It seems that I have come to that place in life when there are just times that the only way I can come to that state of peace which will allow me to go to sleep is to write. My body doesn’t work very well anymore, but my mind seems to be making up for it – it’s hard for me to get it calmed down at times. Today, john mccain’s birthday, the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of a great American city (while mccain and bush ate birthday cake on a tarmac in Arizona), the day after Barack Obama’s incredible acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, and the day a woman was chosen to be the running mate of the presumptive presidential candidate of the republican party. This could be a day that goes down in infamy.

I suppose I could write about any of those topics and have a chance to sleep tonight, but I’m certain that the last one mentioned above needs to be the focus of my thoughts for selfish reasons – I have to get up early tomorrow (almost today) and, if you’ve read any of my most recent posts (as I write this I believe there is only one reader so far) you will understand why I would want to write about mccain choosing a woman as his running mate for the upcoming election. I will preface whatever remarks I might make by saying that I have been in a discussion with my oldest daughter, a beautiful woman with a level of intelligence that far excedes my own, about the reason why voters who were supporting Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries would choose to vote for mccain. I won’t go over any of that discussion again, but it is there to be read in previous posts. I will just say here that I can’t come up with a single reason why someone who would identify with Hillary could possibly vote for mccain – they are like the difference between night and day. And I say this tonight knowing that mccain has chosen Sarah Palin, the recently elected governor of the state of Alaska, formerly mayor of an Alaskan town of around 9000 people to be the first female in the history of the republican party to be chosen to run for national public office (president or vice-president).

My first thought when I heard this was that the republicans think women are stupid. They are evidently making the assumption that women will vote for a woman simply because she’s a woman. Of course, traditionally, people vote for the person who is going to be president – not the running mate. But as more information becomes public about Palin, there has to be a motive here that is very unflattering, in my mind, to women in general. Of course, this does not surprise me about mccain, because he has a long history of failing to support issues of importance to most American women – and I’m not just talking about abortion. During this campaign mccain has proven to me that he is the all-time king at pandering for votes. Depending on the audience he is more than willing to say whatever the people he’s looking at want to hear. I have heard him contradict himself many times myself during this campaign – not to mention the many gaffes that I guess he’s been able to get away with because of his age. However, it’s just that which is my first level of concern about his choice for VP.

I don’t want to, and hope that I don’t, get into any kind of character “assasination” of Governor Palin – I know nothing more about her than what I’ve heard on the various news programs today. At first I heard that she was under investigation in Alaska for firing a State Trooper supervisor for his refusal to fire the husband of her sister who was involved in a divorce proceeding that was ugly. When I heard some of the details about what the trooper was allegedly doing to her sister, I could understand why she would want him fired, but I thought it some what intriguing that they (republicans) would choose someone under an investigation. That being said, I believe her nomination makes mccain’s age even more of an issue. He’s had cancer twice, he’s 72 years old, some of his gaffes suggest he’s getting a bit confused at times (either that or he needs to work on his geography lessons a bit), and the chances of him being unable to fulfill his term are real enough that I believe it should be a significant issue of concern. On her first day Palin sent a not very subtle message to Hillary’s supporters that suggested to me that she believes Hillary’s voters voted for her because, and only because, she’s a woman. I realize they have sofisticated polling in the republican party and maybe they’re correct, but to me that was an insult to women. It really implies that they think women aren’t very smart.

I have to disagree with this vehemently, and not just because I’m even more passionately hoping for an Obama victory after the convention, but moreso because, as a school teacher, I work with so many bright, thoughtful women who – should any of them (God forbid) vote for mccain, there is no doubt in my mind that it won’t be because he picked a woman as his running mate. And my daughters, while I love the dialogue that I’m presently having with the oldest, there is no way that I wouldn’t ultimately respect whatever decision they would make in this election or on any matter of significance – they make choices based on careful thought and reflection and they have the moral character to stand firm behind what they think is right. When they disagree with me, I always learn something because their thoughts and actions always seem to me to be based on deep thought. And I can say this with the women teachers that I work with – they are extremely intelligent and I believe that the vast majority of women in this country are as well. I talk with many mothers, single mothers, who are struggling to raise children while working one or two jobs, and most of the time I am impressed with their thoughtfulness, even if they’ve made poor choices in the past putting them in tough circumstances. In fact, the reality to me, is that most of the time when there is a missing parent in the family, it is the dad. So I don’t think that mccain’s and the republicans choosing Governor Palin will net them a huge influx of disillusioned Hillary voters.

Keep in mind – with the little I know about Palin, I am certain that she would have fallen into the category of someone who would have never voted for Hillary Clinton. Each of the positions I have heard that she has taken on issues of national significance are virtually 180 degrees from Hillary. She is directly from the right wing of the republican party. Remember, if mccain wins we are likely to have a supreme court that is tilted strongly to the right for the next 30 years. The chance to right the wrongs of the bush administration regarding infringements on the constitution, will be virtually gone. I’m talking about illegal wiretapping, habeous corpus, torture, and other corporate friendly “legislation from the bench” that will be imbedded in our judicial system, certainly for the rest of my life. As far as abortion goes, I have been opposed to abortion since roe v wade was decided in the early 70’s. However, with two daughters I have always thought that if one of them were in the position to feel that abortion was a decision they needed to make – it would not be my place to do anything more than support them in any way I could. Everyone has to answer for their own decisions and, as a Christian, I firmly believe in scripture when it says judge not, lest you be judged. So it’s not my place to judge the circumstances and decisions of another person – if I’m correct about eternity, each of us will have to answer for our own choices and I have plenty of “stuff” to answer for without worrying or putting myself into someone else’s “stuff.” And I know that before roe v wade “backroom” abortions with dangerous consequences for women were common – I certainly don’t want to put my daughter or anyone else’s daughter in that place. Plus, I find it very hypocritical for people to believe in the sanctity of life – until the fetus is born and then “your on your own” not to mention the apparent lack of respect for life in places like Iraq by many of the people I know who are “pro life.” Don’t get me wrong, I believe a fetus is a human being upon conception – but I also believe that as a man, it’s not my place to be making choices for women in untenable situations. I’ve digressed, but my point is that most of us, maybe moreso for women, have a keen interest in the make-up of the supreme court – and this is one of the key issues of this campaign. Personally, I want the criminals in power presently to be held accountable for the lies, the cheating, and the fraud they have committed on this country. I believe thoughtful women understand the importance of the supreme court and will not be fooled into voting against their own beliefs because mccain picked a woman as his running mate.

According to what I’ve heard, Palin will also be a chearleader for mccain’s position on energy as stated when he was at Saddleback Church with Pastor Rick Warren, when he answered the question about his solution to the energy problem and high gas prices (before Pastor Warren had even finished asking the question) by blurting out Drill! Drill! Drill! She is a proponent of drilling in the Anwar wildlife refuge in Alaska, which will have an insignificant effect on the price of gas in America. Virtually all the experts say that it would take at least 10 years to get the oil to market, the amount it would lower the price would be negligible, the oil would go onto the world market and might not end up in America anyway, and the danger to this sensitive area would be far greater than any benefit that could be gained from violating the ban on drilling presently in effect. I just can’t see Hillary’s supporters agreeing with Governor Palin on this one.

