The worst PRESIDENT we've ever had says that, "Dick Cheney is the best VICE President that we've ever had!!!"

We used to have a sportscaster here in Los Angeles who would (when he was reporting an unusual story) say, "I don't make 'em up, pally!"

When it comes to this President Bush and the things he says and does, Americans (as a rule) don't even blink anymore.

All the more reason to end the horrible nightmare we've all lived for almost eight years.

A nightmare that for the most part has been about making sure that the Americans who don't need help, get it, while Americans who do need help, don't get it.

And then there's the fear strategy. Keep Americans scared and keep 'em in line. Keep reminding us about 9/11 and how important it is for all the money that's being spent and for all the blood our youngest and brightest are shedding.

Yeah, we gotta fight those dirty rotten terrorists in Iraq! The fact that Iraq didn't have a bleeping thing to do with 9/11 is irrelevant. And yet we continue to stay there for reasons known only to an administration that appears to be filled with people who give new meaning to the word, "incompetents". Or maybe "The best Vice President we've ever had" has everyone in the administration too scared to say anything.

You know what the response has been to anyone who disagreed with these characters is, don't you? "You're unpatriotic!!!"

What a load of horse manure!

Most of these characters have never worn a uniform and most of those who have (if not all), never wore it in a combat situation. Not even in a "in the rear with the gear" situation.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. No one disagrees with the fact that Osama bin Laden was the architect of 9/11. Our original "war mission" was to go to Afghanistan and to bring him to justice, dead or alive.

Very quickly, for reasons never explained to us, the mission switched to Iraq. When I say "for reasons never explained to us", I'm referring to the fact that the original "reasons" were proven to be lies and that hasn't been a matter of dispute for a long time.

AND THIS IS WHERE JOHN McCAIN COMES INTO THE PICTURE....

Poor, poor Senator McCain. He let Karl Rove and company throw him off his game prior to a big vote in South Carolina which led to President Bush's first term and because he (McCain)didn't have the courage to deliver a response as decisively as the brutal rumor was delivered at him, McCain never recovered and he's been licking his wounds ever since while taking occasional shots at the Bush administration.

I bring this up because John McCain has made a comeback for the ages and appears to be on the verge of being the republican who will go up against either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama on the democratic side.

McCain says if he's elected, he plans to stay in Iraq until "We win!!!"

And my response to that is, "Win WHAT and FOR what?!?"

And my further response is, "You want to appear to be a combat ready, rifle shootin' tough guy, Senator McCain? I don't have a problem with that if you'll direct your rifles in the direction of where our REAL big enemy is. You know, that bin Laden guy?!?"

We are now told that Osama bin Laden is directing insurgency operations in Afghanistan while holed up in tribal areas that are located in Pakistan.

If the news organization Reuters can tell us that, one assumes it's safe to say that people in the Bush administration aren't that stupid and that they know it, too.

HERE'S THE BIG QUESTION!!!!

Why aren't we actively trying to smoke out bin Laden in Pakistan and or why haven't we asked for assistance from Pakistani officials?

We're told (in essence) the reason is that because Pakistan is considered to be a "worthy ally", we don't want to rock any boats.

My response to that is, "Say, WHAT?!?"

Future President McCain, Clinton or Obama, this American voter wants us the hell out of Iraq, a place we never should have been in the first place. We had more reasons to attack Saudi Arabia than we did Iraq.

And we've always had more reasons to make life very difficult for a country that would knowingly be "harboring" a butcher like Osama bin Laden.

Senators (and possible future President) Clinton, McCain and Obama, this American voter says, (please) "Hear me now!!! Tell those Pakistani leaders that a very bad guy who was responsible for the deaths of many of our citizens in New York is hiding out and conducting operations in your country. We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way would be for us to pay a huge reward for bin Laden's location and we'll (America) take care of the rest with minimum collateral damage. If you (Pakistani leaders) are unwilling to help us (America) in this fashion, then we can no longer consider you to be an ally in any sense of that word and now we will go after bin Laden the hard way. Which will involve slowly turning your country into a parking lot until he's been captured or we know he's dead."

Here's the deal, gang. I'm not some leftist whacked out pacifist. I don't like sending our youngest and brightest to shed blood while we spend billions of our treasure on a "fool's errand" when we should be using that blood and treasure to help make things better here.

BUT...When we've been attacked, I want the full fury of our resources directed at that attacker. And if normal ways of military operations don't or can't work, I have no problem with the Japan option.

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF...

Later this afternoon, I plan to see the Oscar nominated film, "Juno" which stars Oscar nominated "Best Actress", Ellen Page. In my last blog, I told you how terrific I thought Page was in the 2006 film, "Hard Candy".

Here's a couple of films I recently saw on cable...

"The Good German", starring George Clooney, Kate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire and Beau Bridges. Before the film came out, Clooney was on all the talk shows telling everyone how proud he was of this film and that he was convinced that Blanchett would get an Oscar nomination. In a recent interview, Clooney said how surprised he was that the film didn't do any better than it did.

Well, now that I've seen it, I'm surprised, too. No, Blanchett didn't get an Oscar nomination, but I think she certainly deserved one. As most of you probably know, she has two nominations for films in the upcoming Oscars. I thought "The Good German" did itself a service by being shot in black and white and I thought all the performances were good in a story I found to be compelling. If you see it's coming up on one of your cable channels, I recommend you take the time to check it out.

For some reason, I thought I wouldn't like the film, "Deja Vu", but it was on Starz right after "The Good German", so I taped it and watched it later.

And what a pleasant surprise this film turned out to be for me. "Deja Vu" stars Denzell Washington, Val Kilmer, Jim Caviezel (as the bad guy) and the very beautiful Paula Patton, an actress I hadn't heard of. But, wow! What a "looker" she is. Let's see more of Paula Patton!
Hoo-Rah!!!

This is a story about a terrible tragedy that has a time machine hook to it and you're just gonna have to trust me when I tell you that for the very most part, it works. Yeah, there are a couple of things that happen that defy reality (besides the obvious stuff), but the film entertains and in the end, isn't that what we hope for when we spend the time to watch a film?

YOU CAN HEAR ME ON THE RADIO TONIGHT...

It's Tuesday and as long as the Lakers don't keep us off, it's my pleasure (once again) to be on "The Joe McDonnell Experience" with Joe McDonnell, Joe Grande and Tim Cates on KLAC, 570 on the AM dial. I'll be on from 9:35 or so until close to ten. The show itself is on from 7-midnight. And it's a very good show. It's primarily a sports talk show, but during the time I'm on, we're apt to talk about almost anything.

THE NEXT BLOG???

I was going to write about the subjects of deregulation and consolidation in this blog, but I changed my mind because of a lot of reaction I got about my negative views of John McCain.

Maybe I'll write about deregulation and consolidation in my next blog, but whatever I write about, you will always know that at least one of the subjects will have to do with something that makes me say, "Whaaaat?!?"