There is so much I would like to write about, but the Bush administration and the republican party just won’t quit their thievery, so I have to write about them. They’re going to stay in the limelight right up to the last day, and they are perfectly willing to take the rest of us down with them. Remember, these guys HAVE ALL THE MONEY!!! A depression probably looks to them like an innocent mouse looks to the cat while the mouse is trying to steal some of the cat food. These guys are licking their chops at all the things they will be able to buy once they have totally destroyed our economy as it exists today. And I’m not talking about buying a cheap computer like maybe I would be thinking. They’re planning to buy up all the businesses that can’t withstand the economic calamity these republicans have created and are STILL WORKING ON!

At first, I honestly couldn’t understand their reluctance to “bailout” GM and the American auto industry. This is the industry that these republicans encouraged to build gas hog over-priced vehicles since the heyday of the Reaganomic era. Remember, Jimmy Carter had initiated fuel consumption standards that, had Reagan not rebuked them, would have virtually eliminated the present crisis. The average fuel economy coming out of Detroit, had Carter’s standards been left in place, would be something in the neighborhood of 35 MPG today. That’s the average. GM wouldn’t have scrapped their electric car technology. Hummers would have never been the “in” SUV for the elite “yuppie” crowd. Detroit would have been forced to compete with Toyota, Honda, etc. Now the republicans want to allow these American stalwarts to go into bankruptcy – according to Bush and others – because they have created their own problem and it is the result of poor management. This is kind of like when Reagan made promises to the Air Traffic Controllers and then broke those promises and did the opposite of what he promised as he destroyed their union on national television in an incredible demonstration to American business of how to bust unions. I have not doubt that is what they’re trying to accomplish in the last days of republican “rule.”

Clearly the people have spoken and rejected this mean-spirited greedy approach to government. WE’VE HAD ENOUGH! The probem as I see it, is the the democratic party constantly gets outwitted by these republicans. They’re (the republicans) like the 6th grade students in my class who believe there is never going to be a consequence (negative to them) for their actions. And the democrats keep letting them get away with it. The democrats latest folly is the 700 Billion dollar “bailout” of Wall Street – the funds that have gone to Henry Paulsen’s favorite banks – including the one in which he has over a half a Billion dollars in stock – these funds going with an incredible lack of oversight capability from Congress (do you remember the angst when Paulsen proposed a bailout with no strings attached, the democrats said “No way!” and then passed a bill with virtually no strings attached – this is par for the democratic course). From the republican perspective it is OK to bail out their financial buddies on Wall Street (the media continues to ignore the conflict of interest every one of the proponents of this bailout has for the nations banks to stay “above water”) – but if they bail out “large American corporations like GM” where will the bailouts stop. Evidently, AIG is not a large corporation. Neither, evidently, is Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, etc. Now the democrats have no leverage to help save GM because the republicans are going to continue their obstructionist tactics.

Many people are saying that waiting for Obama to take office is going to be too long for GM. The more they say that, the more likely it is true. Because GM, like the banks, relies on the confidence of consumers to a large extent to sell their products. So people in the market for cars are probably going to look elsewhere if they think there is the slightest chance that GM will be going down in the next couple of months. Obviously, Bush has little concern for his legacy, as stated in my last post to this site. I’ve spent a bit of time thinking about this and I keep coming up with only one logical answer. THE REPUBLICANS HATE UNIONS! They have managed to destroy most of the unions in this country in the last 30 years, but the American auto industry has managed to avoid the onslaught. Well, their final “goodbye,” I guess, will be an attempt to take down the biggest union of them all. I’m not sure if they fully realize the impact of GM going into bankruptcy, because they were clueless about Iraq, they have initiated one folly after another, but I tend to think they do understand and they are doing this is on purpose.

What if they are trying to destroy this government ON PURPOSE? Did you or anyone ever think about that? – I know I didn’t until recently. There is ample evidence that 9/11 could and should have been averted. Was Iraq just a way to pilfer the economy by a bunch of war profiteers, leading our nation into bankruptcy? (remember, GW Bush’s grandfather was a war profiteer in WW II – selling materials necessary for the buildup of the war “machine” of Adolph Hitler – it’s been a family trait for generations, including George HW Bush) These people can’t get enough money, and I’m just not sure what the ultimate motivation is. I know as a teacher that they have been trying to destroy the public schools since I’ve been teaching which is approaching 20 years. I’m convinced the reason why is that teachers in public schools are unionized. Again, REPUBLICANS HATE THIS! So, now that the average working class person in this country has been feeling a downward push on their real wages for 30 years, it appears that it is time for the ultimate collapse – and I believe that if GM goes down, that is what will happen. The economy simply can’t absorb the shock that would create.

For the republicans, it creates opportunity. I say it again, THEY HAVE ALL THE MONEY! What is ironic, we the taxpayers – including the millions of taxpayers who will lose their jobs if GM goes down – just gave these thugs 700 BILLION MORE DOLLARS! This makes me even more adamant. There must be a consequence for their behavior, or this will happen again, whether in 4 years, 8 years, or 50 years. Bush, Cheney, Rove, Addington, Gonzales, probably Paulsen, and more – they all need to be prosecuted. They are destroying the very fabric of our nation – and once they’re out of office if we don’t fight back, the fleecing will just get worse. My biggest frustration is that any working class person could even think of supporting these thugs. This will be the topic of another day, but I am predicting that the republicans inciting their “base” with racist rhetoric during the recent election is how they are going to “trick” working class people to fall for their garbage again. I’m sure they are already figuring out how to “blame” Obama for the economic demise. These guys are unbelievable thieves and liars. I say it again, the only fair way for Bush and company to leave office is in a paddy wagon!

One thing you can give the Bush administration credit for is stubbornness. It appears to me they are going to go down, spewing their misguided policies right to the last day. They’ll probably be executive ordering things that will make our heads spin as President Elect Obama is being sworn in. I found the pundit’s perspectives today of Obama’s reported discussions with President Bush as he “toured” the White House quite interesting. It was reported that Obama made a plea with Bush to use some of the “Bailout” money to prop up the US auto industry. Supposedly, Bush agreed to do this provided Obama drop his opposition to the Columbia Free Trade fiasco. This is beyond the pale to me! Is Bush really amenable to having the collapse of General Motors and maybe Ford Motor Company as the next part of his legacy. Let’s do a little inspecting as to what that would look like.

First, there’s the slight legal problem that Bush is potentially looking at. I think his “negotiating” would be more in his interest, both short term and long term, to try to convince Obama that all of the laws he broke were broken in a patriotic spirit. Not that Obama necessarily has the last say. Take for example if Obama was smart enough to nominate Patrick Fitzgerald to be attorney general. This is the guy who prosecuted “Scooter” Libby and appeared to be close to going after Cheney and Rove in the CIA leak scandal. I have a feeling that someone like Fitzgerald has enough respect for the “rule of law” that many of the Bush cronies would be walking on egg-shells while awaiting his decisions on who to prosecute for what crimes. And then there’s the congress with a solid majority – hopefully willing to enforce the supeonas that have been refused during the last two years of Bush’s administration. This could be a real problem for W, Cheney, Gonzales, Rove, Rumsfeld, and others. I personally have written to Obama pleading with him to restore the credibility to our legal system by investigating the Bush administration and letting the evidence determine the outcome of the investigations.

This does not even bring into account the possibility of foreign governments demanding accountability for the known torturing of “enemy combatants” by this seemingly unconscientable group of politicians. There is undeniable evidence that the order for torturing, clearly violating the Geneva conventions – set up by us, came directly from Bush’s White House. OK, so you have the legal problems that are likely to stain the legacy. Then there is the war in Iraq. I suppose you could lump this problem in with the legal problems, based on all the lies, forged documents, and incompetent decisions, but I believe ultimately it will go down as the biggest blunder of any president in US history – virually bankrupting our military and our economy in one felled swoop. For a group of greedy oil executives who never faced the reality of war first hand – Bush and Cheney and the others tried to act so tough on this one. How they sleep at night is beyond me – but Bush’s legacy takes a big hit here that nothing he could say to Obama would fix. The irony of it all is that before Bush leaves office the Iraqi government appears to be on the verge of forcing Bush to accept the same timeline Obama has been proposing for at least two years “regardless of conditions on the ground.” Another irony is that the oil profits will likely fall into the hands of the very countries Bush/Cheney were trying to prevent from getting them.