For the rest of us, those of us who were not Hillary’s supporters, those of us who were but have fallen in behind Obama, or even mccain’s supporters. The thought of this woman who was the mayor of a very small town in a remote region of one of the two states that are not contiguous in America, who has been Governor for less than two years ( I believe about 17 or 18 months) is cause for pause. We need to know everything possible about her. She has a degree in journalism from the University of Idaho – to me that is not the education needed for someone who is president of the so-called leading country of the free world. It’s almost like me, or one of my friends suddenly put in a position of being president. I wonder what she knows about Pakistan – I hope she knows more than mccain who I’ve heard talk about the non-existent Pakistan/Iraq border as if it was actually real. I hope she knows that Chechoslovakia has not been a country for the last 15 years or so, unlike mccain. I hope she knows that there is no way that Iran is training Al Qaeda insurgents and arming them because they are bitter enemies, also unlike mccain. But we have to find out. What does she know about the economy? What does she know about the constitution? What does she know about the structure of how the federal government actually works? What does she know about the military? What does she know about the history of this great nation? What does she know about all the different governments around the world that the president has to deal with? mccain is 72 years old and has had cancer twice, as I stated above. If he’s elected there’s a good chance Governor Palin could become the president of this country! mccain has continually criticized Obama for being “unprepared” to be president. Didn’t he trump his own argument here?

I will end this by saying that Governor Palin might be a very fine, intelligent woman. I’m sure that there is no way that I could find myself in agreement with her political views. But my point here is that it is obvious to me that mccain picked her in an attempt to get a mass exodus of Hillary Clinton’s supporters to switch allegiance and vote for him because she’s on the ticket. To me, this is an insult to women – thinking that they won’t want the same questions I’ve raised here to be answered, that they don’t passionately stand for their beliefs, that somehow someone’s gender would be the only factor in their vote, that they would look past the realities of what mccain stands for because he chose a woman as his running mate. The analogy that comes to my mind when I even think about this; years ago when I was training horses for the race track, I was watching the post parade prior to one of my horses running and there are lots of people standing there checking them out as they walked by. As a horse in front of my lifted his tail and pooped on the race track, the man next to me grabbed the arm of the lady he was with and said “Number 4, go place the bet, he just pooped!” To me, mccain is essentially saying that he thinks women think about that deep. As I have spent the day digesting this choice, what it could mean to this country, what it confirms to me about the republican party, I keep saying to myself; You’ve got to be kidding!

Well, I now know that at least one person has read at least one of my posts. I’m pretty excited about this, especially because the first reader was one of my daughters. As I knew she would if she stopped by, she gave me some insight (I’m using that word instead of maybe constructive criticism). First, I need to make some paragraphs, or as she put it “hit the return key once in a while – it’s a bit hard on the eyes.” That one brought a smile to my face, not only because I know she was right on, but because I also know that I have a tendency to get verbose and carried away when I’m emotionally charged about something. And if you read this blog you should be able to figure out that, whether you agree with my thoughts or not, I’m pretty emotionally charged up about the 2008 presidential election and the direction of our nation in general.

In addition to that insight, she made another point that I responded privately to her via email, but I thought I needed to write about here. If you’ve read a couple of my other posts you will know that I have really had to struggle with the thought of how could any democrat, or any voter who supported Hillary Clinton, possibly vote for john mccain. I have lost all respect for mccain during this election while at the same time I understand why the democratic leaders are trying to show respect for his service to the country and the ordeal he had to endure during Viet Nam. However, the truth as I see it is that he has been and will be saying anything, regardless of the validity of his remarks, advertisements, or whatever, to win this election. His lying and cheating is going virtually unchallenged by the so-called mainstream media and he has the audacity to pander to bush’s “base” while saying he is the candidate of change – but anyone who’s been paying attention for the last 8 (really the last 28) years must realize the significance of what another republican would do to our country at this point in time. I mentioned in my previous post that, in my mind, the only reason I can see for a disillusioned Hillary supporter to vote for mccain considering the damage his presidency would do to this county would be because Obama is black.

My daughter found this to be a slam against women. She pointed out that she has been supporting Hillary for 15 years, she voted for her in the Washington caucuses because just the thought that a woman might become president was extremely exciting for her and the idea of a woman president, even the possibility that it might happen, was inspiring for her as she relates to her own daughter (my beautiful granddaughter). I went back and re-read the post and can see how I probably wasn’t as clear as I should have been, so I want to try to be more clear, although I still feel my point is valid.

I do not see Hillary Clinton’s supporters as just women. While, after a little more thought, I’m sure that a majority of them are women – I believe there were a lot of men supporting her during the primary process as well. So my first point is that I wasn’t talking about women or men – simply people who supported her. In fact, it makes more sense to me that the so-called 10% of her supporters (if you believe the polls) who may switch to mccain would come from the men. Hillary was very strong in Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and other places with lots of rural areas which have been negatively affected by the “trickle down” economics of the last 28 years of republicans. There is no good reason why any of these people would support another republican, let alone mccain who has nothing to offer them – he even continues to be a proponent of NAFTA, GAT, etc. However, during the Pennsylvania primary I remember people – leading politicians from Pennsylvania itself – saying that Pennsylvania is essentially Pittsburgh and Philadelphia along with the rural areas which are more like Alabama when it comes to the issue of race.

For us, as Americans, to fail to address this issue is to me like the ostrich hiding its head in the sand and thinking no one can see him/her. I just can’t see how any progressive thinking person – and keep in mind that about 80% of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction and only 28% approve of gw bush – could vote for a person who thinks that the fundamentals of this economy are “strong,” wants to stay in Iraq until we get “victory,” (whatever that is) wants to “drill, drill, drill” to solve the energy crisis, wants to privatize social security, has repeatedly voted against women’s rights, worker’s rights, and civil rights, says he’s against special interests controlling Washington yet has a campaign run almost 100% by lobbyists, has promised to turn the Supreme Court even farther to the right, lies about Obama and lies about his own accomplishments, and who cheated right in front of “God and everybody” at Saddleback Church just a couple weeks ago – against an extremely intelligent and thoughtful person who has worked his way up from incredibly modest and challenging beginnings, has dedicated his life to service, who is a strong honorable family man, who has been proven right on one judgement after another, who has proven his management skills in running a campaign that I believe will change the course of politics for the forseeable future in this county, who has the attention of people all over the world, and has shown a level of energy that will be a requirement in the daunting task of restoring this nation to its core ideal as president while his own life story is a true reflection of that ideal – I’m sorry but the only thing I can come up with is that he is black.

I can say this – had Hillary won the nomination and we were looking at the same dilemma – I would have to say that there would be people not voting for her because she’s a woman. I have to admit that I got pretty upset with her “kitchen sink” strategy in trying to derail Obama. There was a point in time when I probably would have been cast into the anger camp had she won. But I can’t picture any scenario that would have caused me to vote for mccain. I can somewhat accept her supporters not voting or voting for Nader or someone else, I guess, but mccain? No way!!! Every time I think about it, what would drive someone to do that I come back to the same place. I listened to Hillary Clinton’s speech at the democratic convention. I have to say that it gave me chills on my spine. When she was finished I said to myself that had she followed that tact during the primary campaign from the outset, I believe she would be the nominee – it came to my mind that the people who were advising her led to her loss. She was like the Hillary Clinton I remember in the early years of Bill Clinton’s presidency – not the Hillary Clinton who refused to admit that she made a mistake in voting for the Iraq war or the Hillary Clinton who miscalculated about the aftermath of “Super Tuesday” or the Hillary Clinton who stooped to the level of Karl Rove in an attempt to “win at all costs” during the latter stages of the primaries. She certainly gained my forgiveness and vaulted herself, in my eyes, right back to the top as far as leaders in this country are concerned and I hope her voters follow her lead from that speech and line up behind Obama. But for the ones who can’t bring themselves to do so – I’d like for someone to give me a rational explanation as to why they could ignore the plethora of reasons to vote against mccain in order to try to bring Obama down – other than the conclusion I have reluctantly come to.

