Time marches on! It is hard to believe it is already September. So here we are, Labor Day Weekend here in the United States, and I for one, am very happy to have an extra day off on Monday. It's a little after 7:00 A.M. as I write this, and the sky looks clear and blue, so we should be getting this new month off with a nice day.
September is typically a month of change here along the Front Range. It starts off rather warm, and most years we have at least one snowfall before we get to October. The last couple of years, we have not had that, and I think it may have something to do with the climate changes brought on by global warming.
The Autumnal Equinox takes place later in the month, and we will see the days become shorter than the nights. The big change won't take place until November 4 this year. That is when we go back to Standard time, moving the clocks back an hour, and lose the sun an hour earlier, but gain it an hour earlier in the morning. The equinox marks the official beginning of autumn, my favorite time of the year. It does bring some degree of trepidation and caution, as in recent years, some bad things have happened in autumn., but I am holding out positive thoughts for this year, whatever good that will do!
Autumn also brings the changing of the leaves. I remember the colorful landscapes of the Smoky Mountains in autumn. Here in Colorado, it is the time to see the aspens turn bright yellow. The weather begins to cools down, letting us realize that while the cool air is a wonderful respite from the heat of Summer; that the blustery days of Winter are not very distant.
This month also marks the six year anniversary of the attacks on the United States by radical Islamic suicide terrorists. Yet today, the leader of the terrorist organization remains a free man, due to the inept bungling of the so-called "War on Terror" by our government. Instead of focusing on those who attacked us, the U.S. administration decided it was a good excuse to wage war on the nation of Iraq and their bogeyman of the day, Saddam Hussein, who while an evil man, had nothing to do with the attacks on America.
Now the President is ratcheting up the rhetoric against Iran, as his excursion into Iraq has gone from bad to worse. It is about to cost yet another 50 billion dollars of our money and untold numbers of lives. If we attack Iran, we will unleash a war that makes the Iraq expedition look like a Sunday stroll. Congress needs to find the backbone to tell this President NO! No more!
This bunch of chicken hawks in the administration that avoided serving in Vietnam must feel they have something to prove. What they are proving is that they are unfit for office. If we get into yet another military situation, all of the young college Republicans who promote this war may change their tune, as I expect in that situation we would see the reinstitution of the draft. Our troops already serve extended and repeated combat assignments. All we need for the draft to come back is one more war somewhere.
This September marks 16 months until we get a new President, unless this one somehow illegally suspends elections on some pretext of national security. The good news is, it is only 16 more months of Bush & Cheney. The bad news is we still have 16 more months of Bush and Cheney!