Then there is our economy. A quick look back on history brings up so many parallels to 1929 that it is a bit scary even for those of us who have been predicting the demise of “trickle down” economics for many years. I thought the Clinton plan of paying as you go, along with the prosperity that went with it, had put a fork into this failed philosophy. But unfortunately Clinton’s inability to control his personal behavior gave the republicans just the opening they needed (along with some devious practices at the polls – and a strategically placed brother to their candidate in Florida). I couldn’t believe it when Bush wiped out the 250 billion surplus with a stroke of a pen in his first few months at the helm. Then he prosecuted a war with 100% borrowed money while telling us (US citizens) that the way we could sacrifice was to “keep shopping.” I could never understand why there wasn’t more outrage to that statement, but I’ve come to understand that the consolidation of the media has led to strict control of the so-called liberal media by about five conservative republican controlled corporations. As far as I’m concerned, journalistic reporting is a thing of the past. Our airwaves are controlled by people looking for ratings – on “both sides of the isle.”

The reality for Bush, however, is a place in history (infamy) right along side Herbert Hoover. He gave his Vice President control of the economy and Dick Cheney was quoted as saying “Reagan proved that deficits don’t matter.” He said this while adding insult to injury as the Bush administration compounded their initial tax cuts with an assault on capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, and dividend income taxes. Of course, for most of us, none of those taxes makes a hill of beans of a difference – but they managed to pull it off by getting millions of Americans to support their ideas through virtual brainwashing from media outlets such as Fox “news” and right wing talk radio. On top of the huge debt incurred during Bush’s “watch” his economic advisors virtually eliminated any oversight on the financial sectors of the economy and their greed is taking us all into the “toilet” so to speak. For example, my voice and people’s voices like me have been essentially meaningless except for the few people who listened to us and refused to take out sub-prime loans and got their own finances in order before the collapse of the economy started to destroy one family’s after another’s financial situation. But we will all suffer for the millions of people who had no one to advise them to avoid these sup-prime loans like the plague – people who listened to the Bush predators who were laughing all the way to what was then “the bank.”.

The final straw for Bush has been the mismanagement of the crisis once it became obvious to everyone that the economy was crumbling (I guess that shouldn’t surprise anyone due to the fact everything else they have done has been mismanaged). Bush’s theory (which he got from Reagan) that the government is the “enemy” has come back to bite him where “the hair is short.” Lack of regulation not only exaserbated the incompetence it has led to an inability to manage the crisis. The decision to let Lehman Brothers go into bankruptcy while bailing out Bear Stearns was a bit puzzling – and the consequence was certainly misjudged completely by Henry Paulsen and Ben Bernanke (it’s interesting to me that Goldman Sachs was “next” along with Morgan Stanley when Paulsen decided the government had to step in – Paulsen of course was Goldman’s CEO prior to becoming Treasury Secretay). This led to the wild bailout where $700 Billion was allocated for who knows what – with the result of that being higher executive compensation among other things – and, of course, it has done nothing to stop the hemoraging of housing prices which is the catalyst for the collapse in the first place.

Even when these guys resort to the largest dose of “socialism” this country has ever seen (The Fed had pumped in over a trillion dollars prior to the “bailout”) they keep giving the money to themselves probably believing their own lies that it will eventually “trickle down” to us everyday folks. I guess the fact that the congress went along with the bailout will give them someone to blame as they try to defend their legacy. But the truth is that Bush has messed up this country to the point that it will be difficult to restore our stature in the world, our economical place in the world, and our economy at home. So when Obama was suggesting Bush support spending some of the “bailout” money to rescue the auto industry – an industry that actually employs millions of hard working “blue collar” Americans he should jump at the chance to do something right for a change. If General Motors goes the way of Lehman Brothers the effects will be exponentially greater. And if the President elect feels that the crisis can’t wait until January 20th, then President Bush would be well advised to listen. It’s hard to imagine Bush’s legacy getting any worse, but the failure of General Motors will make Herbert Hoover look like an economic genius compared to Bush!

It’s been almost a week now since President elect Obama’s victory on November 4th and not much has surprised me since then. There are definitely some things of concern that need to be addressed. While I would really like to talk about Obama’s plan to be a uniter and how that won’t happen without putting his foot down, so to speak, on the misdeeds of the Bush administration in general, tonight I’m going to focus on Dick Cheney while the contents of the book “Angler,” by Barton Gellman, are still fresh in my mind. I could also talk about the continued vile rhetoric of the extreme republican right – the people like Limbaugh, Hannity, O’reilly, Palin, and others – people who are still making disgusting, dishonest, and divisive comments imbedded in their own racial prejudices as our next president tackles possibly the most extreme “mess” any president in history has inherited. However, I’ll save that one for another day, because I’m convinced that Obama must overturn the abuses perpetrated by Dick Cheney and his lawyer David Addington (well, that’s not to discredit “Scooter” Libby before he was convicted of 4 felonies) as one of the first things he does once he takes the reins of this great nation on January 29th.

Make no mistake, I believe with all my heart that Cheney and Addington belong in jail. They have operated as if they were mobsters in manipulating the policies of the Bush administration to the point where I believe they thought that our constitution was just an annoying impediment to what they thought was “right.” Bush is not innocent here, and he deserves to spend some “time” thinking about the inhumanity he has perpetrated, but, in my opinion, he’s no match for Cheney. From the beginning many people have surmised that this was really the Cheney/Bush administration – and in many ways that is exactly what it was. Bush allowed Cheney more latitude and power, by far, than any vice president in history. Cheney was not about to be stymied by the president, the constitution, or even the members of his own political party. Most of the “testimony” in Gellman’s book comes from former Bush administration surrogates who have finally decided to start speaking out on what actually was going on during the first 6 years of their tenure in the White House.

For starters, Cheney was Bush’s “vettor” of potential VP’s once he had garnered the Republican nomination back in 2000. Cheney collected extensive “dossiers” on many of the leading republicans, telling each he was on the short list of 3 – 5 candidates for the selection. They were to give every bit of information, even the stuff that might prove embarrassing, to prevent surprises should they be selected by President elect Bush. I believe he collected info on about 20 or so leading republicans which included Bill Frist, Lamar Alexander – two key senators – several governors and just a wide array of republican leaders. Then after Cheney selected himself – he leaked info that basically ruined the political career of the governor of Oklahoma, info that had been included in the info provided for the vetting process. That left a lasting impression on all the others about what information Cheney had and what he would do with it should they decide to disagree with any of the Bush policies. A heckuva way to create unity, wouldn’t you agree – you betcha!

When I read that I thought, even for republicans, that was sicko. However, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. This guy really is evil. I could talk about 9/11 and what that did to Cheney’s psychi, but his garbage started long before 9/11. The invasion of Iraq started, I’m sure, well before Bush became president – at least the plans for it – but Cheney’s so-called energy task force which was highly secret (and still is to this day) was mapping the Iraq oil fields well before the Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Also, the philosophy behind the warrantless wiretapping didn’t start on 9/11 either. Cheney had felt that FISA was a mistake since it was instituted in 1978. He was willing to initiate a program of illegal wiretapping without a second thought. He put lawyers in place who were willing to tell him that wiretapping, and just about anything else he wanted to do, was legal. To me, these lawyers were almost worse than Cheney because they were supposed to take an oath to support the constitution, not find ways to “get around it.” 9/11 just gave Cheney more of an excuse to attempt to expand the presidency to a role that approached what we traditionally would call a fascist dictator. In conjunction with large corporate interests the attempt was to gain complete unfettered control of our system of government.