The end result of this election, I hope and pray, will be an historic occasion when we have, as a nation, maybe taken a huge step toward genuinely showing that a person of color, or anybody for that matter, can make it all the way to the top in this country. All my life I have hoped to live to see the day when an African American could hold the highest office in this land. And, as the father of two beautiful daughters, of course I also long for the day when a woman can occupy the White House as the president of the United States. The tough thing this year is that after so many years of frustrations in this regard, two historic candidates show up at the same time – of course they would have to both be democrats because the reality of the republican party is that it wouldn’t be possible for either circumstance under their watch – and, of course, only one of the two could win. At this point in time it is imperative for Hillary’s supporters, all of them, to get behind Obama because even though she is not going to be president, at least this year, 2008 will always have an important part in the history of this great nation, from the standpoint of a radical change from the WASP approach to politics in this country, 2008 will always be remembered as an exciting first!!!!

Over the last couple of days I’ve kind of been overcome with the feeling that I’m spending a lot of thought trying to formulate a clear picture of mccain, bush, republicans, etc so that my republican friends fully understand what they’re voting for. Barack Obama has been trying to stay on the so-called “high road” during the campaign (which, in reality, hasn’t even started yet) and I’ve found it quite difficult to listen to the republican spin machine either attacking Obama or lying about mccain without seeing much response (although in my heart I know the response is coming – I really do believe Obama is a fighter). I mean, the other day when I saw a commercial from mccain claiming that he is the one who will bring “change” to Washington – by stopping the influence of lobbyists and “fighting big oil” – it made me think (after gagging) that if he gets away with this, we as teachers (I’m a teacher), really are doing a bad job because our public is unable to think critically at all.

As I see the poll numbers swing toward mccain I get incredulous, and I guess I get overcome with a sense that if Obama isn’t going to refute this nonsense – then I will – knowing of course that I will probably be the only one who ever reads my comments and the only thing accomplished by my writing them down is to make me feel better and leave a dated history for my “I told you so’s” to all the people I know who vote for mccain. When the roof caves in, so to speak, on this nation if he somehow manages to finagle his way into office I’m going to be even more vocal than I am now – assuming I’m physically able. However, my optimistic nature seems to be prevailing and I still believe that Senator Obama (we now know it’s Obama/Biden) will win in November and then the process of holding him to the promise to clean up the bush mess will begin. That being said, I was thinking today that I should be able to tell someone why they should vote for Obama besides the fact that bush/cheney/mccain is such a disaster.

In my heart I know that the only reason all the Hillary voters who are disenchanted with Obama and are threatening to vote for mccain has to be because he’s black. I’ve seen women who were for Hillary that, if they look even slightly at mccain’s record and listen to what he says, should be ashamed of themselves for even thinking about voting for mccain – and they should be doing everything they can to keep him out. A little digression: I still vividly remember the last really honorable democratic president, Jimmy Carter, who was defeated by ronald reagan because the republicans figured out how to split the democrats (remember John Anderson – who do you think funded his third party campaign??) and the end result has been almost 30 years of this push to destroy the American middle class and change this country into a corporatacracy at the expense of our standing in the world, our environment, and the fundamentals of our economy – which is teetering on crumbling. The republicans are the masters at manipulating the media and causing people to vote against their own best interests – and with possibly a little help from the Clintons that is how they plan to win this election.

So, if Obama wins, his presidency will be historically important for several reasons. One reason that isn’t talked about much, is about a black person in this office – kind of like the pressure on NFL quarterbacks a few years ago when many people thought a black person couldn’t be an NFL quarterback because of the “intelligence” stereotype. Well, like it or not, this kind of stuff is out there, in my opinion in much larger doses than we, as a nation, are willing to admit and if Obama wins the racists, like limbaugh, hannity, and many of the other republicans – and unfortunately more democrats than we would care to acknowledge, will be in full attack mode right from the start, trying to undermine his presidency. Beyond that, for the majority of Americans, the most important reasons Obama’s presidency will be historic, of course, are not related to the color of his skin – that’s really an issue for our society to resolve – they relate to our military which has been critically damaged and weakened because of bush’s ill-advised and illegal adventure into Iraq – stretching our existing forces to their limits and causing recruitment to wane to the point where the services are now accepting felons, high school dropouts, and new recruits in their 40’s.

Our economy is in a shambles, it is crumbling, and the best way I can describe it is one bandaid on top of a buch of other bandaids. I believe that bush has been trying hard to keep the actual collapse from happening until after January 20th so he and his water carriers (limbaugh, hannity, etc.) can blame it on the next president and the congress. Turning this economy around will be a daunting task, especially if the democrats don’t significantly increase their majority in the senate. To be totally honest, I haven’t seen a lot from the democratic senate that gives me confidence that they are going to stand strong against this corporatacracy – of course many of them have had their hands out as much as the republicans when it comes to collecting money from the corporate lobbyists.

Additionally, Obama will need to be at his best to restore America’s image in the rest of the world. Many of my republican friends don’t seem to understand the importance of this – but it is the people they voted into office – reagan, bush I, bush II, with a little help from Clinton, who have created this situation where we are subservient to the world economy. I’m sure this was inevitable, but it doesn’t make sense to me for us to create this “global economy” and then destroy our relationships with our trading partners or potential trading partners. I believe Obama when he says that he is going to change the direction of this government and that the fix will come from the bottom up, instead of the republican philosophy of top-down, or “trickle down” as it was known during reagan’s years in office. I also believe that Obama has the makings of a statesman as was quite evident in the overseas trip he took in July that led to the “celebrity” ads from mccain.

Furthermore, I believe that Obama will pull our troops out of Iraq and there will be a dramatic change, not only in how we use our troops, but in how we treat them. Somehow, the support our troops republicans, have done an excellent job of hiding the ways they don’t support our troops as they go around saber rattling at every chance they get. Both bush and mccain opposed the recent “GI Bill” that addressed many of the shortcomings for our troops who are sacrificing so much in Iraq and Afganistan. I’m still a bit incredulous as to how bush and mccain could oppose that bill – on the grounds that giving these benefits to our returning soldiers would encourage them to leave the service – then after it passed with a veto proof majority claim that they supported it. I really don’t understand how they could get away with that.

I guess because I’m presently reading a book on blackwater (by Jeffery Scahill – I encourage anyone who reads this – to read that book) I feel the biggest threat (internally) to our military may be the private, right wing, militias. So the idea of these private militias is heavily on my mind – from the fact the blackwater “soldiers” who pump the gas for our actual troops in Iraq are compensated considerably more than the troops they are augmenting, to their political connection to the extreme right wing of the republican party, and more so to the scary idea that they are virtually immune from any oversight and can be “invisibly” inserted into various situations around the world without the public’s knowledge – the whole idea of private armies is “cause for pause” but I believe, and I will do everything I can to encourage Obama to do so, one of the most important things that he must do, in addition to prosecuting the wrongdoing of the bushies and restoration of our constitutional rights, is to put these private armies out of business by refusing them government contracts. Should mccain win in November these private armies will continue to flourish.

