• Some ever-present pollsters are now telling us that an increasing number of Americans are now inclined to have Religion and their spokesmen avoid addressing social issues.  Are they kidding...or is it just their consciences belatedly giving them a hard time?  Our often cowed religious leaders should address these issues much more loudly and clearly from the pulpit and from any other pulpit they can reach.  They have been playing it too safe for too long.  And society has suffered grievously for it. 
• The legal drinking age.  Another example of our juvenile adults...parents and educators...opting to declare victory and retreat in a rout.  Your poor example to date has spawned the alcohol and drug abuse that now reaches back to Middle School.  I never needed alcohol or drugs to meet my opportunities and responsibilities through my college years.  Wise Up, dummies of all ages!
• Finally.  Our barnacled Military are seeing the light: a "Prep School" for highschool failures...hopefully with or without graduation...before entry into service.  How long have I been saying that?  Look it up. 
• Some articles worth reading in the NYTimes Sunday: a) expressing caution on bailing out the housing greed and stupidity "crisis"; b) comments on the Republican Platform, "...bold and feckless, all at once...But a party can dream, can't it?"  The way to treat our dysfunctional Federal government: throw out both Democratic and Republican incumbents; elect John McCain and Sarah Palin; c) have fun with Maureen Dowd on Palin ("Vice in Go-Go Boots").

• President Bush, for irrational emphasis on "Loyalty";
• Donald Rumsfeld, the biggest one, for awesome arrogance and ignorance;
• The State Department, for self-delusion;
• Our Military - only at the highest levels - for abject cowardice and shameless self-dealing.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's decision to mount a troop "surge" in Iraq last year was taken against the initial recommendations of his top advisers, including his field commander, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

Bush's January 2007 decision to send an extra 20,000 troops to Iraq was criticized for deepening the unpopular conflict but has since been credited with sharply reducing the violence.

Citing secret memorandums and interviews with a host of current and former officials, the Times said Bush's decision to increase troops for a counterinsurgency in Iraq came after months of tumultuous debate within the administration.

Bush's tendency to defer to commanders in the field and his defense secretary had delayed a new approach to Iraq until the situation bordered on anarchy and "civil war," as a late 2006 CIA analysis termed it, the Times reported. At that point the Pentagon was in favor of moving responsibility to Iraqi forces, facilitating U.S. troop reductions.

The State Department was pushing an alternative plan to fight al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, reining in Baghdad's violence and stemming sectarian violence only when it reached the level of "mass killing," the Times reported. The U.S. ambassador to Baghdad was arguing for authority to negotiate a political solution with the Iraqis.

"The proposals to send more U.S. forces to Iraq would not produce a long-term solution and would make our policy less, not more, sustainable," the newspaper quoted ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad as writing in a classified cable.

Members of the National Security Council staff made the initial effort to explore a possible troop increase, and a staff member, retired Navy Capt. William Luti was asked to quietly find out if forces were available, the Times said.

A confidential briefing titled "Changing the Dynamics: Surge and Fight, Create Breathing Space and Then Accelerate the Transition" was submitted in October 2006 after consultation with Army staff. It called for a substantial troop increase, or about five brigades, to Baghdad and other hot spots.

The troop reinforcement proposal split the U.S. military, with some officers supporting the idea, but aides to the Joint Chiefs of Staff suggesting the army was stretched too thin.

Three days after the 2006 midterm congressional elections, the White House convened a formal government-wide review to look into increasing the troop level in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation on November 6 removed some institutional resistance to the "surge" at the Pentagon, the Times said.

Top aides at a November 22 White House meeting outlined an "emerging consensus" on the route ahead, citing widespread agreement that success in Iraq was critical for the Bush administration's war on terrorism.

A document prepared for the review stated, "Our center of gravity -- public support -- is in jeopardy because of doubts that our Iraq efforts are on a trajectory leading to success," the Times reported.

At the same time, a classified Joint Chiefs of Staff paper argued for "accelerating Iraqis into 'operational lead,"' and proposed measures including assigning one U.S. brigade to each Iraqi division to improve Iraqi troops' performance.

Even after Bush announced his decision on January 10, the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, never sought more than two brigades, about 8,000 troops in all, the paper said.

(Writing by Chris Michaud, Editing by Anthony Boadle)

• First, John McCain's selection of Governor Sarah Palin to be his running-mate: A STROKE OF PURE GENIUS.  The Democrats are already running scared...and running off at the mouth. 
• About "running off at the mouth", we were inundated during the Democratic National Convention.  The "high water mark" was Obama's acceptance speech.  The man with the baritone voice and the ever-present prompters still looks and sounds like an empty suit, unable to complete an unscripted sentence without the ever- present "Uh"'s and with any beef.  I point this out, not to be mean, but to counter the baloney about his being some "great orator".  Gimme a break.  And his speech was filled with the failed positions of the Democrats:

