Tuesday, January 14, 2003

Joe Lieberman is now in the race for the Presidency. I honestly think he can and probably will win. Not to underestimate Bush, but I think way too much has to go perfectly for Bush to have a favorable rating going into 2004: the economy, war with Iraq, terrorism, state economies. If Bush wins, he may face difficulties keeping the House and Senate Republican.

For the life of me, I still cannot figure out why Bush did not propose $300 Billion in capital gains tazes as opposed to abolishing the dividend tax. No one in their right mind would oppose a capital gains cut, except maybe for a few, but that would be a shoo in. This is why I think that Bush is trying to help out his friends with this tax cut proposal.

And then how about the allies-asking-Bush-to-let-inspectors-finish-up situation? That's a can of something for this administration. They are committed to war in the next two months but the allies are asking more time than that and the inspectors want six to twelve months. I think the Bush guys have a smoking gun and they'll play their hand very late in the game so that they can move militarily within a week. My heart goes out to all those military families who have had to endure separation more than once in the past three years. I can't imagine leaving for that long and have a small family and more on the way, etc.

Congressman Rangel's been pushing for the draft. I am not entirely opposed to such an idea. He is proposing something similar to what Israel does, where everyone has 2 years of service. He also wanted to broaden the concept of such service to include security of ports, etc and also analytical appointments, such as working as an analyst, etc. It is interesting but it wouldn't fly. No one feels that strongly about it to stake their political career and civilians do not see the need. Besides, high tech weaponry obviates the need for foot soldiers en mass. Where, in past times, 500 soldiers were needed to destroy an arms depot, a high tech plane can do that with precision guided missles. Another issue regarding the draft is that the economic toll would be horrendous in this day and age, that is they forced it now and included the entire 16-35 group. They would have to phase it in to dampen the economic impact. Anyway, not going to happen.

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