate and when that magic number has been achieved, you will see the troops begin to come home. The truth is we are not winning the military battle against the insurgents. Our military fight and die to secure an area and a few months later the very same elem...

The Bush administration claims the economy is growing. It is true statistics show that corporate profits are increasing and there has been some job and GDP growth. The fact remains that the areas in which the economy is growing are not affecting the average person. Recent studies have shown during the past year, the average price of homes has increased 20% while wages for middle income workers have increased only a few percent. The result is middle income America are worse off t...

The articles in Time this week have clarified a number of issues that have been bouncing around Joe User. The first issue is the status of Valerie Plame in the CIA. Many bloggers on Joe User have claimed she was not a covert CIA Agent. The CIA, in a very unusual action, confirmed that Valerie Plame was in fact an NOC covert agent. This is an agent who works undercover without the protection of any diplomatic immunity and are the agents in the most danger for themselves and the ...

Last Wednesday, circuit Judge Thomas Barkdull III, handed some of Rush Limbaugh’s medical records to Palm Beach prosecutors, ending his 19 month battle to keep his medical records from being used to determine if he illegally obtained prescription drugs. Limbaugh, obtained four prescriptions from four different doctors during the same period of time for prescription narcotics. He is an admitted drug addict and the delivery of some of his medical records to the Palm Beach prosecutor b...

More and more fiscal conservatives are coming to realize the fiscal policies of George W. Bush are anything but conservative. A search of Google will provide many articles about the problems fiscal conservatives are having with President Bush. Some fiscal conservatives like the Federal Reserve Chairman, Alan Greenspan and former Secretary of the Treasury , Paul O'Neill have always counseled fiscal conservatism and a balanced budget even if it meant ending tax cuts. Other more dogma...

Over the last several weeks, the level of demonstrations directed against the United States throughout the Muslim world has increased. We have seen tens of thousands demonstrate against us in Indonesian, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan. In the past, we have seen schools in the Muslem world preaching anti-American sentiment. The incident with Laura Bush on Sunday should make it crystal clear to almost anyone how fundamental the hatred is in the Muslim world toward the United St...

It is hard to imagine the stupidity of our policymakers that scheduled Laura Bush to visit the Dome of the Rock. This is the place where Ariel Sharon touched off almost 4 years of bloody conflict with his visit to this holy site. The issue isn't whether Mrs. Bush or Mr. Sharon had the right to visit the Dome of the Rock but the wisdom of her visits given the situation in the Middle East and in the Muslim world. It is difficult to conceive how stupid the policy makers in this count...

President George Bush has said he will veto legislation that would allow Federal funding of new stem cell research. Proponents of this research want to use embryos that have already been created by couples seeking to have children through in vitro fertilization. Bush argues that we should not create human life and then destroy it to save human life. His argument is understandable except that to prevent the use of embryos that already exist and will be destroyed anyway makes no se...

This appeared in the New York Times and shows that the Bush policy in Iraq is not working! Only 40 % of Americans now say this war was worth the cost. We still do not know what the real cost of this war will be to America! May 19, 2005 Generals Offer Sober Outlook on Iraqi War By JOHN F. BURNS and ERIC SCHMITT BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 18 - American military commanders in Baghdad and Washington gave a sobering new assessment on Wednesday of the war in Iraq, adding to the mood of anxiety...

To demonstrate how inept the Bush solution is look at the following: Bush said Social Security is in trouble and the Social Security actuaries confirmed that if we do NOTHING, Social Security would have to cut benefits by 25% beginning in 2042. The Bush solution is to first transfer Trillions of dollars into individual accounts which makes Social Security more insolvent and does nothing to prevent the 25% cut in benefits beginning in 2042. The second part of the Bush solution is to r...

The proposal to create individual equity or bond accounts in Social Security subjects future retirement income to changes in the market. Earlier, I was a securities salesperson and have an understanding of the stock and bond markets as well as retirement planning. To adequately plan for one’s retirement requires a combination of investments including things that are relatively certain, Social Security and pension plans, as well as investments that may fluctuate with the market. ...

The Senate, as part of its advise and consent function, has requested certain information from the State Department concerning various incidents surrounding John Bolton who is the president’s nominee for UN ambassador. The State Department and the Bush administration have not provided some of the information requested by the Senate because they claim the Senate does not need the information requested because it is not relevant. It is not up to the White House or the State Departme...

The GOP is playing a dangerous game by threatening to change the rules of the Senate. The GOP claims the president deserves an up or down vote on his judicial nominations. If that is true, many more judicial nominations under Clinton never got an up or down vote because they were bottled up in committee. If the objective is an UP or DOWN vote, the tactics of the Republicans during the Clinton administration to prevent a vote through committee is just as much of a problem is holding ...

An unintended consequence of George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy is for rogue states, who fear a U S invasion, to move quickly and acquire nuclear weapons. That was the conclusion of a Republican strategist who appeared on the Chris Matthews show this evening. His contention was very simple. If you’re the dictator of a rogue state who wants protection against an Iraq like invasion obtain a handful of nuclear weapons. Although this was not the initial rationale for countries like No...

Warren Buffett, the second wealthiest person in the world just appeared on Lou Dobbs with the following advice. We need to raise taxes for the wealthy to deal with things like Social Security. He further stated that the wealthy NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD in this country and that we need to reduce our trade deficit , our Federal budget deficit and fix Social Security. Mr. Buffett also said it is interesting that the president believes a $100 billion dollar per year problem with Social secu...