As Roosevelt so correctly stated in 1940 – we don’t want, and it is beyond immoral (my characterization) for people to get rich off of a war. blackwater has made hundreds of millions from Iraq and Afganistan (and I’m very certain there’s others that we don’t know about), rumsfeld made close to one hundred million on Iraq, I believe that if cheney was investigated he made close to one hundred million on increased value of his haliburton holdings from the Iraq incursion, and there are many others that have become incredibly rich because of this illegal war – that kind of profiteering is immoral beyond words and has to stop – I believe Obama is the only chance that this will stop. From a practical point of view, does it make sense for the US Army soldier to be making $50 per day in Iraq while the guy whose serving him his food, or filling the tank on his vehicle, or many other “privatized” tasks is making well over ten times that amount – and without having to pay taxes on the money? I really don’t think many people understand that the way rumsfeld kept the number of troops down in Iraq was through their (the neocons) pet “privatization” process. As I write this I am certain there are more private “soldiers” in Iraq than members of our official armed forces. If this bothers you as much as it bothers me, then the only hope is Obama. The average pay of these blackwater “contractors” is over $600/day – over $1000 for some of the more dangerous jobs. We need for these militias to either be out of business or for them to go to Dubia with halliburton.

The point I’m trying to make here is that there are a lot of reasons to vote for Obama, our nation is desparate for the bottom up approach to “management,” and we need to be voting for him more than we are voting against mccain. I have lost all respect for mccain in this election, but I fully understand that the republican “infrastructure” is going to do everything they can to smear him. As Hillary did, they’re going to use the “kitchen sink strategy” to try to derail Obama, and while I will continue to try to define the “real mccain” I understand that Obama has a fundamental belief in the American people that he can win this election by staying out of the “mud” as much as possible and trying to stay on the “high road.” I hope he’s right!

OK, if anyone ever finds this “blog” (I didn’t even know what a blog was when I started this – it always sounded like a place where you might find quick sand to me) and reads some of my posts it won’t take long for them to realize that I don’t think much of bush and that mccain is dropping fast toward the bottom of the likometer. Many people I know (and probably millions around the world) are waiting anxiously for the end of what is sometimes referred to as bush II next January 20th. (I honestly believe they call it bush II because there is another one waiting in the wings and the right wing republicans are hoping for, probably even counting on, a collective memory loss by the American public which will clear the way for bush III – good ole Jeb from Florida – you know, the one who was key to bush II getting in in the first place with the election theft of Florida’s 2000 vote – clearly won by Gore – the only presidential election in our history determined by a stacked Supreme Court – which should really give pause to anyone who is even thinking about voting for mccain as to what he could do to this country for the next 30 years just through his court appointees – I’m practicing run-on sentences – but I digress) However, a lot of damage can, and probably will, be done in these remaining few months.

I get this feeling that on the one hand you have a bunch of democrats just holding their stomachs and accepting what these people have done thinking they are “lame ducks” and there isn’t much they can accomplish that can’t be blocked in the last few months of their reign. At the same time I see the bushies planning on grabbing every dollar, destroying every regulation, and creating as much chaos as they can before it’s “over.” At one point I thought they were almost wanting to lose this election for president with the idea of saddling the incoming democtratic administration with the garbage they’ve spread around the globe along with an American economy close to in ruins and likely headed there. However, I’m beginning to think that they are going to pull out all the stops for mccain because he has proven to be such a chum, someone who is willing to say whatever the moment calls for – he’s willing to read their 3×5 cards with the neocon message on them, he’s willing to do whatever he needs to do to get them to “push” him into the White House. My thinking now is that mccain is the perfect candidate for the so-called neocons who have been gobbling up the world’s riches since the nixon years, and really hit the jackpot with bush II.

With mccain they can continue to reap the benefits of the “privatized” military and at the same time the conservatives like limbaugh, hannity, and the like will be able to blast him as being too liberal – with the objective of getting bush III into the office in 2012. Getting back to my point – there is a lot of damage that can be done between now and January 20th. Take for example the conflict with Russia in the republic of Georgia. The bushies have succeeded in framing the debate on this “crisis” as the Russians over-reacting to Sakashavilli’s (I know, I can’t spell it) attempt to “grab” South Ossetia – a small province that has “broken away” from Georgia and is heavily occupied by Russians. You don’t hear much in our so-called mainstream media about how bush/cheney/mccain have been encouraging Sakashavilli to do this – that is to challenge the Russians. Of course, Sakashavilli expected a little support from the Americans (more than the small mercenary army stationed there) and didn’t quite think this one through.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, it shouldn’t take someone who is thinking real clearly to realize that the US is about out of military options – we can’t resume the hunt for osama bin laden until we can, according to mccain, obtain “victory” in Iraq. What this does is embolden the Russians. First, I’m sure they are getting a little impatient with the US doing everything it can to undermine what was supposed to be their evolution to democracy. It shouldn’t surprise people who think logically that after originally going into Russia, after Yeltsen took over, with the friedman “privatize everything” philosophy and virtually destroying the Russian economy in the early 1990’s and then using their former satellite countries as locations for weapons systems, oil pipelines that bypass Russia, and bases for our military to operate out of – the Russians wouldn’t be too happy with us. On top of that, given our need for their oil and their accumulation of our dollars, the relationship between the two countries is rapidly changing.

Of course the bush/cheney/mccain approach to this is to continue to see Russia as the “evil empire” – at least in the propaganda they are feeding us, the US citizens who are paying attention. The main problem here – even if you agree with the neocons that Russia is still the “evil empire” – we have a bunch of morons running this government. They seem to think that everyone (the public) is stupid and that they can just do whatever they feel like under any circumstance. I mean this thing with Georgia is unbelievable to me, how they could be so incompetent. Now, keep in mind that we have had our “private” armies in this area of the world for several years now (it just wouldn’t look right to have actual American troops – read my posts on Blackwater if you want to get your hair standing on end) and we have contracted an oil pipeline from (again, I’m going to have a problem with the spelling and I’m too lazy to look up the names of these countries – but they are the countries bordering the Caspian sea, I believe) Kazhetskan through Georgia into Turkey – I’m not sure of the exact route – but if you are interested it would be easy to verify this with Google, I’m sure – taking oil from this region that comes from enormous reserves and moves it to ports that access the US and other Western nations by bypassing Russia.

These countries (Izbekestan or something that sounds something like that and the other “Caspian sea” countries) are run by some real great examples of the bush push for democracy. bush/cheney/mccain have common practices with the leaders of these countries – like torture, dictatorships, fixed elections, etc. Remember, Sakashavilli’s invasion of South Ossetia led to the deaths of thousands of Ossetians – all we hear about is the Russian response, but remember the Georgians made the first move. My point here is that this “crisis” holds much more potential for totally destabilizing that region than Iraq – it is pushing Russia into a closer relationship with Iran, and the main thing it accomplishes for the bushies is that their weapons businesses, their private armies, and their other corporate interests are bound to flourish no matter what the outcome.

There are a lot of buttons these guys can push prior to January 20th and the democratic congress – in particular nancy pelosi – have proven that “impeachment is off the table.” When the abuses are so obvious, I’m not sure who to blame most for the stuff that is happening now. At some point someone in this government had better stand up and say enough is enough – it might be too late if this situation blows up. Does anyone really think that the bushies have the diplomatic skill to negotiate some kind of practical solution to this problem. And the Russians are demonstrating to anyone who is paying attention that the US is impotent, at this point in time. I’m not sure what the next blunder is up the sleeve of these criminals (the bush administration), and I don’t hold out too much hope – but like betting on a longshot at the race track, all I can say is democrats, do something!!! Please!!!!

I’m going to try to keep this one short, but if you know me, well let’s just say I know what you’re thinking!!! :o) I’ve been listening to a lot of blubber coming out of mccain’s mouth recently misusing the word “victory” again, which I still remember the republicans latching on to that word at the recommendation of a couple professors at some college back east a couple years ago when they were struggling to be more focused with their propoganda. I heard mccain say something like: both senator Obama and myself want to get our troops out of Iraq as soon as possible, the difference is that I will do it after we have “victory.” (of course then he goes into his little “cheshire cat” grin that reminds me of the bush giggle and I almost gag thinking that I might have to put up with four years of this, ughhhhh) mccain then goes on to trumpet his “judgement” in pushing for the “surge”, blaming the surge for the reduction in violence in Iraq during the last couple of years.