• Georgia.  The sad and not unexpected reaction of our fearless allies in NATO (mixed signs, vacillation, impotence) guarantees a wider conflict.  There are even those who are now saying that we should just accept the fact that the former slave States under the USSR will always be controlled by Russia.  Shades of the 1930's.  And similarly to then, the U.S. will have to mobilize with wooden guns, as we did after Pearl Harbor.  Is anybody listening?
• Senator Joe Biden seems like a good man...not perfect, just good.  And even Obama slipped into saying that he would be the "next President"...before he corrected himself.  But Biden has a host of warts.  As a staunch pro-abortionist, he is certainly not a Roman Catholic.  As a self-acknowledged serial plagiarizer, he is not totally honest.  As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that created the condition since termed "Borking", he will mis-use power.  As a long-time and committed Internationalist, he does not learn from experience.  Apart from that, let's see how far his pearly whites get him this Fall. 
• Abortion.  The primary reason why our government is dysfunctional and why our people are so polarized.  And just as the liberal Left is getting more strident on the subject, the conservative Right continues to equate this non-negotiable with much less vital issues...thereby throwing the baby out with the bath water.  This is exactly what the Church did, as the result of Pope Paul VI's encyclical "Humanae Vitae", issued in defiance of the position of the vast majority of the Commission of Cardinals whom he selected to study the issue of artificial contraception, human love and abortion.  That encuclical was and continues to be a disaster with regard to the abomination of abortion. 
• On a much lighter note, we learn that the late-night comics are generally giving a pass on jokes about Obama.  Folks, that's really because an Obama Presidency would be no joking matter!
• On the perennial topic of our failed public education system - and on any other topic - read the Wall Street Journal or remain ignorant of the facts.  In the last week we read that: 1) home schooling is receiving some needed support against the attacks from the Education Establishment; 2) we should "Protect Our Kids From Pre-School"; and 3) the necessary experimentation with schools taking place in post-Katrina New Orleans is one bright spot in that continuing natural and political disaster.
• Now Measles cases are on the rise.  That's the canary in the mine.  It's the direct result of the idiocy of some parents who are not getting their children properly vaccinated - based upon totally repudiated "science" about "mercury and autism".  Society has police powers to deal with this danger to itself.  Act Now.

• Michael Phelps.  For once, the subject matter is worth all the media hype.  CONGRATULATIONS. 
• "Georgia on my Mind"...and how!.  Another example of how the "One World" dreamers may yet get us into World War lll.  In the real world, the "Twelve Tribes Of Israel" and their thousands of progeny are alive and still most interested in continuing their un-ending feuds among themselves - with potentially grave consequences for the rest of us.  The most inportant one for world is the Shia / Sunni history.  The most current is that going on in the northern provinces of Georgia.  Did the West promote the foolish action by that country's President in falling into Russia's obvious trap?  That famous Russian, Gorbachov, says "yes".  The article in this week's Time magazine tells a completely different story.  Whom are we to believe?  Certainly not the Russians, and especially now, under the reckless "Napolean Putin", as christened in a recent editorial of the WSJ.   The Russians have always been totally untrustworthy.  This is based upon the fact that, although they resemble Westerners, they are Orientals in genetic and historic outlook.  They place little value in the individual and in individual relationships - the bedrock of Western philosophy.  Rather, their total focus is on the community, however small or large, at whatever cost to the individual.  That's why the West can only do business with them from a constant position of strength, with constant guarantees that their actions - good or bad - will have consequences.  That does not mean "no dialogue".  But it means that dreaming - and dreamers like Obama" - need not apply.  One positive action along these lines is the agreement between the U.S. and Poland just recently entered into.  The next should be ejection from international bodies like the G8 if Russia does not keep its hands off Georgia  and off every other one of the former Soviet slave States.  And it also means that we have to rebuild our currently weak ground forces.  Otherwise, we too, like the recent pronouncement of the Russian General, will have to talk about the use "tactical nuclear weapons", as we had at the ready in Europe during the Cold War.  And then what??

• Obama took a victory lap in Europe before a victory.  Now, that's hutzpa.
• We can only hope that our younger generations are suffering from delayed (and not omitted) personal development and maturation...or this country will be in worse shape shortly...like in January, 2009.
• It is past time to restore some effective regulation to the business world, currently running amok.  That is especially true when the American taxpayer gets left hold the bag for their stupidity and avarice.
• The Middle East and the Far East, including Russia.  The ineffective government in Pakistan should be focused by our proper attention to India.  Afghanistan will never be a stable nation as long as the opium trade is allowed to continue.  Destroy the crop, reimburse the farmers with money and new crops, kill or jail all middlemen...to as high a governmental level as they will be found.  Russia is not an ally, certainly not under the reckless Putin.  It should be treated that way.  China, a thug State at home and abroad (eg. Sudan), should be "engaged"; but it should not in any way be "enabled".  Iran will develop nuclear weapons unless stopped...and the world will suffer another experience as that which began WWl.  Notwithstanding all of the handwringing, Iraq has the greatest likelihood of becoming a stable State...thanks to President Bush and to John McCain...and no thanks to the stupid and arrogant Rumsfeld and his progeny...like Obama.  Israel, fast becomming a Theocracy while establishing the Israel of the Bible, will continue to be...with Palestine and the Arab world...a festering wound.  And do we need to maintain a credible military presence in that part of the world?  Absolutely!
• The U.S. and acceptance of jurisdiction of the World Court.  Yes, for Genocide, clearly defined.  Yes, regarding the Geneva Conventions as related to prisoners of war...but not as related to "terrorists", properly defined. 
• The disease afflicting this country now is nothing other than a paralysis of governance in Washington...the direct result of perpetual election cycles.  Now, there's a problem that would justify a U.S.Constitutional Convention.
• The Olympics: more spectacle, business and politics than sports, sorry to say for the devoted athletes there.  But even there, who's watching out effectively for past or current use of banned drugs.   And who's monitoring the genetic XY's competing as XX's.  I hope, at least, that one or more of these atheletes does not literally die from the air pollution. 
• Small cars and hybrids are all the rage now.  Shades of the late 1970's...and then came the report of 4X the fatality rate from accidents in those cars.  Maybe it will be better this time...we hope. 
• Did you see the long article on page A1 of the NYTimes on Sunday about McCain's "free-wheeling campaign".  It's a classic case of "yea-but...." and a hatchet job posing as news.  Translation: he is engaged and informed; he welcomes controversy to get at the truth; and then he tells the truth, as in Detroit to auto workers and most recently to Iowa farmers regarding corn-to-ethanol.  He is not insular, like W; and he is not a wet-finger pollster like Bill.  My opinion: JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED.