Tuesday, October 31, 2006

 
John Kerry should be banished from the Democratic Party. In 2004 the GOP did an effective job of whipping up dislike for the Senator from Massachusetts. He became a mobilizing force for the opposition. It doesn't matter that he probably won the election, he demonstrated that when he conceded without challenging the irregularities in Ohio and other places. I think that he even disappointed his running mate.

Considering the above facts, the Senator from Massachusetts should have pledged to stay out of the public eye until after the election a week from today. He should have understood that fact more than anyone else. Instead, he makes a public appearance and makes a complete ass of himself. It is difficult to believe that a wealthy veteran would make a comment which could only be construed as meaning that only the undereducated serve in today's military. Kerry has said that he botched a joke aimed at the Bush administration. Perhaps he meant that if you didn't study hard, and become as educated as possible on a subject (Iraq) you could wind up stuck in a situation which seems pretty hopeless. The poke at Bush being that he didn't study the situation enough to realize what the post invasion realities would be. Now Bush is stuck in a situation which alienates him from mainstreet America at an increasing rate. The anology is too complex to be delivered clearly and succinctly.

I;m not irate about the Kerry situation based on how it might affect the election. I firmly believe that the results of the election are in the hands of people other than the electorate. My personal prediction is that the Democrats will be allowed to capture 8 seats in the House, and three in the Senate. The GOP will win the three close contests in Missouri, Tennessee, and Maryland. I'm furious because Kerry has given the "puppetmasters" a convenient reason for victory come November 8th. When the American people are slack-jawed that the GOP miraculously pulled off victory, they will be told that everyone can just thank Kerry.

Monday, October 30, 2006

 
Arrogance abounds in and around the Bush administration. The latest example featured the wife of our charismatic Vice President. Since her contentious interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN, her husband has publically referred to her performance as a slap down. I watched the entire interview and I did not witness a slap down. Wolf kept his composure and tried to make his case, though Lynne Cheney gave him little opportunity. The fact that CNN had been airing a series titled "Broken Government" apparently bothered Mrs. Cheney very much. She intimated that CNN was basically working for the Democratic Party, and broadcasting their talking points. The Democratic Party does not know how to manipulate language and utilize talking points. If they were able to do so, they wouldn't be in the minority.

It is sad that Mrs. Cheney doesn't understand that our government is fatally flawed. Actually "Broken Government" is an understatement. Our system of government as created by the Founding Fathers bears no resemblance to what we have now. If the founders ever used the term "unitary" as regards the executive branch of our government, they would have used it literally- that the Chief Executive had to be an individual and not a panel or cabal or any other group. The Bush administration's use of the term is designed to make the executive supremely powerful at the expense of the other two branches of our government.

Instead of gloating vicariously through her husband, Lynne Cheney should apologize to Wolf Blitzer and CNN for her indefensible behaviour.

Friday, October 27, 2006

 
After three years and hundreds of thousands of deaths and dismemberment we are told that "stay the course" didn't really mean stay the course. Perhaps the most pertinent question is why we thought that it did mean- stay the course. Compassionate did not mean compassionate, conservative did not mean conservative. Uniter (as opposed to divider) did not mean uniter. No nation building did not mean no nation building. The global war on terrorism did not mean a global war on terrorism. The death tax is not a tax on death. Re-deployment does not mean cut and run. The biggest myth of all is that we are living in a "post-9/11 world". Yes today is post 09/11/01, that is simple chronology. But the fact remains that as long as there have existed terrorists, aircraft, and skyscrapers, there has been the potential for a 9/11 scenario. In the early 90s at the Malaysian terrorist expo there was discussion of using fuel-laden airliners as missiles. The twin towers were even suggested as a target. Unfortunately Condi "we never would have imagined aircraft used as missiles" Rice didn't read the memo. We have been living in a world in which a 9/11 type attack has been a possibility for decades. It is more accurate to state that we are living in a post 11/00 world. Had Bush/Cheney not stolen the 2000 election, 9/11 would not have happened, and there would still be a middle class in the United States of America.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

 
No rational person would ever dispute the fact that Saddam Hussein was an evil Stalinesque tyrant. He was much like Stalin in that he mistrusted anyone he perceived as a threat to his power. What most Americans neglect to consider is what life was like in Iraq for its citizens who did not run afoul of the government. Iraq was a secular, albeit Muslim, nation which was as "western" and modern as any Middle Eastern nation. Perhaps there was never enough footage of pre-war Baghdad shown in America. The scenes from that capitol now are shocking. It will not matter what form the new Iraq will take. The reversal of secularism is guaranteed. The Bush administration boasts of the improvements. Women can vote. They cannot drive to the polling places, and they had better be wearing proper Muslim garb when in public. I have thought that the nation would be best served if it could coalesce a "national" government whose responsibilities would be limited to providing an army, and to oversee the equitable sharing of the oil revenues. The country should divide into autonomous regions. This could reduce the level of sectarian violence, but has its own dangers. The Kurds would likely want to annex sections of Turkey in forming their autonomous zone, thus creating a tense and possibly violent situation. The Kurds would also fight to control Kirkuk, and the Sunnis would oppose that. However the situation in Iraq plays out, it will never be a "little America" with representative democracy and personal freedom. Come to think of it, we don't have those things here in the United States anymore.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

