Have Suspension System Will Travel

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressmen returning from their Independence Day break are ready for battle with the White House, with Democrats decrying President Bush's commutation of former aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence and fighting Bush's latest claim of executive privilege.

Both events occurred around Congress' vacation, inflaming an intense battle between Democrats and Bush over his use of executive power. There was relatively high tension on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue as majority Democrats—and increasing numbers of Republicans—challenged Bush's Iraq war policy.

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said Monday there had been "a steady erosion for the president's policy" in Congress because of the "tremendous loss of life among our troops" in June and "the failure of the Iraqi government to pursue the political reforms that are necessary to quell the sectarian violence."

I saw this picture associated with this article over on Knowledge is Power and thought it had to be some kind of goof, but damned if it isn't. What the bloody hell does some nebbish waving a shock absorber around have to do with the separation of powers?

AND how is the death toll in Iraq "tremendous"? I know that every American serviceman's life is precious and that one death is "too many" in one sense, but still. . . The number of soldiers killed in Iraq is, per size of deployment and time spent in theater, the lowest of any war in human history.

Compare the entire time we have been in Iraq with D-Day or any day of the Battle of the Bulge or the fight to hold the Pusan Perimeter or the retreat from the Chosin Reservoir or the Battle of Ia Drang and you will see that casualties suffered in Iraq have been almost unbelievably low.

What has the Democrats so worried is the deep seated fear that we just might win. Because a win in Iraq would expose them for the defeatist, lying, coward, traitors that they are. And to have this truth brought out before the 2008 elections would reduce their electorial chances to something less than the American Communist Party.