Bush was complicit in all of this because he gave Cheney the power. In most cases I believe that Bush was aware of what Cheney was doing, but not in all cases. And Cheney was actually making some of the presidential decisions himself, even without the Bush “rubber stamp.” During the 9/11 Crisis Cheney actually ordered the Air Force to shoot down any more planes which might be potential “weapons” after he was scurried into the bomb shelter beneath the White House. Logs of phone converstations between him and the President prove undoubtedly that Cheney usurped the President’s authority – when constitutionally he’s not even in the chain of command. The Vice President’s job is to prepare to take over the Presidency should something untoward happen to the incumbent and to break ties in the Senate. That’s it! He is absolutely not to be in the chain of command regarding national policy – anything more than an advisory role. Now I don’t think this action would have been unforgiveable seeing as how Bush was in an elementary classroom and proved somewhat incapable of reacting as if he was the President while all this was going on, but both Bush and Cheney lied – outright – to the 9/11 commission about this, presumably to avoid the embarrassment that would go along with the action – probably more pointedly toward Bush’s lack of leadership in the time of crisis. Both Bush and Cheney refused to testify to the commission under oath – I guess because they knew they were going to lie (making it pre-meditated) – and they refused to testify without being there together. These people proved over the last 8 years that lying is just part of their persona’s, but it is incredible to me how little reaction this obvious, easily provable lie, about an attack on our nation received fromt the national press.

Bush allowed Cheney to fill all of the positions during the transition from the Clinton White House. This explains the hijacking of the justice department. Cheney put loyalists to him from his many years in Washington, and their aim from the beginning was to use the justice department to further their agenda, not giving a hoot about the damage done to the part of our government that needs to be non-partisan more than any other. I believe if we find the extent of what was done by the justice department – the truth – it will, or at least it should, rock this nation. In actuality there were some members of the department that couldn’t go along with the extremes set out by Cheney and Addington. Even attorney general John Ashcroft – no friend of the ACLU – couldn’t go along with the warrantless wiretapping. And Jim Comey appointed Patrick Fitzgerald as a special prosecutor in the CIA leak scandal, leading to Scooter Libby’s conviction as he took one for the “Gipper” (Cheney). Well, Cheney and Addington were not too happy with these (Comey, Fitzgerald, and Ashcroft) traitors to the cause. I’m sure in his mind it was kind of like what Nixon said back in the 70’s about the president, although this time it referred to the vice president – “If the Vice Presient does it, it must be legal!”

Cheney was directly behind the outing of Valerie Plame – Libby covered up for him – in fact, Cheney was the architect behind the policy that anyone who disagreed with the administration would be “slimed” and ruined. I’m convinced that even the democrats were fearful of his slime machine – probably still are. Cheney initiated the warrantless wiretapping program, he was behind the torturing of “enemy combatants” and the secret prisons all over the globe that have ruined the United States moral authority in the world (although this garbage has been going on since the 70’s – or maybe earlier – just not so outwardly sanctioned by the White House), he was the driving force behind the taxing policies that funneled billions to the rich and left this country in virtual bankruptcy as he leaves office, he led the lie machine that got us into Iraq (Dick Armey – the republican majority whip in the house at the time – claims Cheney lied to him, right to his face, in order to get Armey to support the invasion – which Armey now feels he could have stopped had he known the truth), and we would be in Iran right now if Cheney hadn’t worn out his welcome with Bush at about year 6 of his presidency. I believe it took Bush that long to realize how poorly served he had been under Cheney. I even think that when Bush reads this book, he’ll find out some more reasons to be disgusted with his Vice President.

There is much more. Cheney even went behind Bush’s back when Bush didn’t agree with him on legislation. Cheney would just go to his contacts in the house and get them to manipulate bills so that by the time they reached Bush’s desk the bills resembled what Cheney wanted and the president had no idea that Cheney had manipulated the system to go around him. Cheney has probably destroyed most of the records that will provide us with the truth about his goings on in the last 8 years. He has claimed incredible secrecy powers, he has been the driving force behind Bush appointees refusing supoenas in Congress and in an interview about a year ago, when a reporter pointed out how much the public disagreed with his positions, he was finally honest when he said, “So?” More than anyone I’ve seen in my lifetime, Dick Cheney believes he is above the law. This is why it is so important that he be answerable for ALL of his transgressions – along with Addington and Libby and the others who perpetrated this incredible abuse of power. This is no longer about him. This is about our nation and whether we truly are a nation of laws. I am writing to Obama to encourage him to empower his justice department to investigate EVERYTHING that was done in this White House, especially Dick Cheney. I really did gain a bit of compassion for President Bush after reading this book. While Bush went way over the line, his motivation was entirely different than Cheney’s. Cheney was operating as some kind of professional criminal – I’m sure there is going to be a movie about his Vice Presidency and it will be Godfather like. Those that think like him, I’m sure, believe that Obama is just a bump in the road, and it is imperative that President Obama eliminate any thoughts that a future administration might go there again. The way to prevent another Cheney, is to prosecute the one we’ve got!

Well, the tears of joy have been wiped away and I just have to write. As I was sitting on my couch watching as the results of the most significant election of my lifetime were coming in, I couldn’t help but think that I never thought I would live to see this day.  And then my good friend, Pastor Ronnie Hill, a true man of distinction who I had the pleasure to work with in the public school system for many years, a man of African decendency, an honored veteran of the American military, and a man who grew up in Ohio in an age when “no we couldn’t” ruled the day, called me as Barack Obama went over the threshold and became the president elect of this nation.  I asked him that question “Did you ever think you would live to see this day;” and the emotion in his voice as he told me that, no – he never thought a day like today would happen in his lifetime, made it clear I could not even imagine what him and other people who have directly suffered the pain of discrimination were feeling tonight.

 As a former “sawmill worker” I always am embarrassed when I find tears in my eyes.  Usually, it happens at some movie with a happy ending.  Well, tonight as I lay on the couch the tears started to flow and I realized how much emotion I had invested in President elect Obama’s campaign – and then I watched the camera pan the crowd in Chicago where Obama was to give his acceptance speech.  There was Jessie Jackson – tears flowing down his face as he was just standing quietly in the crowd.  From person to person, there were the tears.  This is truly an historic night.  But as Obama said, this election did not bring about the change we who supported him so desire, it only brought about the opportunity for that change.  The battle has just begun.  And I don’t think a president could be facing any tougher challenges than the ones Obama will be tackling.  As he said, he is the president of the people who didn’t vote for him, the ones who disagree with him, and it will be up to all of us to bring about the change that will truly restore greatness to this nation.

John McCain gave a very gracious concession speach.  But make no mistake about it, the republicans fared about as well as they could have hoped in this election.  The senate will be nowhere near the 60 vote majority.  The republicans will be able to continue blocking progressive legislation unless “we the people” stand tall along side Obama in the four years to come.  Anybody who gets all caught up in the “fluff” of the moment is kidding him/her self.  The republican “attack machine” will be in full force before January 20th.  When McCain conceded to Obama many in the crowd booed – reminding me of the divisive campaign McCain/Palin waged – and McCain suggested just what I had written about in previous posts – that we can expect a full dose of Palin in the next four years.  She has become the darling of the republican party.  And she’s no more qualified now than she was a couple months ago, she’s still affiliated with a group with ties to the John Birch Society, and I expect her to continue to fling about ridiculous claims about Obama as we go through the next four years.

Also, the republicans will be planning their return to power, if not in four, then in eight years.  I personally am expecting another Bush – Jeb the former governor of Florida.  I totally feel he would have been the candidate this time if George hadn’t been such a disaster – even the republicans aren’t that stupid.  But, make no mistake about it, if Obama does not hold George Bush, Dick Chaney, Alberto Gonzales, et al accountable for their trampling of our rights and the rights of so-called “enemy combatants,” we will pay a price down the road.  While I agree that unification is important, it is not more important than justice.  It is not more important than the basic tenets of our constitution.  All the violations of our citizens rights, our adversaries rights, all the signing statements, all the executive orders that have trampled the environment at the bequest of big business, all the abuses of the power granted by our constitution to the executive branch, the politicization of the justice department, the demise of the CIA, the introduction of government sponsored militias, the idea that the vice president is part of the chain of command – we can not truly begin the healing process in this country until these wrongs have been “righted.”

If George Bush and Dick Cheney, along with others in their administration, end up in prison – so be it.  We have sent a message to the rest of the world that we are rejecting the past eight years of abuse to our system of government and to the accepted international norms that we helped to create after the last so-called war to end all wars, WW II.  Once the abuses of the Bush administration have been fully investigated and we know all that was done in our name, then the healing can truly begin.  If I could just spend five minutes talking to Senator Obama, I would encourage him not to stand in the way of this necessary justice as Clinton did with the first Bush administration after the abuses of Iran/Contra – like Carter did after the abuses of the Nixon administration.  The American people need to know, they deserve to know, everything that has been done in the last 8 years in almost total secrecy.  Future presidents need to understand that they will not refuse oversight investigations from congress, their aides will not refuse to answer supoenas to congress or anywhere else, that this is a nation of laws and not of men.  The future of our country is far more important than the future of George Bush, Dick Cheney and the others who perpetrated the fleecing of our nation.  If these men do not get the opportunity to defend their actions in a court of law, we have failed in this election.  If they are either held accountable for their actions or exonerated by a truly impartial jury of their peers, then all America – when referring to the future – can say, “Yes we can!”

There’s (still) so much to write about – two wars where people are dying but not at a rate sufficeint to gain the attention of the American public or the so-called “liberal media,” a crashing economy (get a load of Wall Street, advancing almost 1000 points on just horrible news – go figure), a government that is led by people who rightly should be in prison, and, along with many other topics, an historic election.  I wanted to write about the economy and my thoughts about the bailout going for things like executive compensation packages, dividends for common stock holders, or recipients buying the companies they are supposed to be helping – or I really am getting “pumped” to write about Dick Cheney – want to know why? Read “Angler” – it will totally blow your mind.  But after listening to a couple of my acquaintences spewing the garbage and hate that is the result of the republican “water carriers” at Fox “news” (not to mention Limbaugh and the others on right wing radio talk shows) I have to write about the election.

Today I have listened to two relatively intelligent friends of mine point out that Obama is a socialist, communist, or whatever the latest sleaze coming from the republican “attack machine.”  I have gotten to the point where I realize it’s not even worth responding.  However, I see a big problem on the horizan.  Actually, several problems, but I’ll start with the one that is the most alarming.  These republicans have the wagons circled, and they are already setting up for the “battle” of the next 8 years (I’m sure they are looking at it as the next 4 years).  They are spreading such unbelievable lies that in my heart I keep telling myself even the republican faithful won’t fall for this.  The problem is that they not only will, they are.  These people, and now I’m talking about the people behind the scenes who are the masters at brain washing, who have managed to get a bunch of working class Americans to consistently vote against their own self-interests by being incredibly good liars, are outdoing themselves which is incredible in its own right. 

 The people who are the victims are mostly the “religious right” as they are commonly referred to in the media – I call them the “religious wrong.”  I listened to someone tonight say something like “When Obama introduces socialism he better watch out.  He’s a Marxist.  He’s not going to live long.”  I couldn’t even respond.  This is the same person who, when I showed him evidence that John McCain’s campaign manager had collected over $2 million from Freddie Mac in lobbying payments “for a direct connection to McCain” – irrefutable evidence – but not what he’s hearing from O’reilly and Hannity and Limbaugh et al – he threw the papers on the ground and said “This is the NY Times, it’s liberal B32 Sh@*!”  All I can do is pray for him and people who think like this – and then brace myself for the slime they are going to throw at Obama because they follow these lying pundits as if they were sheep.

John Dean’s Conservatives without Conscience should be required reading in this country – especially after withstanding an administration that has pushed our democracy dangerously in the direction of facism.  This group of “Christians” are willing to believe anything they hear from the pundits that are simply repeating the republican “talking points.”  I suppose they think the democrats are incompetent or they lack unity because they don’t have a comparable strategy of people going from one talk show to another saying the exact same lie over and over until people actually believe it and think it’s true.  Now, I’m not denying that the democrats have, out of necessity, dumbed down their conversation because of the effects of the “liberal” media’s focus on “sound bites.”  I do blame the consolidation of the media for the reality that politicians of every “brand” have to be careful what they say and you end up hearing cliche’ after cliche’ while they are campaigning.  It probably is true that they are campaigning to a “low information” electorate, by and large.  But the lying and the type of lies the republicans – the pundits, the supporters – Guliani, Romney, etc., McCain himself, and more directly Sarah Palin is beyond deplorable.

One after another of their lies gets debunked, yet they keep saying them to the “base.”  The only explanation for this is the strategy has worked in the past and if it doesn’t work they are still preparing for “post election.”  It’s not hard to remember how toxic the environment was when Clinton was president.  Now, I did not appreciate, approve, condone, or anything else Clinton’s behavior with Monica Lewinsky.  But eight years of one accusation after another, one exorbitant claim after another, the destruction of people in the Clinton “circle” being considered OK – it was sickening.  And I’m certain the republicans are planning their strategy already to be on the 100% attack mode with Obama right from the start.  I expect it to start before January 20th.  Palin is riling up people to the point that if someone attempts to assasinate Obama, as far as I’m concerned it will be on her and McCain.  Besides being unqualified to be commander in chief, besides being ignorant as to how the government actually works, besides being unethical in her own job in Alaska, besides being affiliated with a successionist group in Alaska connected to the John Birch society – each one, in its own right, disqualifying her from the office McCain and the republicans nominated her to – Sarah Palin is an extraordinary liar who is whipping up anti-Obama fervor by calling him things like “un-American,” “terrorist,” “socialist,” and even “communist.”

Forgive my “french” but I have no idea how in the hell Tom Delay (another “toxin” expert)  could even be considered an “expert” by any TV station, yet I heard him in an interview with Chris Matthews on MSNBC say Obama was a Marxist at one point and a communist at another point.  With the absurdity of the statements aside, what does that tell us about the state of the media in our nation.  Delay was implying the same old crap about Obama’s association on an education board with Bill Ayers (a board on which they were both chosen by the staunchly republican Annenberg foundation) some 20+ years ago as making Obama a terrorist, a marxist, and a communist.  This is coming from a man who left congress in disgrace, who is waiting trial on money laundering charges in Texas, who was the closest associate of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff – Delay’s chief of staff is in prison for his dealings with Abramoff, along with other close associates.  How does a man like this even rate a spot on TV – any TV including Fox.  Does no one there have any principle at all?  And for Matthews to allow this thug to sit on national TV and recklessly accuse Obama of being a communist or marxist – do they think no one is watching?  It only takes one whacko – well one more than Delay – to turn his “spot” on TV into a tragedy.