Whether or not you want to call this a distortion or an outright lie, well that’s your choice, but the facts indicate that the “surge” (the 30,000 troops bush sent to Iraq against the explicit will of the American people) is not the reason for the decrease in violence – surprise, surprise – it was the so-called “Awakening” – which is the “strategy” of paying Sunni Iraqis to stop killing Americans and to either break away from the group known as Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia or to fight them for us – plus the truce called by Moqtada al Sadr that led to the reduction in violence (this began 4 or 5 months prior to bush proposing the surge and almost one year prior to the actual troops of the “surge” being deployed into the field).

I believe the inherent problem with the first part of this strategy is about to rear its ugly head. What the Americans have been doing, besides paying these Sunni “insurgents” not to kill Americans (I wonder how many of them were the Iraqis that the original czar of Iraq, Paul Bremer, “fired” during the de-Baathification process after we toppled Saddam Hussein) is arming them to the teeth. My question; does anyone think that these Sunnis and the Shias in power now love each other??? Does mccain (and bush/cheney) really think that the Maliki government is going to invite these people into their government after they have killed so many Shiites?? Do bush/cheney/mccain believe these people are going to turn over their weapons, supplied to them by our government, to the Shia government that they have been in conflict with for thousands of year?? Do they all really think that Moqtada al Sadr is just going to fade quietly into the sunset??

I’ve been trying hard for several years now to understand these republican criminals. I really did try to put some kind of honorable face on their motives – you know, some reason that they would have invaded and destroyed this country besides the oil – but I keep coming up short. They have been blasting me (and you if you’re an American reading this) with propoganda since well before this adventure became a reality. And I’ve finally come to the conclusion that paying for a lull in violence that lasts long enough for another war monger to be elected president is the mccain/bush/cheney definition of VICTORY!!!!!

There are so many things that I would like to write about, it kind of gets my head spinning. Lately I’ve been pretty much focused on mccain because I’m so frustrated that our upcoming election seems like it’s going to be a measurement of how many voters can the republicans scare enough to vote against Obama. I’m thinking that we may make it until November without any significant discussion of the actual issues that “matter.” My anxiety is causing me to spend a lot of time trying to do what I think Obama should be doing (and seems that he’s starting to do), which is to expose mccain for the weasel he is. However, I really do have to spend a little energy on gw before he’s gone – and keep in mind that I’m one who isn’t 100% sure he’s going to go quietly. While some kind of “national emergency” that would cause him to attempt to cancel the upcoming election seems really “out there,” for some reason the notion keeps coming to mind, so I’m praying that my mind is playing tricks on me. I’ve got lots of body parts that wouldn’t be too agreeable to hitting the streets in a guerrilla war with blackwater.

Well, back to my main thought – which is accountability for gw, cheney, rumsfeld, gonzalez, rove, rice, and others. I’m kind of feeling that the reason there are no impeachment hearings is because the plan is to “get” these criminals after the election, which kind of makes sense to me seeing that the refusals to even testify before Congress by the bush surrogates means nothing is going past the preliminary court fights anyway, at least until bush is a sour thought in our minds. Somehow I feel the “game” right now is how to go about this without being trumped by the presidential powers that he will no longer have at his disposal after January 20th of 2009.

I have a sense that bush is going to try to do some kind of blanket pardon for offenses that haven’t been brought before he leaves office. Even though that would be an admission of guilt, they have the money and I don’t think gw and dick care much about the “details.” I’m not sure if this is even possible, and it would be interesting to hear a debate about whether or not bush can pardon himself and others without any charges being leveled against them – ahead of time. I mean they have essentially admitted to some pretty serious crimes – right in front of national TV cameras. Let’s see – warrantless wiretapping; each count carries a felony with potentially 5 years imprisonment and a whopper of a fine and I’m sure they have stepped over the line thousands of times. How about “outing” a CIA agent. This is TREASON!!!! There is no doubt with anyone I know that cheney instigated this – and does anyone really think that if there was a full investigation that the buck wouldn’t stop at gw??? My republican friends believe the limbaugh and hannity water carriers who immediately, once it became apparent that the white house was involved in this, started a campaign to suggest that Valerie Plame was just a secretary at the CIA and not a covert operative – choosing to believe limbaugh and hannity over our CIA who originally brought the complaint to the justice department – I love my friends and I know that it’s just a matter of time until they see past this stonewall of liars, but Plame was an operative who had been in Iran, getting info on their nuclear program of all things, and who knows who might have paid the price for her being publicly identified.

The justice department of the US is, and mostly has been, supposed to be non-partisan because it is made up of lawyers that we all count on to fairly administer justice in this country. While it is true that the prosecuting attorneys work at the pleasure of the president, it is clearly illegal to attempt to pressure them into politically motivated prosecutions in an attempt to affect the outcome of elections, and it is illegal to hire and fire based on political loyalties. Additionally, while the president can fire a prosecuting attorney at his/her discretion it is a crime to lie about it before Congress under oath (ie gonzalez) and it may be a crime to conspire to fire a prosecuting attorney to prevent him/her from prosecuting a political ally (ie the attorney in San Diego who had prosecuted duke cunningham and was about to indict rep lewis from California who was connected to cunningham and seems to have gotten “off” – I believe her name is Carol Lam – she got fired and lewis is still probably bribing people) – of course we won’t know because bush refused to allow his surrogates, including rove, to even appear before congress let alone testify about their actions – I believe watching alberto gonzalez was enough for bush to realize that they were in so deep their best chance was to not go there, meaning to Congressional hearings, because gonzo had put them way over the threshold of how many lies can you tell in public before even the people who aren’t paying attention start to notice.

I haven’t even got into the lies that got us into Iraq. Boy, I could write about that for, well put it this way, in my day job I’m often asked when it’s my turn to speak to keep my remarks to a few minutes, and I can usually fill up those few minutes without much effort. So I’ll try to limit my remarks here, even though lying to justify an invasion of a soveriegn nation, leading to a death toll approaching seven figures is worthy of a thorough discussion that reminds us (the citizens that elected these murderers) that we have an obligation here to at least try to create an atmosphere where this won’t happen again by insisting on accountability and justice. In fact my next book is the book by Ron Suskind, “The Way of the World,” which details (as I understand it) the CIA’s forging of a document to connect Saddam Hussein with Mohammed Atta (Al Qaeda) as per the request of cheney (and I’m sure bush) as one of the many lies used to catapult us into Iraq – which from a criminal standpoint – should dwarf all of these other crimes in my view.

Back to my point; these are just a few of the issues that bush/cheney et al should have to stand to account for. Obviously, impeachment is “off the table.” I’m hoping criminal prosecution is not. I will be disappointed if Obama gets elected and then chooses not to “fix” these problems. It is my opinion that if they are not dealt with in a thorough and judicious manner, the long term consequences for our nation will be severe. We need to make a statement to ourselves, and possibly more important to the rest of the world, that we truly are a “nation of laws and not men.” The abuses of the constitution and the justice department need to be corrected and safeguards need to be in place to guarantee that no rogue administration will ever be able to abuse our system in this manner again. And, just as importantly, we need to hold these leaders (sic) to criminal accountability in front of the rest of the world – so they know that there will be no more “gitmos” – that we won’t be invading soveriegn nations unprovoked ever again – and that criminals will be prosecuted in this country. bin laden should be prosecuted and every member of the bush administration who used bin laden’s attack on our nation to enrich themselves or abuse the power they had been entrusted with should be prosecuted. people like rumsfeld, cheney, feith, and others who have profited off of our invasion of Iraq should be treated like the heinous theives that they are – THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH THIS!!!! And gw??? well, in my mind, gw – the president who has spent about 35% of his presidency on vacation should get a REAL VACATION!!! an extended stay in Leavenworth!!!!

