The Pressure Has Been Building

Venting can be therapeutic...

Happy New Year! OK, OK...it's nearly EIGHT weeks after the fact but, as some folks say, better late than never!

As you can see by the choice of graphic above, my 'magma' levels have been elevating lately and, if I didn't restart this blog, I might actually blow my top. What could have me feeling this way? Let me count the reasons:

- The 'surge': In spite of overwhelming popular opinion supporting troop withdrawal and a well-received bipartisan report prepared by a hand-picked group of elder statesmen urging alternate solutions, the president has decided to 'double down' our national bet by opting to ignore the will of the people and sending even MORE troops into Iraq. By all unofficial accounts, this action effectively pushes off the earliest possible date for a policy revisit to the middle of the 2008 presidential contest--further muddying the waters for any contenders for the job. As this rate, Bush's war will probably outlast his presidency.

"Just keep thinking Crawford and brush-clearing...
2009 can't come soon enough"

- The 'stall': Although no longer in power, the GOP minority has effectively stymied any Democratic-led initiatives for debating the Iraq war in the US Senate. Although they complained about opposition intransigence and 'up or down' votes in the last Congress, they have quickly adopted the obstructionist banner and intend to use it as long as possible to keep that first anti-war 'domino' from falling.

The GOP Senate leadership...
"stalling's just another word for everything left to lose..."

- The 'smears': Since the beginning of the year, there have been three major smear campaigns launched by conservative operatives. The first one concerned the reports of Democratic senator (and presidential candidate) Barack Obama attending a madrassa when a young boy in Indonesia (and it was compounded by false implications that Hillary Clinton was to blame for this 'leak'). The second one was generated when the sergeant-at-arms of the US House of Representatives inquired into arranging military transportation for newly elevated Speaker Nancy Pelosi to travel back and forth to her home district (the same 'perk' her predecessor received in the wake of 9/11). The latest one concerns Fox News' Brit Hume speculating that Representative Jack Murtha was suffering from senility. While I will admit that all's fair in love and politics, the frequency and vehemence of these attacks are unnerving.

'If you can't say something nice about someone, just make sh*t up!"

- The 'season': While the early part of this winter season (and the late fall) were unexpectedly mild, winter came in with a vengeance in the latter part of January and socked us with a few good storms. For a couple weeks earlier this month, the kids were either having two-hour delays or complete school closures due to the weather (extremely cold morning temperatures, snowstorms, thick freezing fog from melting snow). While I believe that global warming is real and what we're seeing is attributable to climate instability, those facts haven't made the weather any more palatable!

"Alright, alright...it's winter already...now make it stop!"

I'm still up in the air on how I want to continue this blog (stay with op/ed pieces, do a 'shotgun' version of current events, one topic per entry) but I just needed to get these things off of my chest...for the sake of my blood pressure!