I really hope this isn’t the kind of crap we are going to have to listen to for the next 8 years – I really do!  This is why it is paramount for all Obama supporters to demand accountability for Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Gonzales/Feith/Addington/and all of the rest of the people who advocated things like torture, wiretapping w/o a warrant, outing a CIA agent, and illegally invading Iraq based on lies – purposeful lies that they knew full well were lies.   As I’ve said on earlier posts, these republicans need to be a thing of the past.  I understand Obama’s desire to “unite” this country, but this “base” doesn’t want to be united.  I’m guessing about half of them hate the idea of an African American as president.  And the other half will continue to listen to these hate mongers like Hannity, O’reilly, Limbaugh, and the others – I don’t know who the others are because I long ago got in the habit of refusing to allow their garbage into my head, so I don’t listen to it.  I think another of the names is Savage – but I haven’t heard that one personally, I’ve just heard about him.  And there are some women on the air also – I suppose they are well-paid for spewing the talking points – but to me they are traitors to our system.  Disagreement is one thing, but purposely spreading lies because you know there is a group of people who will believe anything you say is just WRONG!!!! Worse than that is portraying yourself as “news” while having a direct connection to a political party.  I listen to Air America – and it is unquestionably biased – but it’s also independent, it’s just liberal.  And while Keith Olberman is clearly (and sometimes even too much for me) biased – at least it’s his words and not the words of the democratic party, even though he is clearly supporting Obama for president.

So in my mind the solution is to “bury” the republicans at the polls this next Tuesday, and then don’t let them back up.  And for the ones who choose to perpetrate violence – there have already been two foiled assassination conspiracies against Obama – we need to follow the republican playbook and prosecute those people to the full extent of the law.  Also, the people who stir up the “crazies” need to be prosecuted as well.  I really don’t understand how someone like Delay can call Obama a Marxist on national TV and get away with it.  Did the supreme court overturn the libel laws if its about a democrat?  And for Palin to stand in front of crowd after crowd and call Obama a terrorist and a communist – that’s beyond the pale.  I’m not kidding – at first I kind of felt sorry for the woman thinking that the McCain campaign put her in a spot she wasn’t ready for – but this woman is as overly ambitious as any politician I’ve seen in my lifetime.  But her rhetoric is unacceptable.  It should be unacceptable to any reasonable republican.  However, the fact she keeps doing it day after day says a lot about McCain and a lot about what’s left of the republican party.  This woman is not a “barracuda” she’s a “Pirhana!”

Well, one week from tonight the waiting will be over.  We’ll know a lot of things.  Did Obama succeed?  Did McCain and the republicans figure out how to steal another election?  Is there going to be a ground swell of excitement in this country, or the dread of another 4 years of “rule” by the party that came so close to gaining a total “grip” on the system.  And, to me, probably the biggest question will be if the democratic party will start acting with courage and quit worrying what these “toxic” republican pundits are saying about them.  I heard an add on the radio today from Ralph Nader, and the thought that crossed my mind was that it is probably time for a “third” party to enter the scene.

 Absent a huge purge of voters by the republicans I really don’t see any way to stop a democratic landslide.  Then the question becomes can the republican party even recover from, not only these last 8 years, but from the last 30 years of constant pilfering of our economy and abusing the rights of people all over the world in the name of “freedom.”  I fully believe many of their misdeeds will become public knowledge and many people, including the honorable republicans, are going to be shocked.  As I stated in my last post, I’m in the middle of a book called “Angler” which is an expose’ on the Vice Presidency of Dick Cheney.  I’m telling you, this book is a real eye opener.  When the things this man has done becomes public knowledge, Dennis Kucinnich will be hailed as a national hero, and the democratic party will have a lot to answer for because “impeachment was off the table.”  It is clear to me that Dick Cheney RUINED GW Bush’s presidency.  I’m actually feeling kind of bad for Bush as I’m reading this book.  I think many of us considered him a “pawn” as president, but the degree of criminality and the purposefulness of it is extremely startling.  I for one, will abandon any support of the democratic party if they fail to hold this rogue and his legal advisor, David Addington, responsible for their treasonous actions.

Above and beyond this, there is the issue of Sarah Palin and what is to become of the republican party.  The thought of her in the White House in any capacity is a bit scary.  How could anyone with her lack of qualifications get to this position.  She blames the media for making a “big deal” out of the fact she got $150,000 worth of clothes in two weeks.  When I thought about it, that is just below the median house price in this country.  If she would somehow become Vice President, that would be a bit above the median house price.  And she talked as if she envisioned the Vice President in an expanded role from that of Cheney.  If you think that’s not scary then read “Angler.”  Along with the clothes, the highest paid staffer on McCain’s campaign team in the first two weeks of October was Palin’s makeup person.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? $22,800 in two weeks for makeup.  If that doesn’t tell you what her/his strategy is, I don’t know what would.  Aside from that, the stuff she says is beyond alarming.  I read the report of the “troopergate” investigation and it cleary said she violated Alaskan ethics laws in firing the guy in Alaska who wouldn’t fire her former brother in law.  She responded by saying that she was happy with the decision and that it showed that she had done nothing wrong and exonerated her from violating any laws!  Huh?????

She appears to me to be positioning herself for after the election.  Her plans are much bigger than being John McCain’s running mate.  That means we’re going to possibly be putting up with this self-labled “hockey-mom” for the next four years.  Personally, I’ve had enough.  My feeling is that if she’s not found guilty of an actual crime in the next phase of what she’s now calling “tasergate” I can’t imagine listening to more of her “you betcha’s” in the future.  I find her reference to the investigation as “tazergate” after saying that she fired the guy (I think his name is Montague or something like that – if I was a real blogger I’d look it up) for reasons other than his refusal to fire her former brother in law somewhat self-incriminating.  If she really fired him for a budget dispute, then the fact that her ex brother-in-law allegedly tazered her sister’s son wouldn’t be how she would refer to the investigation – or at least it seems that way to me.  Of course Palin has committed so many outright lies in her short national campaign experience (probably why the “base” is so excited about her – she’s really GOOD at lying) that one wouldn’t expect her to be forthright in any investigation of her “integrity.”

I’m clearly supporting Obama.  But let me remind anyone who might happen upon this site, Obama along with McCain, supported the 700 billion bailout of the – whatever Henry Paulson wants it to be for – or so it seems – Wall Street banks.  Obama also voted for the FISA bill that granted retroactive immunity to the telecoms and granted additional powers of “spying” on its own citizens to our government.  We have a lot of work to do, and we have to demand “progressive” action from Obama.  I am very concerned that in an attempt to “heal the wounds” of this nation he’s going to let the Bush administration off – not pursuing the prosecutions of these criminals that so many of us have been demanding for the last 4 or more years. 

Cheney has been beyond arrogant, and it is apparent that Bush has walked in lock-step with him on some issues that are significant to the future of our nation and significant to the rest of the world.  They are clearly war criminals for their condoning acts of torture that unquestionably violate the Geneva conventions and our own laws against cruel and abusive treatment.   I’m not kidding when I say that they drew the line with burying someone alive and then digging them up before they would have died.  Abu Ghraib was scripted right in the office of the vice president of the United States, it was approved by the president, and authorized through the office of the secretary of defense.  Bush, Cheney, Addington, Rumsfeld, these are the people who should be in prison, not the privates who were the ones caught in the pictures that shocked the world.  Additionally, it was Dick Cheney who orchestrated the spying on millions of American citizens in violation of our right to privacy by ordering “data mining” of phone calls and emails.  Obama has a responsibility to right these wrongs, and the only way to show the people around the world that we stand on our principles is to put our own leaders in jail for violating our laws and international laws.  That is how we can prove we are a “nation of laws and not men.” Then we can proceed to “unite” our nation in the huge effort to restore this economy, restore the fundamental principals of our nation which was built on the backs of the workers, and restore our military to one that will stand up for the cause of freedom but won’t be used for rogue intrusions into nations who have not attacked us or our allies.  And hopefully, the job of bringing Osama bin Laden to justice will be the result of all these changes.  Next Tuesday, that is the change I need!

There are so many things I would like to write about, it’s hard to pick a topic. But because the election is less than two weeks away, I think I’ll write about that. I want to start by saying that if Barack Obama does not pull off winning the white house, we will know that the republicans have mastered “fixing” the voting machines to a point there will probably be rebellion in this country. I’m convinced that the margin must be larger than reported, because I don’t think the pollsters understand how many young people are planning to vote, how many African Americans are planning to vote, and how many republicans are not planning to vote. We all know that George W. Bush is, and has been, an illegitimate president. Iraq, the destruction of our economy, the assault on our constitution, torture, the politicization of the justice department, the removal of environmental controls, and I could go on, all these things could have been avoided if the Supreme Court would have allowed Florida to actually count the votes in 2000. And the evidence that Ohio was fixed in 2004 is almost irrefutable. Of course, there are already many reports of voting machines being rigged in early voting, and in many places the lack of voting machines is creating unacceptable lines of 3 hours or more – this is in early voting.