To preface any remarks I might come up with here, I have to say that I am a Christian, probably what you’d have to call the Christian left, and I watched with interest the other night about half of both Obama’s and mccain’s appearances at Saddleback Church with Pastor Rick Warren. After listening to some of the commentary that followed, I have to admit to a level of naitevete (spelling?) that periodically reminds me of the importance of humility. As I watched Obama, I thought this showing would bring many Christians to realize what a good man he is. Then I listened to mccain, firing back answers almost before the question was completed, and thinking it was a real advantage to be sitting back stage listening to the questions ahead of time, but even despite that Christians would be able to see through this incredibly dishonest and phony politician. Upon digesting the few commentaries I’ve heard since then, I can see that the things that have been so disturbing to me for the last 8 years may not be coming to an end after all. My thoughts about Obama; very thoughtful answers, honest answers even though some of them were obviously not what the “religious right” was looking for, I thought the people would be able to appreciate that after all the lies of the last 8 years it’s refreshing to hear someone try to actually say what they think, HONESTLY. Then mccain; well, I discovered that he was supposed to be sequestered, but wasn’t; said he didn’t hear the questions ahead of time – but obviously he did – how else could he be answering them before the question was finished being asked – but mostly, his answers were disengenuous at best – yet evidently the people sucked it right up. The solution to the energy crisis: DRILL, DRILL, DRILL!!!! When I heard the audience break into applause after that, I realized the caliber of people he was talking to – a ridiculous, but totally politically expedient answer. HOW LONG WILL THESE PEOPLE ALLOW THEMSELVES TO BE MADE OUT TO BE FOOLS BY THESE REPUBLICANS???? And his story about the cross in the prison camp. I knew I had heard that story before I just couldn’t remember when, and then I was reminded this week that he had told the story before, only it was about someone else. Then, while listening to Air America (I wish some people in the mainstream media would listen to them, and at least try to confirm some of their reporting) – I heard the same story, only this time it came from a book by Alexander Solzhenitzyn, a Russian novelist . The bottom line, mccain sat in front of a bunch of willing dupes and lied to them about his “Christianity” in order to pander to their Christian values. This guy appears to me to be more willing to lie than gw bush, and that, to me, is beyond scary. I’m saying all this because it really grieves me that the “base” for these lying republicans are Christians. And I don’t blame or criticize my Christian friends, because I believe they are getting a constant barrage of propaganda from people that they should be able to trust, and they have no idea where these people are really coming from. There is a strict right wing movement in our country that, yes, is made up of a bunch of radical Christians; although I have a hard time accepting war mongering as something that “Jesus would do.” It is very hard for me to understand how anyone that is a Christian can take an honest look at the republicans in power and not get sick to their stomachs. Which kind of gets me to what I think is most on my mind today, and that is the length they will take to stay in power. This should be something any American who believes in our constitution should be worried about. I am presently reading a book about Blackwater, which I have written about previously both here and in attempts to get op-eds published at newspapers (unsuccessfully of course), and I’m even more concerned about them than before. This private, right wing, militia emerged from a group of people who seriously were considering, during the Clinton years, armed resistence to our government. Now they have the largest private militia in the world, they have huge stockpiles of weapons, amunition, planes, helicopters, and some of the roguest “fighters” in the world, recruiting from countries all over the world, including our sworn enemies. They are providing “security” for bush administration personell, other “important” people in Iraq, and now other foriegn governments while running training facilities for military, police, and other gun related businesses across the US. They are a multi-billion dollar government contractor at this point, and my question is, what are they going to be doing once bush and his cronies are out of office and the contracts stop coming in (many of their contracts have been no-bid government contracts tied into their connections to bush, cheney, and the companies they represent (halliburton, KBR, etc). These guys are right out of the extreme right wing of the republican party and I don’t think they are going to go away quietly. Most people know that they have murdered countless Iraqi civilians with no accountability whatsoever – and I guess it doesn’t matter because Iraqi civilians don’t seem to be that important to us. At the beginning of the Iraq occupancy Paul Bremer declared that Iraqi laws did not apply to Blackwater and the other “security” forces in Iraq, and it turns out that American law does not apply to them either. Talk about your rogue army! These people don’t think twice about lying about their actions and they thumb their noses at the American legal system like it doesn’t (and unfortunately they’re right) affect them. Iraq has tried to kick them out of their country, without success and they continue to operate pretty much as an entity unto themselves. The owner of Blackwater is part of a group that includes Dobson of Focus on the Family, Roberson, used to include Falwell before he died, and many other right wing Christians that I have to wonder where do they justify the war mongering from the Bible? The truth, at least in my eyes, is that all of these people are billionaires that are willing to do or say anything to keep their “things” going. They have crossed the line, as far as I’m concerned, trying to gain power through manipulation of their base and the political system. By siding with people like bush, cheney, and mccain they are saying that telling the truth is not important. Tonight, I saw an email from one of my friends who is a republican and is getting all the “stuff” about Obama that is being circulated amongst republicans – messages trying to scare people away from Obama along with hiding the fact that mccain can’t fight the campaign on issues – and unfortunately the propoganda is so overwhelming that I think people are buying it. And after listening to pundits criticizing Obama for being precise and thoughtful in giving answers to Pastor Warren as taking too much time to answer, I just have to shake my head, and CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THIS COUNTRY IN THE UPCOMING ELECTION. Not only were mccain’s answers on Saturday too spontaneous for me to believe him when he says he didn’t have the questions ahead of time, he obviously did, they were disengenuous and full of lies. If we are stupid enough to vote mccain into office there are only two things that I am sure about, contractors like Blackwater can heave a sigh of relief at the thought of four more years of pilfering the American taxpayer and we can expect four years of MORE LIES!!!!!!

