The Common Man?

For some reason this simple question seem to get politicians in trouble, what is the price of a gallon of milk?

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani hasn't done a lot of grocery shopping lately — at least based on his answers about the cost of milk and bread. [..]

But when asked about more mundane matters — like the price of some basic staples — Giuliani had trouble with a reporter's question.

"A gallon of milk is probably about a $1.50, a loaf of bread about a $1.25, $1.30," he said.

A check of the Web site for D'Agostino supermarket on Manhattan's Upper East Side showed a gallon of milk priced at $4.19 and a loaf of white bread at $2.99 to $3.39. In Montgomery, Ala., a gallon of milk goes for about $3.39 and bread is about $2.

Seriously, Rudy Giuliani should have been prepared by this staff to answer this stupid question that all candidates have to answer.

Supporting the Troops?

‘Supporting the Troops’ should not be a political issue. If you are a person of the left or right, we should agree that the American military should continue to be the best trained, fully-equipped fighting force in the world. We can disagree over the policy of the used of American force across the world, but our disagreements should not be used as rhetoric to tarnish our political opponents as weak on terrorism or unpatriotic. President Bush and this Republican Party controlled Congress for the most part of the past seven years and under their leadership we have seen failed policies that are leading to the start of the destruction of the American military. ‘Supporting the Troops’ has now become a political issue. President Bush and his allies in Congress want to escalate the Iraq war while wrecking the American military.

The Pentagon is sending troops back to Iraq to support the escalation without giving the troops their fully well deserved rest time to spend with family and friends back in the states.

For just the second time since the war began, the Army is sending large units back to Iraq without giving them at least a year at home, defense officials said Monday. The move signaled how stretched the U.S. fighting force has become.

A combat brigade from New York and a Texas headquarters unit will return to Iraq this summer in order to maintain through August the military buildup President Bush announced earlier this year. [..]

The Army will try not to shorten the troops' U.S. time, "but in this case we had to," said a senior Army official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "Obviously right now the Army is stretched," the official said. [..]

The only other major unit to spend less than one year at home was the Georgia-based 3rd Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division, which returned to Iraq 48 days short of a year and is there now, according to the Army.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman acknowledged that the Texas unit's 81 day shortfall in rest time, "is not insignificant."

Wow. How out of touch is Bryan Whitman? Sending troops for the second or third tours of duties in Iraq without giving them proper resting time is significant. This is straining the Army personal and their families. The Army troops already in Iraq are seeing their tours of duties extended. President Bush is demanding Army troops to spend less time at home with their families and more time in Iraq in the war zone to support the escalate. It gets worst; the Pentagon is shipped injured troops back into the battle. President Bush continues to send our men and women to the war zone without the proper armored equipment.

President Bush and this allies in Congress failed policies are leading to an increase of desertion and other unauthorized absences.

From 2002 through 2006, the average annual rate of Army prosecutions of desertion tripled compared with the five-year period from 1997 to 2001, to roughly 6 percent of deserters, from 2 percent, Army data shows. [..]

In total, the Army since 2002 has court-martialed twice as many soldiers for desertion and other unauthorized absences as it did on average each year between 1997 and 2001. Deserters are soldiers who leave a post or fail to show up for an assignment with the intent to stay away. Soldiers considered absent without leave, or AWOL, which presumes they plan to return, are classified as deserters and dropped from a unit’s rolls after 30 days.

Most soldiers who return from unauthorized absences are punished and discharged. Few return to regular duty.

I won’t point out the hypocrisy of the military cracking down on desertion while the Commander in Chief has questionable military record.

Sigh.

It’s a time for a change of policy before President Bush completely rips apart the military.

Do you have to prepare to tell the truth?

Apparently, the answer is yes if you are Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

At a recent "prep" for a prospective Sunday talk-show interview, Gonzales's performance was so poor that top aides scrapped any live appearances. During the March 23 session in the A.G.'s conference room, Gonzales was grilled by a team of top aides and advisers — including former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie and former White House lawyer Tim Flanigan — about what he knew about the plan to fire seven U.S. attorneys last fall. But Gonzales kept contradicting himself and "getting his timeline confused," said one participant who asked not to be identified talking about a private meeting. His advisers finally got "exasperated" with him, the source added. "He's not ready," Tasia Scolinos, Gonzales's public-affairs chief, told the A.G.'s top aides after the session was over, said the source.

Kevin Drum of the Washington Monthly:

Everyone prepares for congressional testimony, but this is ridiculous. If Gonzales was planning to simply tell the truth, he wouldn't "keep contradicting himself" in practice sessions and he wouldn't need to bring his schedule to a standstill in order to figure out what he's planning to say. He'd just review the appropriate documents to make sure he had his dates straight and then tell Congress what happened.

Obviously, though, that's not quite what he's planning to do, is it?

Indeed.

The reason Attorney General Alberto Gonzales keeps on contradicting himself is he is planning to mislead Congress. I can understand if people forget dates and events, but this is not the case with Alberto Gonzales. The Bush White House have told so many lies about U.S Attorney scandal it is hard for the Attorney General to keep them straight.

On a related note, the U.S Attorney scandal is hitting the State of Wisconsin. The Bush White House wanted the U.S Attorneys to make politically motivated prosecutions to help them during the 2006 elections. This is corruption. Luckily, Democrats control congress and what happen in Wisconsin can be investigated.

Bill O'Reilly Unhinged

Bill O'Reilly hates illegal immigrants. This hatred has let him to attempt to score cheap political points in the tragic death of a young girl killed by a drunk driver.

In the entire, dark, black history of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, this is probably the craziest clip ever. A young girl was tragically killed by a drunk driver. But this was not enough for O'Reilly. Instead, because the criminal was an illegal alien he added this incident to his ongoing crusade against the brown people. Luckily Geraldo was on the show and he - to his credit - called out O'Reilly's xenophobia for exactly what it was. This drove Bill O'Reilly insane. I was almost certain he was going to reach across the table and hit Geraldo.

The father of young girl who died responds to Bill O'Reilly.

The mayor and Tessa Trachant's father both said that making an issue out of immigration loses the focus that the girls were killed by a man that police said was driving drunk.

Ray Trachant said, "We need to heal, and to bring immigration, that's disrespectful to a family who's just mourning."

Indeed. It is very disrespectful.

Senator Clinton Worst Nightmare

A well funded Democratic contender.

Sen. Barack Obama's announcement Wednesday that he has raised nearly as much money as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton this year, bringing in $25 million for his presidential bid from a wide array of contributors, shakes up the race and makes it clear no Democrat will enjoy the early dominance the former first lady had been trying to establish.

The junior Democratic Senator of Illinois is giving President Clinton and Senator Clinton a ballgame. Part of Senator Clinton appeal for the Democratic nomination was her fundraising capabilities lead by former President Clinton. What makes Senator Barack Obama numbers so impressive it matches the efforts of President Clinton and Senator Clinton combined.

The New York Times reported last week that Bill was was used in 17 fundraisers over the course of 6 weeks by the Clinton campaign this quarter.

If you take a closer look at Senator Obama fundraising it shows he has a deep base to increase this campaign war chest.

Obama raised $6.9 million—more than a quarter of his total—over the Internet from more than 50,000 online donors, a base of supporters his campaign hopes to cultivate into regular givers. His campaign said 90 percent of the online contributions were for $100 or less. [..]

His campaign said that at least $23.5 million of its first-quarter collection would be available for the primary campaign, an important distinction because candidates are able to raise money now for both the primary and general elections.

Again, this is Senator Clinton worst nightmare.