It’s Back – Just in Time for Memorial Day

05/23/2008

Paul Munnis


Memorial Day is a time to think of the long chain of men and women who have served our nation with distinction. It goes a long way back to before the Rough Riders and even before them to the men of Lexington, Massachusetts, who threw out the British Army.

The parade of heroism continues right up to today where men and women are risking their lives in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. While we celebrate the holiday it’s just another duty day for them. Except that they remember their fallen friends.

Yet we have something special to celebrate this year.

I don’t know if you noticed or not but our government is now working once again and I’m feeling good about it. Here is a link to a list of legislative accomplishments at the Federal Level CLICK HERE. In St. Paul the DFL controlled House and Senate have a long list of accomplishments too in what has been called the most productive session in State history. Jobs are being created and taxes are being refunded to homeowners, and the states roads and bridges are getting repaired. Minnesota is being kick-started once more.

Federal Senators and Congressmen are negotiating, minority rights are being respected, there are still a few shenanigans going on with the passage of Bills and Legislation but the Bills are getting passed and the wheels of government are turning once again.

Nancy Pelosi has things moving at a good speed over in the House and Harry Reid has the GOP Republican Senators under control too.

Democrats have firm control of Congress in an election year and the looming election is forcing Congressmen to behave themselves.

Bush is now officially a Lame Duck President and people are glad. All Bush has left is a veto pen that is rapidly running out of ink.

The Farm Bill had a veto over-ride associated with it and the Defense Bill is headed for the president and perhaps the same fate will befall it too. Bush threatens to veto the Defense Bill because it contains non-defense items. Congressmen are saying: “Let him just go right ahead. He has only a few months left in office then the Bills will get sent to the new president.”

We have oversight going on in Congress once again. There is a long list of people to reckon with. For starters there are Harriet Meir, Karl Rove, and more who are hiding behind the president in the name of “Executive Privilege.” The subpoenas are being issued now and a Court test is likely within a few weeks. If Congress wins this contest then Bush will find it hard to issue presidential pardons to his fellow travelers as he leaves office.

The Bush / Chaney international law violations of torture and abuse are getting compiled, documented, and new witnesses are coming forth on the record. FBI witnesses are heading the list of witnesses. We believe Bush will be prosecuted for these crimes against humanity all in due time.

Democrats have alternative energy development well under way. We have passed an Energy Act and ethanol is now approved and funded to stretch the national gasoline supply. America is well started on an energy conservation journey that will not end until mid-east oil is no longer needed in the U.S.

The Iraq War is starting to wind down too as peace is at hand for any president that knows how to negotiate it. Al Sadr is the key to peace but Bush will not let his Administration negotiate a permanent cease-fire. The new team will do better.

The military situation is interesting for in just a few months Robert Gates will be replaced as Defense Secretary and already the various Generals are being scrambled and reassigned as a new military team is assembled to deal with our American military challenges for the period following the election. For Gen. Petreaus it looks like September will be his last Iraq call as our troops start to come home.

Soon the neo-cons and the right wing conservatives who once controlled the Pentagon under Donald Rumsfeld will be all gone.

As government starts to work once more then many people want all of our problems fixed at once. It’s not going to happen – it took twelve years of Republican control to get this mess created and it’s going to take some time to fix things.

Recently we posted a Newsweek article by Fareed Zacharia dealing with The Rise of the Rest. and dealing with a Post American World.

If he is right – we won’t be going back to the U.S. of old – that is gone. We will have to examine the idea of government once more, get those holes examined that allowed our government to be subverted by Bush / Chaney.

Bush and Chaney have ravished our country yet we can learn from the experience and make sure that we mend the fabric and close the gaps. We still have to deal with international terrorism and the need to help those living on a violent planet with earthquakes, tsunami’s, tornados and hurricanes. These will not go away but hopefully we can behave more responsibly towards the victims when their governments will let us help.

It is not just soldiers who we recall on this Memorial Day, it’s mother’s father’s, sister’s, brother’s, aunt’s, uncle’s, and grandparents who have also died. As we think back on these people we feel a sense of loss. We also feel the commitment that they had to a better world for their loved ones. It’s up to us now to make that better world happen and I think that we have made the down-payment on our future. Still at risk are the millions of Chinese recently impacted by earthquake and the poor people of Myanmar who are being denied humanitarian help. As we pray for our loved ones who have passed on please pray for the unfortunates in this world who cannot change their governments as we can. We have our government back and working again but others are without hope.