I can’t help thinking (often as of late) when will we as Americans learn? I was sitting in a restaurant tonight, it’s really hot where I live and enough others were looking for a way out of the heat and into an air conditioned restaurant that there was a fairly significant wait to get a table, and I couldn’t help but listen to a couple converstations going on around me about “talk shows.” The sad (to me) reality in America is that the so-called right wing has managed to (even though I despise what they’re doing I have to give them credit for a very calculated success at controlling the radio air waves) high jack a large portion of the political dialogue in this country by controlling, according to reports I’ve heard, about 90% of the so-called talk radio. I believe they figured out in the 80’s, when reagan was on the scene, this was an important part of their imagined perpetual republican majority in our nation’s government. This was when rush limbaugh came on the scene and many others have followed, spewing the republican talking points, in an effort to control the “message” in what has become a nation manipulated by sound bites. Make no mistake that I see the “progressive” blowback, like Air American as an attempt to counter the constant blast of “information” being thrown out for a relatively uninformed public as biased, but at least it doesn’t seem to be calculated to brain wash people in concert with the democratic party, even though they are obviously supporters of that political persuasion. The conversations I was listening to were a bit scary because I know there are a lot of people who believe rush is actually telling the truth – that find it hard to believe that in the US the public is, and has been, basically being brainwashed by a small group of people who are bent on, it seems, controlling the world. I’m saying all this in preface to my thoughts about the situation in the Republic of Georgia, the comments of our “leaders,” and the significance of what this means to the future of this country going forward. It is my understanding, and I have to gain this from looking beyond what I read or hear from our “mainstream” media, because I have come to the realization that they are dominated by “reporters” who are motivated by something other than uncovering the truth about what they write rather than just getting something out there for people to read that won’t offend the people in “control.” (either that or maybe they are just lazy, I don’t know) However, I believe that the “crisis” in Georgia is the result of the Georgian’s intruding into South Ossetia (I know nothing about the geography of this region, including how to spell and pronounce the names of the places presently in the news) which is a territory that is dominated by Russians and which broke off from Georgia via a 70% vote at some point in time. I believe the Georgians invaded with the clear understanding that we would come to their aid, somehow thinking we would take on the Russians in their defense. Obviously Mikhail Shakasavilli (I can’t spell it, mccain can’t pronounce it) wasn’t paying attention to the fact that our military is spread so thin in Iraq and Afganistan, that we probably coundn’t defend our own border if Mexico tried to reclaim Texas (just a metaphor, sorry to my friends from Texas, I’d be right there with you – it’s just that our military is presently tied up occupying Iraq so that eventually Iraq and Iran can become the “power” of the middle east) let alone take on the Soviets in Georgia. At this moment in time we are seeing the results of a government that is like a ship without someone at the wheel. bush and his cronies have proved over and over again that the only thing they are good at is lying and funneling huge amounts of money out of the hands of ordinary people in countries all over the world, especially our own, but they haven’t a clue as to how to govern. Of course their philosophy is that the best government is no government at all, I guess because bush’s family has been so heavily in the arms business for close to the last 100 years that they would feel safe in some kind of anarchist society, emboldened by their private armies led by blackwater. I believe they are behind the decisions that led to this conflict, and just like Iraq they haven’t a clue as to how to respond to a crisis other than the usual saber rattling. What is becoming apparent as I watch the leaders of Europe trying to negotiate some kind of reasonable cease fire that the rest of the world is getting impatient with our incompetence because it is having such a drastic effect on them. We ARE the leaders of the so-called free world, and these other countries are not stupid, despite what our media and the republican water carriers want us to think. (by the way, in my opinion, people like limbaugh, hannity, etc. will at some point be looked at almost as traitors when all the truth finally comes out about what the republicans have been doing for the last 35 years or so) And, as was clear when Obama made his tour of the Middle East and Europe, they are looking for a change in this country possibly more than many Americans. I say this because as I listened to the conversations at the restaurant tonight, I believe there is some possibility that mccain could win in November. Not because he is a great candidate, because he is the most incompetent presidential candidate I have witnessed in my lifetime (60 years) BY FAR!! But because of the stranglehold the right wing has on the airwaves and the willingness of so many people to believe what they hear from these people along with the unwillingness of the democrats in congess to hold bush and company accountable for their misdeeds – allowing for the continuation of the misdeeds. Getting back to the conflict in Georgia and my point that this might be “the year,” mccain has said and done things since this conflict flared up that, to me, should cause him to be disqualified to be president right there – of course I know this won’t happen – and I believe the right wing media will actually take these ridiculous comments that mccain has made and try to twist them into something that will actually work in his favor. Should they succeed, I believe we will be on our way to becoming an irrelevent nation in the view of the rest of the world and the consequences will be devastating for the next maybe 20 or more years. Let me elaborate – mccain, who is being “advised” on foriegn policy by a man who has collected almost one million dollars from Georgia to lobby congress on their behalf – for predominantly military aid I presume – has been almost leading the “saber rattling” presumptuously as if he was already the president of the US. And when he said, “We are all Georgians” in a speech, I guess he was talking about me, because he seemed to be inferring that all Americans were on the side of Georgia in the dispute, and he seemed to be inferring that somehow we, America, would come kick out the Russians if they didn’t go home. I realize that bush is an incompetent president, but isn’t it his job just the same to do the saber rattling if it is to be done, especially with the implications of using American force? Tonight, I saw – rather unbelievably – that mccain is sending “advisors” to Georgia (lieberman was one and I believe the other was ridge) presumably to negotiate or something of the sort. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???!!! Can you imagine the uproar if Obama sent “advisors” to Georgia to negotiate?? How ridiculous does this baffoon have to get before people in this country come to their senses? Even if you’re a republican, aren’t you embarrassed and angered by this prepostorous behavior. I mean mccain couldn’t even pronounce Shaskavilli’s name correctly as he tried to imply that they were long lost friends at the beginning of this conflict – and curiously he’s making this incompetent and presumptuous response in an attempt to prove to the American public that he would be a competent “commander in chief.” It has now evolved that he is apparently going to solve the problem while he pretends that he is already the president. I have to say that I have never seen anything so presumptuous in my lifetime, yet I believe that it will go almost completely unchallenged because the water carriers would accept this moron as opposed to a black man as president. And if you think that limbaugh, bush, and the rest of them aren’t racist, you are kidding yourself. My whole point here is that this is a real crisis that points to the actual incompetence of the right wing machine (which actually created it – again apparently to prove their competence???) that has been sucking the life out of this country and others around the globe since they adopted the friedman privatization theories during the nixon years. We are desperate for a leader who has the ability to be a statesman, who will be willing to pull our forces out of Iraq ASAP, who understands that the US can’t just do whatever it wants to do while the rest of the world quakes in their boots and who has the ability to talk to them and work reasonably with them without the underlying objective of stealing their resources or whatever else of value they have, and who can return credibility to this country before it’s too late. Eight years of bush has been too much for them as well as us, and it has allowed them to see that the US has been “robber barrens” for at least 35 years – since the nixonites and reaganites began the pillage of countries in South America along with other so-called third world countries around the world who happen to have resources that benefit our economy. How can bush/mccain stand in front of a camera and claim that “In the 21st century civilized countries don’t intrude on the sovereignty of other countries” with a straight face (I heard them both do this – evidently implying that Iraq wasn’t soveriegn when we invaded it) When I say that this might be “the year” I truly mean it from the standpoint of either outcome of the election. If Obama wins in November I believe there will be an excitement that will allow for a change of direction that could be historical – of course Obama will have to actually be the statesman that he potentially seems to be – if mccain wins in November, I believe we will call this the year that the US gave up it’s role as the leader of the free world. The rest of the world will be shaking their collective heads more than they did when bush won his second term – wondering what has happened to the American people? Either way, this might be “the year.”

