Congress vs. The People

With the loss of some incumbents in this year’s primary and the squeakers by some of the other incumbents, it is important to understand how the influence over these races is handled by the incumbents in office. It is said in politics that the hardest thing to do is beat an incumbent so I thought I might shine some light on this. There are three basic advantages the incumbents have; the ability to keep their campaign accounts open, send out free mailers while in office, and the biggest advantage is to have congressional campaign committees to work for them.

Firstly, each congressman can go ahead and keep campaign fundraising and create the traditional “War Chest.” That means that during their term of service a congressman can continue to fundraise for the upcoming election while their opponents will be limited to only fundraising after the date they can file their appropriate state paperwork for office. Not really fair, but hey, it’s the incumbents making those rules.

Secondly, each congressman can continue to send out mailers to their constituency via their congressional “updates” which are essentially propaganda packets similar to the mailers you will be getting from them during the election with one exception…..they don’t make harsh mention of their opponents. By the way, these aren’t free; they’re usually paid for with tax money (Your Money) and/or possibly with that aforementioned War Chest we talked about.

Lastly, the one that really cries of the cronyism we all confess to despise, congressional campaign committees. Both the senate and the House have them as do both parties as well. These committees are supposed to help each party build majorities in their respective chamber; however, in recent times they have become an incumbent protection syndicate. Money is raised by these entities and rather than sit out of the primaries, as they should, these committees use their money and influence to protect their incumbent brethren.

A few weeks ago in the race for the 7^th Congressional District of Virginia, incumbent Eric Cantor, who also serves as the House Majority Leader, was beaten by a political novice in the form of College Professor named Dave Brat. Following his defeat by a Republican in the Republican Primary, the House GOP Congressional Committee’s leaders said that had they known Cantor was in jeopardy they would have offered more support in the primary – WHAT!!!!!

Sounds crazy……But that’s the norm.

Let’s look at two other recent cases for examples of this self-protectionism.

In 2011, with redistricting up for debate and legal action in Texas, there was much confusion over who would run in which district. In the newly drawn Texas 35^th District, Democrat Joaquin Castro was preparing to run for office; however, Rep. Steve Israel, leader of the DCCC, or the House Democratic Campaign Committee, said they would support sitting Representative Lloyd Doggett who had also been drawn into that new District. Israel said, “We have a theocracy at the DCCC that we support sitting incumbents, across the board, in every case, we support sitting incumbents.” It’s okay, Joaquin just ran for office in another District where the Democrat incumbent was retiring – Problem Solved.

Before you think I am going off against the Democrats, let me provide another example in order to show you that this is not a “Democrat vs. Republican” issue, but it’s an “us against the entrenched incumbents” sort of issue. Just this last week we saw the same sort of protectionist agenda in the case of Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran. Following a pretty healthy, or unhealthy, loss to State Senator Chris McDaniel in the Mississippi GOP Primary and the aforementioned loss of Eric Cantor in Virginia, the National Republican Senatorial Committee injected the Cochran Campaign with fundraisers and influence in order to secure a victory for a career politician who first went to Washington in 1973 – think about that! That’s a lot of protection!!

In the last few years most people, Democrat and Republican, have been clamoring for the replacement of congressmen all over the United States, BUT HOW? There has been a small amount of incumbents beat in the last few years, but not enough to force the change America needs. Now I’m not saying they all need to be removed (maybe 90%), but there does need to be some serious change in order for America to progress forward. Unfortunately, with incumbents holding the aces with War Chests, Free Mailers, and Campaign Committees in their pockets, there doesn’t seem like much for the rest of us to do.

BUT THERE IS!

We must let these cats out of the bag. Question our Congressman, both at the state and national level. Be active in the political scene. Years ago it was said politics was one of those subjects a person didn’t bring up in civilized conversation – NOT ANYMORE! If you’re comfortable with the direction of where your state and country are headed then do nothing. But if you believe things must change then all of us, each and every one of us, Republican or Democrat, must step forward and make our voices heard. Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it requires you to step out of your comfort box. But unless you are comfortable with mediocrity, and possibly losing the very country we hold dear, then we must all stand and make a difference.