 
Condi Rice has thrown down the gauntlet. She stated that ALL options are on the table when it comes to dealing with North Korea. She then underscored the word ALL. Perhaps the predicted October surprise will be a nuclear attack on North Korea. That would create a crisis with Communist China, and might be reason to postpone or cancel the November elections. And if one listens to Cheney, Bush and Rove-they are not worried about losing control of either the House or Senate this election. Of course their unwarranted confidence could be related to the spread of the paperless voting machines manufactured by partisan corporations with proprietary software.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

 
The Washington Post recently published an article that stated that president Bush and Karl Rove are not worried that their party will lose control of either the House or the Senate in the November elections. It is speculated that this is denial. Hogwash.
Think back to the election of 2004. Conservatives were predicting that Kerry would win by a comfortable margin. There were rumors that president Bush was briefed on the fact that he might lose. It didn't happen.
All one needs to do to understand the cool confidence of Rove and Bush is to watch the video produced by Princeton University. It shows a mock election between George Washington and Benedict Arnold. A disembodied hand votes 4 times for Washington and once for Arnold. When the vote totals are printed by the machine, Arnold beat Washington 3-2. The no paper trail electronic voting machines are produced by corporations with strongly partisan CEOs. The software for these machines is proprietary. The act of fixing the machines to produce desired results is ludicrously simple and nearly impossible to detect. The machines that have wireless capabilities are even easier to fix. They can be fixed from a remote location. The hacker doesn't need to physically access the machines.
I too am confident that the GOP will maintain control of both houses after the November elections. There are members of this administration that have worked diligently for almost 30 years to secure the unfettered power that the Executive Branch now wields. They are not going to relinquish that power easily. Considering that Democratic control of the Legislature would result in impeachment proceedings, and many indictments, just raises the stakes.
The only variable in this November's election is what Rove will choose as the reason that the Democrats were again defeated.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

 
The cat is out of the bag. The GOP have been using the religious right to win elections and have only repaid them with lip service, and privately ridicule the very people they are using. There's no surprise here. The core group of neocon fascists have been "using" individuals and groups for decades in their pursuit of the quasi-total power that they now possess. Reagan was used. Newt Gingrich was used. It is no wonder that the neocon base was so rabidly anti-Clinton. His two term presidency put the master plan of the power mongers on hold for eight years. Centrist Republicans have been used. Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, David Addington, and Donald Rumsfeld have demonstrated no reluctance to seduce groups into thinking that the power grabbers will help them after elections are over. I believe that even Karl Rove has been used, though he has reaped his own personal benefits. I don't perceive Rove as being driven by the quest for a supreme executive branch-the Constitution be damned. I think that politics to Karl Rove is a personal challenge. Unfortunately he has no scruples as to how to achieve his goals. The elections in 2000, 2002, and 2004 were rigged. It might be more accurate to describe 2000 as being hijacked. It was apparent that the efforts to fix that election failed. The mistakes of 2000 were not to be repeated in 2002 or 2004.

Consider the election of 2004. The president's approval ratings were dismal. The popular take on the economy was dismal. Bush was whacked in the series of presidential debates. Conservative pundits predicted a Bush loss. And yet the neocon core never spoke of or demonstrated any hint of apprehension as to the outcome of the election. The elections this November will be fixed also. I am curious as to what excuse will be proffered when the GOP maintain control of both the House and the Senate. After the Foley debacle it can't be moral values. Even Billy-Bob Republicans are figuring out that the war in Iraq is not the same as the global war on terrorism. WWII veterans are seething at the ridiculous comparisons of the current situation to the pre-WWII scenario. Perhaps the promised "October surprise" will shed some light onto the planning for the post-election explaining.

Saturday, October 07, 2006

 
Poor Tony Snow. He whines that the president wants to speak about serious issues, but the press is focused on a pedophile gay Republican who was sheltered by the leadership of the Republican controlled House. The short term memory span of the GOP is alarming. How can they not remember that for 8 years we were forced to listen to accusations, and investigations about Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky. Apparently issues were not so important back then.

I am awaiting the release of George Tenet's book. It will be interesting to see if the ex-CIA chief has balls. His "slam dunk" comment has been taken completely out of context and he is the only person who might set the record straight. The talking point is that when asked about the CIA's intelligence case that Iraq had WMDs, Tenet replied it was a slam dunk, is false. The phrase was uttered in a meeting that focused on deciding what rationale to use to convince the American people that invading Iraq was necessary. The options that were floated were the brutal tyranny of Saddam Hussein, ties to al Qaeda, or the risk that an Iraq with WMDs might transfer them to terrorist organizations which could use them against the USA. Tenet believed that it was a slam dunk to sell the WMD threat to the American people.

It will be curious to see how the GOP justify their holding power in both Houses after the 2006 elections. The cabal that is truly in control is not going to surrender power easily. There is a definite risk that if the Legislative power shifts, there could be serious investigations which would lead to the impeachment of both Bush and Cheney, and possibly prison time for members of this administration.

Karl Rove blundered in 2004 and was able to get away with it. At 8pm election night, conservative Tucker Carlson was on CNN saying that Kerry would win easily. Over night this changed. I thought that the GOP would cite the timely release of the bin Laden tape as the reason Bush was able to be reelected in spite of all the political indicators which made that seem unlikely. By citing the mobilization of the religious right and the moral values voters, Rove erred. If that was the tipping point in the election it would have been evident in the early returns. The religious right would typically tend to be early voters. They would not likely to risk arriving late and not being able to cast their vote. The religious voters also live in states in the heart of the country, whose polls close much earlier than in California. The point being that based on the Rove theory, at 8pm Bush should have had a huge lead which would have been reduced by the left coast votes which would have been reported later.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?