|
This and That
by James Glaser
I was shopping at my favorite store in Tallahassee yesterday. Of course it was a high end tool store, where I have made several purchases. Not any more though. I was just looking around, thinking about a new tool for me, when I came upon a display for hard hats. There right in front was a white hard hat with the Mexican flag on the front. That was bad enough, but they didn't even have a hard hat with an American flag on it. If you look around at commercial construction sites in Tallahassee or any other large city in the South, you will see that Hispanic labor has taken over. George Bush keeps saying that people who sneak across our border are only coming here to take jobs that Americans don't want. George doesn't get out much. I saw a clip on TV with George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Condoleezza Rice coming out of a meeting, where the three of them were briefed on what is going on in Iraq. The news show said that Bush is holding a search for a "new way forward" in Iraq. George is running all around Washington looking for people who want us to stay in Iraq. Now he has people telling him that we need to send in more troops. Over three and a half years in Iraq, and only now do we hear about George Bush looking for answers about his war. Meanwhile the death rate of American troops is up to three a day, with about twenty five a day being wounded. Also on Wednesday it was announced that the President has decided to wait until next year before he will talk to the nation about what changes in tactics and policy he has come up with. Every day American troops do the same thing they have been doing for years, and every day more are killed and wounded, but the President has decided to wait to make any sort of changes to this pattern. If everything goes as it should, my house will be sold this month. I went to the bank to see what kind of return I could get if I put my money there. 5.1% is the best rate I could find, and economists wonder why Americans don't put any of their money in savings. I was out doing that last night, and the mall seemed almost empty. I stopped at a couple of stand-alone stores, and there were few shoppers there too. I am thinking everyone must be at Wal-Mart. If you are from Northern Minnesota like I am, and you go to a Florida park in the winter, it seems like summer. I was at St. Marks Lighthouse and National Park this past weekend, and the place was deserted. The few people I saw were dressed for ice fishing, and for me it was tee shirt weather. The place was beautiful, flowers were blooming, there were all sorts of berries on the trees and shrubs, and I saw my first alligator in the wild. I had an Iraqi vet stop in at the shop, and he is in his first semester at Florida State. He said it is strange how all the guys in his classes seem so young and immature. He said he is having a hard time with thoughts of the war coming back to him, but that his first grades were good, and he knows he will do fine. We talked on and on about everything that came to mind, and I told him to stop back any time he wanted. I hope he takes me up on that. |
BACK to the 2006 Politics Columns.