Remember, Congress is counting on you not getting involved!!

Batter Up!

Bill

Iraq….An Attempt at a Scorecard!

Okay, I am going to try to explain some of the complexities of the war(s) in Iraq. There are so many an intricacy in this situation that it barely makes sense much less even seems possible - So I’ll try anyway!! I am going to try to make a little sense of it, or at least expose the unsettling complexity and nearly impossible positive outcome of any involvement there.

Before I start I think it is important for me to confess that I was one of those who thought our involvement in Iraq was a bad idea when we invaded in 2003. Not because I thought the situation with Saddam Hussein didn’t warrant some sort of action, but because I knew that there would be no easy answer to the question of what’s next once Hussein was removed as leader of Iraq, and I was concerned for the number of veterans who would be returning from that conflict with lifelong disabilities – Mental and Physical.

When you look at the Middle East you must understand that while these countries have ancient names, they are not of ancient geographical origin. The countries that are found in the Middle East were drawn up following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War. Unfortunately, these borders were based on geographical boundaries and not along the true ethnic homelands of the peoples involved. They were based on borders that would benefit the victorious nations of Europe as they began to rule these nations as colonies or as puppet regimes.

Since we are discussing Iraq we can start there. Iraq includes three specific cultural groups; the Kurds to the north, the Sunnis in the middle, and the Shiites in the south. What is the difference between Sunni Islam and Shia Islam? Well about 1300 years ago or so these two factions disagreed over who should be Muhammad’s successor and they still haven’t worked it out. That may be a little simplistic, but it’s all we have time to talk about here as this blog is already going to be way too long.

Now comes the tricky part.

The Kurds actually inhabit a loosely defined area known as Kurdistan that falls into portions of Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Armenia, and Syria. They have their own language and culture but unlike many elsewhere in the Middle East, there is not one specific religion considered Kurdish. While most are a Muslim base, many are Christian as well as other religions including Judaism. These folks live in the northern portion of Iraq and make up about 20-25% of the Iraqi Population.

The Shia Muslims are the minority portion of the Islamic world, but they make up approximately 60% of the Iraqi populace and reside mostly in the southern portions of the country. The Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the world’s Muslim population, second only to Christianity in numbers; however, in Iraq they only constitute 15-20% of the population and live in the mid-regions of the country. Even though the Sunnis are the minority in Iraq, until the 2003 invasion they had been the ruling sect of since Iraq has been independent. To do this they used brutal coercion and intimidation to reign over the Kurds and Shiites.

Many folks have questioned the reasons that we did not go after Saddam Hussein following the Gulf War in 1991. Simply put, the allies needed the use of staging points and bases in Saudi Arabia and the Saudis would not go along with Desert Storm had Hussein been removed. The Saudis were concerned that the removal of Hussein might come with the installation of a Shiite regime which in turn might invite the Shiite-led Iranians into Iraq and the Saudis wanted a Sunni buffer between them and Iran.

A decade later, following the 2003 invasion and the subsequent overthrow of the Hussein regime, the power vacuum in Iraq became apparent and the cultural rifts and ancient divisions between the long ruling Sunnis and the Shiites came painfully to the surface.

With the 2011 pullout of US and allied troops in Iraq, a huge leadership void emerged and was all too quickly filled with the influence of the Iranian government. Then, following the subsequent Arab Spring and the Civil War in Syria, the real complexities of the Middle East have now come in to play and the current administration has absolutely no clue how to deal with it. Then again, neither have any of the previous administrations since the colonial influences began to fail in the Middle East.

In the last few weeks, news of a Sunni faction called ISIS or ISIL has come to light in the press with news of their control over cities like Mosul and Tikrit; cities where many US troops gave their lives to secure. These ISIS extremists also have ties to Al Qaeda which is bad; however, they are also part of the rebels that are fighting the Shia government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – our enemy. But how can the enemies of our allies, the Iraqi government be the same people fighting a Syrian government seen as our “Enemy,” AND be a part of the Al Qaeda the President swore was decimated while he ran for office in 2012 – DOWN RIGHT PUZZLING?