I believe that Obama is confident that the ground swell of his unbelievable organizing to get out the vote will overwhelm the cheating that the republicans inevitably can be counted on to do. He may be right, but I hope that the democrats will not ignore the issue of election fraud once they are in power. And I hope the cheating doesn’t keep “down ballot” candidates from succeeding and wiping out the republicans ability to stop “progressive” legislation. One of my main hopes is that the democrats can tell Joe Lieberman exactly where to go – to the republican caucus where he belongs. I will be disappointed should they not do this no matter where the election ends up. One of my wishes is that Joe the traitor (I got the name from Joe the Plumber) be given the inconsequential position he deserves until the voters of Connecticuit get the chance to let him know what the REALLY think of him. I can’t imagine any candidate receiving as much support as Joe’s opponent the next time he runs – and I mean support by the thousands, maybe millions, of people who think like I do.

This all being said, the importance of electing democrats becomes more apparent every day. I’ve said this on previous posts, that I was dissappointed in Obama voting for the 700 billion dollar bailout – supposedly of Wall Street banks that were saddled by “toxic debt” which was preventing them from loaning money to the public. The first “stage” of this bailout got “channeled” by Henry Paulson into the 9 leading banks in the country – not surprisingly mostly Henry’s peers, including Goldman Sachs of which Henry was CEO prior to his stint as Treasury Secretary. And as the news of this “investment” (taxpayers are supposedly preferred stockholders in these companies) becomes clearer, this investment was made with “no strings attatched.” This was, based on information I’ve read, because they wouldn’t do it otherwise. I do remember that the nine CEO’s of these companies were given an offer that Paulson wouldn’t let them refuse. The result of this cash infusion was supposed to be that these nine banks would start loaning money to the cash starved banks holding the so-called “toxic debt” so that they could start loaning money again.

Well, based on what I’ve heard, so far the companies are using the money on expanded executive compensation, higher dividends to their common stockholders, and very possibly the purchase of some of the distressed banks they are supposed to help out. I can tell you none of this surprises me. Is it any wonder why the American people are so cynical? The Bush administration has made a mockery of the idea of transparency, the idea of integrity, the idea that they are serving you and me. They have scared the democrats into just about everything they wanted to do. For example, they scared democrats and republicans alike – with a few notable exceptions – into voting for the invasion of Iraq. They scared the congress into voting for the Patriot act, which essentially ripped off chunks of our constitution. And when they discovered that the Patriot act really didn’t give them the authority to violate the FISA law – which was passed after Watergate to prevent exactly the types of abuses the Bush administration considered business as usual – they scared congress into voting in a new FISA law, which actually retroactively granted immunity to the telecoms who were assisting the administration in their listening in on millions of phone converstations and intercepting millions of emails.

Congress was scared into repealing the right of Habeous Corpus – twice – and thankfully the Supreme Court was not willing to go along with this one. Hundreds of “enemy combatants” have been held, some most certainly killed, for years with no right to counsel – according to Bush/Cheney – and congress has done nothing more than whimper about this. Bush has been in office for almost 8 years and the democrats gained a majority in the congress in 2006 so, as far as I’m concerned, they are culpible. Last week as I was driving around listening to the radio (thank God for Air America!) I kept thinking of the saying; “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!” The democrats keep falling for this – I believe they are totally afraid of the republican stranglehold on the “liberal” media. Well, it’s time to start fighting these thugs. That is why this election is so important. Should Obama win, it is important for MILLIONS of Americans to DEMAND accountablity for everything that was done in the last eight years that was illegal.

In my mind the worst thing we could do is let the democrats think that now that they have control they can take advantage of all the abuses instituted by Bush. Obama MUST lead the way in RIGHTING all the wrongs of Bush/Cheney (and I’m convinced it’s mostly Cheney – I’m in the middle of a book called “Angler” which is a book about the Cheney Vice Presidency – I’ll have a lot more to say about that soon). I’m even challenging some of my republican friends with children who are intending to vote for McCain – to take a good hard look at what would result with a McCain presidency. I really don’t think most people have a clue about what these people have been doing, and more importantly how significantly the rest of the world views this election. An Obama landslide will send a message to the world that will go along way in restoring our moral standing internationally – a McCain upset would send the message to billions of people who are looking at America desparately for leadership at this critical stage in time that we are accepting this incompetence that has our economy and theirs virtually upside down. I’m convinced that if somehow McCain wins, we may never restore our standing in the world as the major “super power” and the “beacon” of freedom.

The polls are showing Obama with an almost insurmountable lead, people are flooding to the polls in states where there is early voting, and for many people like me who have been putting up with this disgusting “supply side” economic theory for 30 years there is finally hope. The challenge will be after the election if Obama wins. Remember, he is not the flaming liberal the republicans are portraying him as. He voted for the FISA bill and the Bush bailout, he has really moved to the “center” in this election. And I agree that he needs to try to govern “all” the people and he has to win before he can govern, but there are certain responsibilities that he needs to understand are “non-negotiable.” If he lets these republicans skate away free and clear from their abuses, I will demand my money back! And the millions of Americans who have stood behind him, need to continue to stand behind him and make sure that he understands that we will support some drastically changed policies. We also need to let him know that if he “caves” to the republican owned media – he will be a one term president. I expect him to be a leader, a statesman, and I expect him to have the courage to totally reject this policy of secrecy, of disrespect for the courts and the constitution and therefore the people, of engaging in war for profit, of fixing elections, and of a welfare state for the rich. Obama has the opportunity to totally change the direction of this nation back to one where the working class rules!

I’ve just finished reading “The War Within” by Bob Woodward and I need to comment while the thoughts are fresh in my mind. This book is a very interesting expose’ of the decision to “surge” the troops in Iraq in the face of a national election that repudiated the “Bush Doctrine” of wars of choice to further our “national interest.” I was one of many who were shocked that the new democratic congress, freshly installed by voters across the country, would allow this to happen. Bush’s actions didn’t surprise me as much as their inaction and lack of courage. I fully understand why they “caved;” they had their eye on the prize which was the 2008 election which will happen in two weeks (actually it’s happening all over the country as I write this post with early voting – a topic for another day). I, therefore, consider them at least partly culpible for the over 1000 troops who have died since the “surge” was announced. However, the process Bush went through to make this decision was very interesting, and I’m sure if Bush had it to do over again, he would have done things quite differently prior to the surge.

I need to start this by saying that I believe the motivation behind the decision was his legacy – although you’ll never hear that coming from his lips or anyone close to him. The reality is that he is willing to sacrifice as many people as it takes to achieve something called “victory.” And it is my belief that whenever they figure out the definition of victory, it will be something that would have been “defeat” before this whole fiasco started. I will explain that statement in more detail shortly.

According to the many accounts of this invasion that I have read from sources on “both sides of the isle” the invasion of Iraq was poorly planned and the occupation was, in essence, not planned at all. The chain of command has been blurry at best, the key people in key places were not in tune with each other and they had little knowledge of what they were getting into. I say that with one exception. I believe that Colin Powell knew what was going to happen – he used analogies like “if you break it, you own it.” I don’t believe that Bush, Cheney, or anyone else directly involved in the decision gave Powell any credibility. In fact, they used him for their own purposes in an unseemly manner (which is why Powell has clearly been angry for the last 4 years) and they eventually said to Powell the equivalent of “don’t let the door hit you in the butt on the way out.” I’m saying all this to point out what most people know, that the planning and execution of this war was an exercize in incompetence.

