This is the weekend of the Greek Festival. What fun! And as volunteers, it's great to be part of something so many people enjoy. We spend most of our time peeling cucumbers or prepping olive and cheese samplers behind the scenes, but the crew of people we work with are fun. And getting out on the crowded Festival floor always amazes. So many people. This is also the Women's World Cup semifinals here. US squares off against Germany. We went to the quarterfinals on Thursday night. the Germans took apart hapless Russia. Everyone cheered when the Russians scored their one goal against the seven goal German onslaught. We took Bruna, the Brazilian exchange student, the girls, and Sean. It was great fun as international matches always are. The Chinese supporters came with giant chinese characters, red flags, and dancing dragons. There were Russian and German and Canadian flags waving. Color and enthusiasm. And the crowd gasped and roared its way through the Canadian upset of China. Not great soccer but good excitement.
This morning's paper leaves me speechless. Jonathon Turley's article on the terrible dilemma many parents of soldiers in Iraq face. The Army doesn't have enough of the new body armor- so a lot of troops are wearing Vietnam era flak jackets-which don't stop ak47 shells. So parents here are going out and buying the gear for their kids. The article quotes the President talking about how we will spend whatever is necessary to give them the best training and equipment...! Hypocrite! Liar! Yesterday there was an article about the status of the oil industry in Iraq- that it couldn't begin to produce needed revenues to rebuild the country anytime soon. And, that the data stating that fact was in the hands of the Administration at the same time that Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and others were claiming that the oil industry was the reason American taxpayers weren't going to have to pay for reconstruction. Of course, all this was before the war started. Again. Liars and hypocrites.
Finally, this weekend's amazing disingenuous assertion by the President that our own investigation team's failure to find any weapons of mass destruction supports his original contentions because Saddam was a bad man who was trying to acquire and build wmds. That completely ignores the oft-repeated statements before the war that it was the IMMINENT danger that required we invade. That was when we were being shown grainy videos of dogs and people allegedly being killed with poison gasses and "planes" adapted to deliver chemical or biological agents. The latter, of course, another 'threat' debunked.
I find myself verging on apoplectic at some of this. I don't end up feeling proud of my country's leaders. Frankly, though, I am not very impressed with the group of folks wearing the Democratic Party colors so far either. God, what to do?
This morning's paper leaves me speechless. Jonathon Turley's article on the terrible dilemma many parents of soldiers in Iraq face. The Army doesn't have enough of the new body armor- so a lot of troops are wearing Vietnam era flak jackets-which don't stop ak47 shells. So parents here are going out and buying the gear for their kids. The article quotes the President talking about how we will spend whatever is necessary to give them the best training and equipment...! Hypocrite! Liar! Yesterday there was an article about the status of the oil industry in Iraq- that it couldn't begin to produce needed revenues to rebuild the country anytime soon. And, that the data stating that fact was in the hands of the Administration at the same time that Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and others were claiming that the oil industry was the reason American taxpayers weren't going to have to pay for reconstruction. Of course, all this was before the war started. Again. Liars and hypocrites.
Finally, this weekend's amazing disingenuous assertion by the President that our own investigation team's failure to find any weapons of mass destruction supports his original contentions because Saddam was a bad man who was trying to acquire and build wmds. That completely ignores the oft-repeated statements before the war that it was the IMMINENT danger that required we invade. That was when we were being shown grainy videos of dogs and people allegedly being killed with poison gasses and "planes" adapted to deliver chemical or biological agents. The latter, of course, another 'threat' debunked.
I find myself verging on apoplectic at some of this. I don't end up feeling proud of my country's leaders. Frankly, though, I am not very impressed with the group of folks wearing the Democratic Party colors so far either. God, what to do?
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