But now it gets even more complex. The ISIS uprising in Iraq has been around since last year and briefed as far back as August of 2013 by US Intelligence Sources. So now the President has ordered 300 Special Forces troops into Iraq to train up the Iraqi army; however, he has refused them air support. But that’s fine as that bit of assistance is being picked up by Syrian Air Force and Iranian drones - BRILLIANT. 

Then this week the President announces that he wants to give $500 million to the Syrian rebels (mostly Sunni) to help fight Assad’s forces. Rebels that include the same ISIS troops who are working to fight the Iraqi army he is sending 300 troops to train. Seems rather counterproductive doesn’t it?

Don’t worry, the President says they will vet these rebels - but how? Are they going to be carrying an ID card to show what part of the rebel army they are in? Nah….we’ll just take their word for it. After all, that’s how their buddies in Iraq got the US equipment that we left for the Iraqi Army!

Let us not forget the Kurds in the north, they wished for autonomy in 1991 but were refused as the only way to get Turkish assistance in enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq during the 1990s was to ensure that there would be no Kurdish independence. Now the Kurds have a chance to be free and possibly have a country of their own. They have been relatively silent and have gone into self-preservation mode as far as this current round of fighting has gone.

In summary, what is completely lost on the last few administrations is that fighting in the Middle East is not just about the geographical entities involved, but also about cultural, religious, and regional entities that might or might not be diametrically opposed in any given country, AND how these entities of all shapes and sizes might or might not be colluding with each other regardless of whether they are a nation, a culture, or a military sect.  Confusing isn’t it?

In short, we are trying to help the rebels that are opposed to the Syrian government; the same rebels who are part of Al Qaeda and fighting the Iraqi government we are also supporting; the same Iraqi government who is allied with the Syrian and Iranian governments we oppose and have sanctions against. AND we’ll train the Syrian rebels in Jordan so that Jordan can get involved and become unstable like the rest of the area.

I hope this has removed your confusion on being baffled by the mysterious entanglements of the complex intricacies of this region of the world. The one thing I take from it all is that since there is no way to know who is helping who and who is actually opposing who, then there is no reason to try and make any long term plans in this region. The Middle-East is a region of conflicting political, religious, and ideological beliefs inhabited by a majority of folks who are divided based on overlapping geographical methods who will take up arms to settle almost any disagreement. There are some sophisticated peoples in the region, but overall they do not have enough authority, nor do they have adequate support, to exert Westernlike-Civilized control.

There!! That was pretty simple…right?

Bill

A Rant for the Fourth Week of June!!

I felt like I needed to shoot out a new rant and get this blog up and running again……It’s been a while.

-          Hillary Clinton first claimed that her and Slick Willie were poor upon leaving the White House…of course they made $12 million the first year out of the white house and she was already a Senator getting paid as such……But honestly…...It was hell for them.

-          Now Hillary claims that her and SW are not as rich as other multi-millionaires (she made $5 million last year). If you just go by those two numbers then they have cleared over $1 million a year since leaving the White House and that does even include the other 11 years in between. Go ahead Hillary….keep using that line of logic….that should connect with common folk….or at least the DEM Lemmings!

-          The IRS requires seven years of records for their auditing purposes, yet they can’t even keep up with emails from two years ago that congress wants for their auditing purposes. I’m not sure why someone doesn’t subpoena the NSA for the IRS’s emails……they gotta be there somewhere.

-          This week the President spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and according to Josh Earnest, the new White House Propaganda Minister…errrrr….Spokesman, the President told Putin that if he didn’t back down from his current aggressive position that there would be “additional costs” to pay for their aggression. I’m sure old Vlad is shaking in his boots over that threat. Let’s see….the community organizer vs. the former KGB Colonel…….WHATEVER!!!!

-          Lastly, I am glad that the leaders of Texas have taken the next step to help secure the southern border of the state from the influx of illegal immigrants and criminals. Now if we could better control the influx of immigrants across the rest of our borders from the liberal havens like California before we are outnumbered.

Well there you go. I didn’t mention a few things, but I intend to write about them in the coming days.

Thank You For Your Support,

Bill