Tonight I watched gw bush give a short speech while at the Olympics while the Russians are invading The Republic of Georgia who had invaded a “disputed” territory that I can’t pronounce or spell the name.  While watching Countdown with Keith Olberman, I saw mccain’s speech (which like all of his speeches tries to suggest that he’s some kind of great foriegn policy expert) where he couldn’t even pronounce the name correctly of the leader of Georgia that he is such a good friend of.  The early reports that I have seen and heard mention that the dead bodies lying in the wake of the Russian advance include several that appear to be from the US.  It is clear, also from the early reporting, that Georgia was empowered by massive infusions of weapons from both the US and Israel.  There have also been reports that there are at least 1000 American “advisors” in Georgia and at least 2500 “mercenaries” (what did you think blackwater was going to do as Iraq winds down – they have to go somewhere) and I don’t even want to guess how much money we, the American taxpayers, are spending in this armament.  Of course, both bush and mccain continue what has become the standard American saber rattling, that threatens the Russians and empoldens the Georgians (who I don’t dispute that we should be standing with – if only because we encouraged them, I’m sure, to start this encounter).  What I find really interesting is that, in my opinion, the rest of the world fully understands that the main “success” of the bush foriegn policy is to render our military virtually helpless in the  face of any situation outside of Iraq and Afganistan – even if our own people don’t understand this.  We have been programmed to think that the great US can solve any problem in the world militarily.  And of course, on many occasions, bush has equated diplomacy with appeasement – so what are the chances he’ll return from the Olympics and try to stop the killing that is happening as I write this in Georgia (and for anyone who doesn’t know, I’m not talking about the state in the southern part of the US – but the breakaway republic that “left” the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s) through diplomacy.  What do you think the main reason we would be allied with the Republic of Georgia?  In my opinion it is the same reason we invaded Iraq, OIL!!!  Does it surprise anyone that our present government would be closely allied with a major oil producer which, if I understand it correctly, has a major oil pipeline running through its country? The area of dispute that the Georgians invaded is, according to what I’ve read, about 80% Russian.  It will be interesting when (and if) all the details come out, who and what was behind this invasion.  The part that really struck me, and I hope strikes many other Americans, is that we are in a pitiful state as the “world’s leader” due to the bush administration’s incredibly boneheaded foriegn policy.  I could go on and on about the failures, both of judgement and strategy, since gw took office, but it is more than pathetic, it is a reflection on every US citizen, and the people of the world (remember we’re now in a world economy whether we like it or not) are holding their breath – as many US citizens, including myself – until this bumbling criminal is out of office (I don’t think they care as much as I do that bush and his cronies are held legally liable for their lawbreaking, they just want this period of US history to be over).  What is scary to me is that there is some remote possibility that mccain could get elected which would be even worse.  Of course he will have the same invisible thugs writing his speeches (it has become apparent to me lately that this process has already begun) and the same criminals in the background directing policy for this country and their corporate cronies who are presently running it.  And don’t kid yourselves, there are many corporate cronies, people who think of nothing but the bottom line, who have a vested interest in keeping bush in power through mccain.  When I read today a report by the Government Accounting Office that fully two thirds of the corporations in this country paid – ZERO – taxes from 1998 through 2005 – I about gagged.  These companies have something like 2.5 trillion dollars (combined) in sales each year and pay nothing in taxes, through generous loopholes provided by our leaders (this has to lean toward republicans, but the reality is they couldn’t do this without democrats as well).  The way I figure it, just a 10% rate would cut the deficit in this country in half – which, of course, is a subject (the deficit) for another day.  I’m trying not to stray here, my point is that there are a lot of people in this country that don’t care about anything more than their bottom line, and they know that if Obama is elected president the free ride will possibly come to an end.  The fact that our foreign policy is such a mess, and mccain will be more of the same, doesn’t matter to them at all.  It seems to me they can’t get enough money – the more they get, the more they want.  Again, my point is that I hope and pray that the American public sees past this deceit.  We can’t afford more of this warmongering by our president, who will portray this as Russian agression, but when the truth comes out, I’m betting that bush and his cronies were right in the thick of encouraging Georgia to invade it’s neighbor that would predictably bring a response from the Russians.  This seems like a stupid miscalculation (does that surprise anyone) by the bush white house, but it also feels like “here we go again!”

Last evening I witnessed something that felt very embarrassing to me and upon reflection my embarrassment changed to alarm.  I saw mccain standing in front of a bunch of bikers giving what I first thought was an off the cuff rant about gas prices and energy policy and when I saw him checking his notes on a music stand that was set up on the podium I became even more concerned because I felt that the remarks were planned.  You would have to hear this in person to fully understand what a baffoon this guy is (you could probably see it by checking Keith Olberman’s website if you missed it) but I thought about his remarks and came to the conclusion the republicans are using mccain to help salvage bush’s image.  mccain makes bush seem like an intellectual.  I was sitting there thinking how, in a country as supposedly advanced as the US, could such a bumbler make it to the “presumptive republican candidate.”  I still feel that a few more exhibitions like the “biker rap” where mccain essentially threw his wife under the bus, nominating her for “Miss Buffalo Chip,”  will get any sane thinking republican to re-think their vote at the convention.  This guy is as close to an idiot as I’ve seen in politics, and I feel I’ve seen quite a few of them over my 45 years of following these things.  I keep trying to figure out why the republicans have him as their torch bearer.  Here are a few of my thoughts:  (1) The economy and foriegn policy is so messed up from 8 yeaers of bush, they want a democrat to blame for the impending disasters so that at some point in time they can get another bush in the White House.  (2) Getting a democrat in the White House along with a democraticly controlled legislature will allow the middle class to be rejuvenated, common people will have money, the republicanse can create another contract for America in 8 years, and there will be more money to fleece from the unsuspecting public in the guise of less taxes and balanced budgets. (3) This one should maybe number one;  Karl Rove and his cronies picked the most ridiculous candidate they could find just to prove that they are the ones who win the elections and it doesn’t matter who the candidate is.  They will “hammer” Obama enough to keep it close and with the help of the voting machine manufacturers they will prove that they are “geniuses.”  This all is honestly hard for me to believe.  After going through Viet Nam, I thought the people would not be stupid enough to fall for another disastrous occupation of choice (I forgot how much money the war mongers make on these things).  After 5+ years of a bigger disaster than Viet Nam, I thought there would be no way that people would fall for someone who thought Iraq was a good idea, especially a man who (and as hard as it may be to believe, I’m quoting here) says, “we’re going to win the war in Iraq, by winning!!!!! (I’m not kidding, mccain actually said that in front of 50,000 bikers – and sadly, many of them started cheering and waving tiny US flags).  It is still hard for me to believe that there could be very many people in this country who could be for a man who admits that he knows nothing about economics at a time when his predecessor has but us in the most severe economic bind since the great depression (and some people think this one will out-do that one!).  Of course, as a school teacher, I know there are many out there who don’t know that Chechoslovakia was broken up over 15 years ago, that there is no Iraq/Pakistan border, that there is no way Iran would train the Sunnis of Al Qaeda, but for someone who portrays himself as the most qualified to lead this nation’s foriegn policy, I would expect him to have a clue about this stuff and I hope the voters pick up on this before the election.  I’ll never forget listening to Jay Leno before the 2000 election using the metaphor of the wizard of oz to explain, about what at the time was the “bush ticket” for president, that cheney needed a heart and bush needed a brain.  That proved to be the most accurate assessment of what we were about to get for the next 8 years.  At this point in time it’s still up in the air as to who mccain will pick as his VP choice, but to say that he (mccain) needs a brain, in my opinion is an understatement.  He even looks like a puppet when he is on the stage trying to be flamboyant – and he clearly, at least to me, has become a puppet of the Rove criminals who will go to any length to win an election.  I really hope people get past all the BS, because even if guess number one above is the republican’s reason for nominating this moron (I hate using words like that to describe anyone – the one rule in my classroom is no putdowns – but this election is important and I’m just stumbling for understanding how they could choose someone that I would feel confident debating as their nominee – there has to be something to this that I’m not seeing) because they have a better view of the impending disaster we all face in this country, at least I feel that we have a chance if Obama is elected – especially if the dems can gain a stronger grip on Congress (like making joe lieberman irrelevant – that’s a topic for another day, but watching him follow mccain around like a puppy dog and listening to his turn-coat take on things makes me sick – because the deomocrats are basically forced to put up with him – and leaves me wondering what’s going on in Connecticuit?).  The bottom line is that at this moment in time the “invisible” republicans, the ones who are laughing all the way to the bank, are raking in as much as they can in case they no longer have a sugar daddy in the White House come 2009, and I’m trying to portray mccain in a way that anyone who might read this would realize that he is another puppet for the corporatocritists (is that a word?) and him getting elected would not be funny, it would not be a joke!!!!!!