Prior to the 2006 mid-term election Bush finally began to figure out that things weren’t going very well. The rate of casualties of Americans was setting new records each month and Bush was measuring our success by how many Iraqi’s (bad guys) we were killing as opposed to how many Americans (good guys) we were losing. All anyone needs to do to understand the level of incompetence is to replay some of the public speaking appearances Bush gave during this time. His assault on the syntax of the English language will probably be legend long after he’s out of office. I often wondered how we could elect someone so inept (of course then here comes McCain – but I digress :o). During this time he responded to questions about his decision making (“I’m the decider”) by saying he used his “gut” to make decisions. In an earlier book Woodward asked him if he consulted his father, former President Bush “the first”, and he responded that he consults a different father, a higher father. This approach had understandably made millions of Americans very uneasy and opposed to his policy in Iraq.

As the election approached Bush began to consult with a retired general, Jack Keane, who was as determined to “win” as Bush. He was the source, along with a general who was teaching at West Point during the early years of the war, with the idea of the so-called surge. And I do have to give Bush credit in the sense that this decision was not of the “hair-brained” caliber which would describe most of the earlier ones. It took several months and a lot of brainstorming and disagreeing between various members of Bush’s inner circle to come up with the plan. However, as I read the book my impression was that the two people who drove the decision were Keane and Bush’s National Security advisor – the replacement for Condi Rice who replaced Powell as Secretary of State – Stephen Hadley. They convinced Bush that this “strategy” was the only chance to “win” in Iraq. Of course, at the time it really wasn’t a strategy in the real sense. Their plan was to put David Patreas in charge in Iraq, give him 5 additional brigades and try to get control of Bagdad. As I read the book, much of what Keane said was possible to Bush has evidently happened. The violence has subsided, and the amount of American casualties has dropped significantly.

While Keane was debating positions offered up by others, he said things like – in response to the argument that our forces were stretched thin and to do this surge would require tours in Iraq to be extended to 15 months – “that is what happens in time of war.” “That is what the troops signed up for.” “We can’t afford to lose another war, we have to do whatever it takes to win.” I found his thought process and his determination to be quite admirable. But he’s looking at it from the point of view that no matter how many lives we lose, it’s worth it to win. And I would have to say that if the war was legitimate, and if there really was a “victory” out there, I would probably agree with him. I believe that if he had been in charge from the beginning things would have turned out differently. But in my opinion, by the time we “surged” the troops, victory was finding a way to get out of Iraq without “losing face” similar to what happened in Viet Nam. Most of the generals in Iraq were veterans of Viet Nam – and most disagreed with both Bush and Keane. And while there are some positives about this, I don’t think there’s any way we willl ever be able to claim victory in a situation where another two or three years of sanctions (maybe less) would have brought down Saddam Hussein without the huge price paid by both countries and without enabling Iran to become a major “player” in the region.

One thing that has happened that Bush wanted was for Prime Minister Maliki to gain strength as the leader of Iraq. I believe that has happened and he is showing signs of being in a semblance of control, but there are many problems inherint with this that nobody’s talking about. First, I fully believe that if Maliki does get a firm hold on Iraq, it is just a matter of time before the alliance with Iran becomes stronger. To me, the biggest potential nightmare as the result of this misadventure will be a united Iraq and Iran. I know that many people think the Iraqi’s hate the Iranians, but keep in mind that Moqtada al Sadr is in Iran right now studying to be the “Grand Ayatollah” of Iraq – and he has a huge following in Iraq that is not going away just because our government wants them to. I believe al Sadr is “laying in the weeds” so to speak for a triumphant return. Also, the “hatred” of Iran was generated by Hussein’s Sunni government and the Shia will be in control for the forseeable future. Considering the makeup of the region, from an Iraqi perspective and alliance with Iran will ultimately strengthen both countries

When the US essentially hired the Sunni insurgents who had been killing our troops to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq instead, the so-called Sunni Awakening, the reduction in violence began. McCain and everyone else associated with the republican party want to blame the surge for the reduction in violence, and it did help, but without the Sunni’s taking the fight to Al Qaeda in places no American wanted to go the violence would still be at alarming levels. Once the US started paying and arming the Sunni’s (keep in mind, these were essentially the same Iraqi’s who were in Saddam’s army that the US disbanded after the original invasion), al Sadr – he’s a very shrewd, intelligent, and dangerous man – told his followers to back off. With the exception of a short battle in Basra (southern Iraq, a Shia stronghold) where Maliki tried to send a message that he was willing to challenge Shia extremists as well as Sunni extremists – and Maliki was forced to call a truce before his troops were embarassingly defeated by al Sadr’s followers, Moqtada al Sadr’s devotees have been laying low; in my opinion biding their time until he returns in about three years – according to most of the reports I have read.

My point is that as I read “The War Within” I couldn’t help but be impressed with the process that Keane and his associates came up with to attempt to “win” this war. Bush didn’t seem so inept as I went from page to page. And I believe that Woodward did a good job of just reporting what happened. I’m happy that someone was allowed into the White House so there is a believable history of this decision. I certainly think it will prove valuable at some point in the future. However, I still think their thinking about winning is flawed. Both Bush and Condoleeza Rice are obviously, as you read, concerned about their legacy and are betting that history will bail them out of one of the poorest decisions ever made by one of our presidents. From Keane’s perspective, I believe he is a true patriot – he’s not looking backward, only looking forward. It didn’t matter how we got there, the fact was we are there and we have to find a way out that doesn’t include the word “losing.” The problem I have with that thinking is that in the long run I see losing written all over Iraq. There is still no reconciliation between Sunni’s, Shia, and Kurds. We have armed the Sunni tribesmen to the teeth. They could continue fighting us or the Shia at any time. I see no way they just lay down their arms and accept Shia rule – I hope I’m wrong about this, but it just doesn’t seem plausible to me. And finally, Moqtada al Sadr will be back and I believe he has every intention of controlling Iraq in an alliance with Iran. Ughh!!! He has a huge following of people who will gladly give up their lives for the “cause.” These are the people (religious fanatics) who were brutalized under Saddam Hussein – which is ironic that we toppled his government ostensibly to free al Sadr and his followers from the tyranny of Saddam, and now they are our “enemies” trying to free themselves from our tyranny.

Just like how Bush/Cheney would never admit that Iraq’s oil was the main objective of this invasion, Bush will never admit that the surge was about protecting his legacy. I’m sure that Bush believes history will clear him of any mistakes because Iraq will ultimately end up a free democratic county and will initiate a wave of freedom that will transform the middle east. All of this, of course is pure speculation, although I have to say again – to me 1100 of our finest along with untold numbers of Iraqis – giving their lives – just since the beginning of the “surge” – can’t be justified to save the “face” of America and the legacy of George W. Bush. The more I thought about this as I read Woodward’s book the more I felt that I’ve just got to throw in my “2 cents” on the Bush legacy.

I’ve been writing too much lately, and last night I was thinking it’s time for a bit of a break. However, today as I drove around I couldn’t help but think that this election should be the blowout of all time. We have a very intelligent candidate on the one side who can give a speech that sends chills up millions of people’s spines, is calm and collected under pressure, and has demonstrated extraordinary leadership skills, while on the other side there is a candidate that has made gaffe after gaffe, has shown poor leadership skills, and is too old to reasonably be considered for the toughest job in the world, especially under the circumstances the next president will inherit on January 20th. This “other” candidate is also proving to be the king of the “flip flop,” grumpy in his good moments, a poor judge of character (VP choice), and a liar extrordinaire. So why is this election even close – in any state?

