Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House, wants to do some more investigations, even going so far as saying that even though Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton have executive privilege, Congress will sue to make them appear for more hearings. She is citing contempt of Congress. I don’t know if she knows it or not, but just about everyone has contempt for Congress, and well they should.

When Congress fails to pass the terrorist surveillance bill to protect Americans, it is being done to insure that lawyers can sue phone companies that cooperated with the government in their effort to protect the country and American citizens - I guess a party that gets a large amount of money from trial lawyers. Someone should write a song called “Sue, sue, sue” and then Congress could use it as their theme song. I am so encouraged by how this Congress uses its time instead of spending time to investigate Roger Clemens and then have the FBI spend their time in investigating Roger Clemens. I would prefer that Congress and the FBI spend time doing those things that they are supposed to be doing, then there wouldn’t be so much contempt for Congress, the FBI, and other arms of the Justice Department. Does it matter who answers the phone at 3 a.m. in the White House if the Congress and Justice Department are failing in their pursuit of their duties? They may as well chase rabbits.

Reading today about how the 2007 poppy crop was a great success. That means the Taliban, through sale of drugs, are able to finance their military needs in their pursuit of re-taking Afghanistan. NATO is not pulling their share of the load and are leaving it to the Americans. There is no strong government in Afghanistan, consequently no action is taken on destroying the poppy crop. There is absolutely no reason that we couldn’t send in spray planes to destroy the crops before they ripen. To protect the spray planes, we could send in gunships and this problem would be erased. See attached:

Article published Mar 1, 2008
Afghan poppy production grew to record in ‘07

March 1, 2008

By Jerry Seper - Narcotics production in Afghanistan hit historic highs in 2007 for the second straight year, providing revenue and arms to the Taliban and “undercutting” efforts to establish a stable democracy in that country, the State Department said yesterday.

The department, in its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, said the Afghan government “must take decisive action” against poppy cultivation and do so soon to turn back the drug threat before its further growth and consolidation make it even tougher to defeat.

“The narcotics trade has strong links with the anti-government insurgency, most commonly associated with the Taliban,” the report said. “Narcotics traffickers provide revenue and arms to the Taliban, while the Taliban provides protection to growers and traffickers and keeps the government from interfering with their activities.”

The report said that during 2007, Afghanistan strengthened its position as the world’s largest heroin producing and trafficking country, with 93 percent of the world’s cultivation. It said opium poppy cultivation increased by 17 percent last year.

While terrorist violence such as roadside bombs, suicide bombings and attacks on police rose across the country during 2007, the report said the overall Afghan economy continued its brisk growth rate of more than 10 percent annually over the last five years.

But while improvements to Afghanistan’s infrastructure since 2002 have created more economic alternatives and enhanced the Afghan government’s ability to combat drug trafficking in some parts of the country, increased insecurity in Afghanistan’s south, where most poppies are grown, hampered that strategy, it said.

“Narcotics traffickers also exploited government weakness and corruption,” the report said.

According to the report, poppy production soared in provinces where the Taliban is most active. Five relatively higher-income, agriculturally rich provinces along the Pakistan border accounted for 70 percent of Afghanistan’s 2007 poppy production. It said 14.3 percent of Afghans were involved in poppy cultivation in 2007, up from 12.6 percent in 2006.

During 2007, Afghan President Hamid Karzai considered a limited aerial-spray program against the opium poppy, but ultimately declined. The report said eradication efforts, though stronger in 2007 than 2006, failed to keep pace with expanded poppy cultivation.

The report also said narcotics law enforcement was hampered by corruption and incompetence within the justice system as well as the absence of governance in large sections of the country. No major drug traffickers have been arrested and convicted in Afghanistan since 2006.

“Narcotics-related corruption is particularly pervasive at the provincial and district levels of government,” the report said. “Corrupt practices range from facilitating drug activities to benefiting from revenue streams that the drug trade produces.”

In January 2006, the Afghan government inaugurated a national strategy calling for coordinated action against poppy cultivation, but did not implement it effectively. The report said Habibullah Qaderi, minister of counter narcotics, could not influence other government agencies and resigned in July.

“The delay in appointing a successor struck some observers as indicative of the Afghan government’s lack of commitment to the fight against narcotics,” the report said.

The failure to use common sense by our government never ceases to amaze me.

Lots of commotion lately in the news media about the price of gas. There are only two entities to blame for this - the Democrats and the environmentalists. The problem will only continue to worsen and it will break the back of the economy. They have been able to cover up their complicity by a constant drumbeat of “blame Bush”, “blame the oil companies”, and “blame corporations”. The reason lies at their door and eventually the American people will figure it out.

Now let’s talk about our government’s tendency to screw the American people. They are giving billions of dollars in contracts to Airbus, a French company. I don’t know how the rest of the country feels, but I feel betrayed. I remember when France wouldn’t let us fly over their country to bomb and stop Libya from obtaining nuclear weapons. Also, I remember Chirac, their Prime Minister, being one of our enemies, not a friend. I don’t believe they are doing much to support NATO in Afghanistan or are helping in Iraq.

Can someone tell me how they merit taking jobs from this country to build refueling tankers for us to use in our military operations when they won’t help in those same military operations. Doesn’t anyone remember those freedom fries?

I just heard that the so called virtual fence between us and Mexico is worthless. They didn’t even consult the border patrol while designing it - a lot of money down the tube! I honestly believe that our Homeland Security Department and the head of same department are so inept, it makes the keystone cops look professional. I don’t think that the fence was ever to be built, but has been a scam against the American people since the start. I also don’t believe that the fence will ever be built, no matter if it’s John McCain who wins the election, or Obama. McCain says “We got the message from the American people” - apparently they turned a deaf ear to the message.

One final note: a supported of Hillary Clinton named Walter Shorenstein, a Harvard professor and founder of a media studies group, is upset because Obama is getting better treatment by the media. I suppose he has forgotten the media wrapping up Hillary and Bill for eight years with warm, embracing arms. Whatever they did was just great and they could do no wrong, even if Bill raped and sexually harassed women within his circle of victims.

May God continue to bless the USA.