Liberal in the Land of Conservative

• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Harry Truman
• Dwight Eisenhower
• John F. Kennedy
• Lyndon Johnson
• Richard Nixon
• Ronald Reagan
• George H.W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• George W. Bush

But come on, medal of peace? For George W. Bush, the man who crammed the square peg of the war on Iraq into the round peg of the war on terror?

WHY Joe Biden?

First, Senator Biden is as strong a Union (A 91% rating from the NEA and a 100% rating from the AFL-CIO) supporter as any one could possibly be. As an educator I am always concerned about the tactics used by many Republicans that work tirelessly to chip away and eventually abolish the teachers unions that provide the relatively meager wage I currently enjoy.

Second, and far less calculated, is the sense of the man. When I see and listen to Joe Biden I see a man I would be proud to call my President. While others may disagree, I see a father figure or amusing uncle that always seems to have a bit of advice (probably good) to impart to you. I see a man of strength that Republicans would have a hard time portraying as a weak liberal as they are prone to do. This strength is evident in his passion, his eloquence, and yes, even in his loquaciousness!

Third, and very much related to the second, is his solution for the debacle that it is this Administrations handling of the war in Iraq. He cannot be pinned with the label of offering no plan for success because his plan is apparent and has even been parroted by at least one of the Republican hopefuls. The creation of a Federal System in Iraq may be the only way to quell sectarian violence at the same time keeping the country from breaking apart or falling into utter anarchy. As of right now it is the main thrust of my support for Joe Biden as I have yet to hear anything more than "stay the course" from this Administration (which, by the way, is not a solution!) and what appears to many as a pullout without a contingency for cleaning up the mess we created from the Democrats.

Olson on SOTU: Bush 'Failed the Great Test of Leadership'

For Immediate Release

Contact: Christopher Truscott

612.423.2582

chris@bobolson.org

ANOKA—Bob Olson, a DFL candidate in the 6^th Congressional District, released the following statement in response to President George W. Bush's State of the Union address:

"On a day when five troops were killed in Iraq, President Bush failed to deliver the exit plan our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have earned.

"On a day when 9 million children went uninsured, President Bush failed to deliver health care coverage for the most vulnerable among us.

"On a day when millions of working families worried about losing their homes, President Bush failed to deliver a plan to end the agony.

"On a day when his country needed him most, President Bush failed the great test of leadership again."

Bluewoman and I may try this tonight...

One exception though...

Every time the camera shows....your congressman/woman: the site encourages you to pat yourself on the back...

Those of us in the 6th are going to cringe, hoping that they have doubled the secret service presence for the President's grand entrance and exit.

If you want a positive action though, go ahead and send Bob Olson for Congress $10 everytime you see Congresswoman Bachmann tonight, both at the State of the Union and through local news coverage of Bachmann's actions tonight.

Study: False statements preceded war

By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

...

Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

Olson: Congress Should Have Confronted Bush on 'Cycle of Lies'

For Immediate Release
Contact: Christopher Truscott
612.423.2582
chris@bobolson.org

ANOKA—Bob Olson, a DFL candidate in the 6^th Congressional District, released the following statement in response to a report that the Bush administration made at least 935 inaccurate statements about Iraq in the two years following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

"Because too many politicians were unwilling to stand up to this administration and its endless cycle of lies, we've lost 3,931 troops and hundreds of billions of dollars in a war we never should have started.

"I am the only candidate of either party in the 6^th District race who opposed this war from the very beginning. To go after Saddam Hussein and Iraq after 9/11 made as much sense to me as attacking India after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This war has been a wasteful distraction in the real war on terrorism.

"As your congressman, I will never cave in the face of unnecessary warmongering by any president, regardless of his or her party. If political courage costs me an election, that's fine. At least I'll be able to sleep at night."

The Senate's two biggest sponsors of this year's pet spending projects are Mr. Stevens of Alaska and Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, both Republicans, according to preliminary reviews of fiscal 2008 spending bills by nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense. Two of the House's three biggest claimants of earmarks also are Republicans: C.W. Bill Young of Florida and Jerry Lewis of California, the group found.

Their continued success at steering billions of taxpayer dollars to their constituents is all the more impressive — or arguably hypocritical — because President Bush and other prominent Republicans sharpened their criticisms of earmarks after Democrats took over the House and Senate majorities in January.

Congressional leaders "have not made enough progress" in curbing earmarks, Mr. Bush said. He said his budget director will "review options for dealing with the wasteful spending in the omnibus bill."

Democrats this year shed more light on the earmarking process and reduced its overall cost. Still, about 9,000 earmarks costing $7.4 billion are in the final spending measure.

because Republican reforms brought more transparency to the budget, taxpayers can now see and scrutinize just how their hard to come by money is being spent, even when Democrats put their budgets together in the dead of night earlier this week.

"If that's true, he has the most incompetent staff in modern American history, and he's one of the most incompetent presidents in modern American history."
-JOE BIDEN

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman, on President Bush's claim he was not briefed until last week on August intelligence that Iran stopped building a nuclear bomb in 2003

Monday, November 26, 2007
Class... vs. no class.

From inviting Teddy Kennedy for movie night, to allowing the democrats to write his education plan, President Bush has bent over backward to implement the "new tone" he set to implement in Washington.