January 11th, 2007


Ankles & Iraq

Ahh yes, fucked up my ankle something fierce this morning. Did I trip on a pothole? Did I land on an unseen, fist-sized rock? Did a thug whack me with a crowbar? None of the above, I can't stand it. I don't know WHAT the fuck happened. I was fine, I got my three miles in, I was walking home, I was about ten steps from the stairs of my apartment building, and all of a sudden I take a step, it hurts, I take another step, it hurts even more, I take yet another step and now I'm limping up the stairs. Here's to hoping a day of work that includes me sitting on my ass for nine hours (with limited walking around to and from the crapeteria) will be the solution to my ills.

I was already thinking about taking Saturday off for the simple reason that I don't think I'll be able to make the full six miles, which would push my Central Park Run back to Sunday, which is off limits because I'll be getting drunk and watching the Seahawks lose at 1pm. In essence, I was already thinking about cancelling this weekend's Central Park Run and starting big on Monday. Since this is the case, I'd REALLY like to get three more miles in tomorrow morning so I'm not wading through a three-day-weekend of inactivity. I wish I knew how to wrap an ankle properly.

This is why I need that gym membership. They have stationary bike machines with zero impact. Though, I'm still struggling to understand why my ankle is acting up. I think it's the same ankle that ALWAYS acts up - ever since I fucked it up in College playing basketball at Terry and had to limp to and fro school for the next four weeks. Maybe it's the fact that I've run 21 miles in the last seven days (which puts me, on the year, four miles ahead of the pace for 600 ... though I commit to NOTHING) after half-assing the damn thing for oh so long.


We're not getting Martin Luther King Jr. Day off on Monday. I asked the office manager about it and she said they don't get another day off until Memorial Day. What a load of shit! You get a day off for some dead fucking no-name soldiers but not for the man whose influence helped shape a nation? Believe you me, you're in store for one whopper of a Martin Luther King post come Monday. The state of Arizona knows what I'm talking about.

So, it looks like the first major showdown between Democrats and President Bush is going down this week. 21,500 additional troops. Part of me feels for those already in Iraq and believes that they should get all the help they need because they've been struggling for so long being undermanned and under supplied. But, then I slap myself in the face and remember that we shouldn't be in Iraq in the first fucking place and this whole thing just smacks of us getting in deeper into a situation we won't be able to win. I mean, how many fucking parallels do we need to draw between this and Vietnam before the president gets the fucking point? How did LBJ fare after his surge in troops? I seem to remember him not bothering to seek another term because he knew he'd lose to whoever ran against him. Bush is REAL fucking lucky he's in his final term; the Republicans thinking about a presidential bid in 2008 would be wise to distance themselves from this decision. That means you McCain. I know you're a Ulysses S. Grant man - throw so many troops at your opponent until you get your measly little victory, no matter how many casualties you incur in the process - but how many more have to die before we get this so-called victory? Even if we do defeat the insurgents and restore peace in Iraq, what have we really won? Do we GET Iraq? Obviously not. Do we get cheaper oil? I dunno, how much is gas now compared to March of 2003? Do we get our money back like in a civil court when you sue for court costs? No, we won't get any money from the deal directly, though plenty of slimey American corporations will surely profit (and have already). Our deficit will remain in the toilet. So, what have we won? We already know what we've lost: about 3,000 American troops and counting, not to mention billions upon billions of dollars.

If Bush was smart - and I'm not saying he is - since he has full control over placement of troops and all that, he should just say to Congress, "Look, I'm sending these 21,500 troops out there whether you like it or not. Now, you can either FUND these guys, or you can be responsible for 21,500 American soldiers being slaughtered because they have no weapons, no armor, and no clue as to what to do." I could see Bush turning this thing into a HUGE game of Political Chicken. Who backs down first! Only time will tell! I think he's crazy enough, that's for damn sure.

Here's the problem for Democrats. If these troops go over there and somehow it all works out, then all these Republicans who aren't saying a damn thing right now will start to pipe up and shout, "Look! We knew it all along! Vote for us!" But, if the troops go over there and fuck up - as will probably be the case since there's just no winning this kind of war short of Nuclear Holocaust - then it'll appear as if the Democrats were implicit in the sending of the troops because they were coerced by the president to provide additional funding. HOWEVER, if they somehow manage to block this measure, the Democrats will appear to be weak on terrorism and against the troops and all that. It's as shrewd as it is a last gasp from a desperate president who wants more than anything else to be remembered as a winner. Too bad no matter how Iraq turns out, he'll still be remembered as the man who single-handedly rolled back every environmental law he could while piledriving this country into more debt than we'll be able to get out of in the next dozen presidencies at least.

Lost in all this is the decision to start drilling in Alaska again. Funny how they let that story seep out in the midst of all this chatter about increasing the troop size in Iraq. No, don't worry about reducing our dependence on oil, just fuck up the environment permanently. Even though the amount of oil we'll be able to extract won't make any difference in the price of tea in Exxon. That's the story of this president's administration: bankrupt the future for the prosperity of today.