As I pondered all this I kept coming back to the reality that news has become entertainment and the so-called “news” channels are fighting for the “bottom line” and the potential (and reality) of advertising dollars obviously has to be driving back room decisions of the media moguls. The closer this election is the more viewers will be watching various events and the more money they will haul in. That is why I’m sure the TV networks were very excited about John McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin for Vice President. While the republican insiders were probably shuddering, knowing the inevitability of the public vetting process, the networks must have been all smiles at the level of controversy – and along with that the interest from both sides of the isle. The size of John McCain’s crowds has grown considerably since the Palin appointment. Which brings me to the source of my thoughts as I drove around today.

First, John McCain himself, he’s getting a free pass on a lot of issues. For some reason no one wants to talk about the real John McCain. How could the party of “family values” pick this guy as the nominee, a man who cheated on and dumped his first wife for a young rich heiress. The only thing I can think of is that he has a stark resemblence to GW Bush when you look at his history. He owes anything he has as far as position to being the son of Two well respected Admirals in the US Navy and his education was the result of “daddy” – alarmingly similar to Bush. McCain would never have been chosen to enroll at Annapolis without his father being one of the top Admirals in the Navy. And he wouldn’t have made it through either. The stories of his drinking, carousing, and gambling as a young man are undeniable, considering the multiple sources of information. He was not an accomplished pilot in the Navy. Everyone seems to want to portray him as a war hero because he spent 5 years in a POW camp. Well, the way he got there was by being a lousy pilot and being arrogant toward the chain of command due to his “name.” And others who were there with him have little respect for him due to his caving in to his captors. How many pilots destroyed 5 planes and were still flying? I don’t know the answer to that, but it seems to me that it should be part of the discussion in this election cycle.

Additionally, McCain wants to pin some kind of lable on Obama because Obama served on the board of a school initiative sponsored by the Annenberg foundation (very pro republican) which also had William Ayers, an admitted 1960’s Anti-war radical who was never prosecuted for deeds that Obama called “deplorable,” on its board. Ayers is now a professor of education at Chicago University where Obama was a Constitutional Law professor for 12 years. OK, Obama doesn’t deny being on this board and that Ayers was on it too, although that is about as far as the relationship goes – aside from the fact they live in the same general neighborhood and their paths cross inadvertently on occasion. If that is fair game, why isn’t the media making a big deal out of some of McCain’s acquaintances. I suppose republicans don’t call G Gordon Libby a terrorist, despite four years in prison from the Watergate affair and numerous threats since then, because his targets are always democrats. But Libby has apparently been a fund raiser for McCain, and actually had a fund raiser activity with McCain present right in Libby’s home. Shouldn’t that be investigated and discussed as relevant? And the Keating five scandal, considering the state of the banks in this country and the widespread belief from every economist I have listened to or read that the problem is deregulation, shouldn’t that be extremely relevent – especially at this time in history. The story is on the fringe media – blogs, U-tube, ect. – but shouldn’t it be fully investigated and either debunked or proven relevant by the mainstream media. I don’t think voters should go to the polls unaware of McCain’s involvement in that disaster, and also this one.

Then there’s Sarah Palin, the darling of the republican base. I’ve even seen bumper stickers that read “Palin for Vice President,” with no mention of McCain. I fully believe that millions of right-wing republicans will hold their noses while they vote for McCain simply because Palin is on the ticket. Should they pull off a miracle comeback and win, I believe these voters will immediately start praying for McCain to have health problems. They actually think she is qualified to be the President of the United States! Ughh! Ultimately, I believe two decisions on McCain’s part will be considered the “nails in the coffin” as far as his campaign is concerned. One will be his vote for the “bailout” and the other will be picking Sarah Palin. Her faithful are already “poo-pooing” the decision by the special prosecutor in Alaska that she violated state-ethics law. They say it was a political “witch-hunt” despite the fact that the inquiry began prior to her selection for VP(you have to wonder about John McCain’s vetting process) and that the committee voting for the inquiry had 10 republicans and only 4 democrats on it – and the vote was unanimous. Worse than that to me was her husband’s membership in, and her speaking at, the Alaska Independence Party which wants Alaska to succeed from the Union. This group has ties with southern successionists in the lower “48” in addition to the John Birch Society. Why isn’t this headline news?

Can you imagine if Barack Obama was part of some kind of successionist movement. The other day Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania Senator, brought up the “no flag on the lapel” argument again after the debate against Obama, and “upon further review” at all three debates – Obama was wearing his flag on the lapel and McCain was wearing his in none of the debates. Now, I have to say that McCain not wearing a flag on his lapel would have nothing to do with whether or not I would vote for him, it just shows how scurilous this campaign has become, and how the media will give air time to the most curious of assertions – with little or no fact checking – and let some pretty serious foopahs go unmentioned.

And, finally, the other night I watched the third debate with some friends and left right after it was over, but stayed long enough to see that the republican “pundit” was Bill Bennett, infamous for preaching morality, while secretly running up huge gambling debts. But what really bothered me about CNN’s choice of Bennett to apparently give his opinion as to who won (I didn’t stay long enough to hear him, but I’ll bet he was one of the minority of Americans who thought it was McCain) was the fact that I can still remember him saying at one point in time that the way to lower the crime rate in the United States was to abort all the African American babies. I really don’t get how he still has any credibility (well, I guess the fact that he does speaks volumes). This is the part that I’ve just got to get off of my chest, people like Bennett pretend that racism doesn’t influence them, but when you look closely at the choices – McCain and Obama – and you consider comments these republicans have made in the past (I use Bennett as an example – but the republican party is full of leaders who have proven themselves to be bigots – this is what originally pushed me away from them) The writing is clearly on the wall. A close election makes them piles of money and many of them could stomach McCain/Palin because the idea of a black president “scares them to death.”

I feel like I have to write about the bailout. I’m not even sure of my thoughts and I’m assuming they will become more concrete as I write this. First of all, both John McCain and Barack Obama pushed for the bailout, I suppose with the thought that they would like to minimize the magnitude of the impending crisis that those of us on “Main Street” are about to feel – probably for at least the next 2-3 years. It was no surprise to me that Henry Paulson, George Bush, Dick Cheney, and those in their administration would panic at the thought that the entire economic fabric was unwinding. It has been clear to me that Bush has spent the last couple of years trying to manage his place in history. His “surge” strategy in Iraq – which I will focus a complete post in the near future on, once I complete reading Bob Woodward’s “The War Within,” an interesting inside view of the process leading to the decision to “surge” in Iraq – was clearly a huge gamble trying to protect his image from being a president who “lost” a war, especially a war of choice that de-stabalized the entire world. Now he’s being mentioned in the same breath as Herbert Hoover and the republican blame machine is trying its best to guide history toward the “real culprits” of this disaster. It was also no surprise to me that the Bush administration used the “fear card” to get this bailout through Congress. This tactic worked on Iraq (several times), it worked on torture, habeas corpus, FISA, and the Patriot Act.

What was surprising to me was the willingness for Obama to join the “bandwagon.” I fully realize why he did it. He can’t be the president if he doesn’t get most of the votes on election day. The fact that he and McCain both supported the bailout took the risk out of the situation for each of them. Obama’s lead in the polls was “swelling” at that point and he understood the weakness John McCain was facing due to the ill advised comments he made about the “strength” of our economy only hours before the meltdown kicked into high gear. This was the safe move for Obama, he attempted to get some “populist” language into the bill and attempted, but failed, to get relief for the homeowners who are finding themselves “upside down” in their mortgages and facing bankruptcy and foreclosure.

It was equally surprising to me for McCain to just go along with whatever transpired. Published reports indicated that he was pretty much a non-factor in all the meetings that preceeded the final bill that was enacted – despite his proclamation that he was “suspending” his campaign to go to Washington to lead the republicans in devising a plan. When you think of the size of the gamble McCain took in selecting Sarah Palin as his VP running mate – with at least an awareness of some of the baggage she was carrying – it’s hard for me to understand why the “maverick” went along with this bailout proposal. I firmly believe had he opposed the bailout, the polls would have instantaneously swung back toward his campaign, and while it probably wouldn’t have been enough to put him over the top, it certainly would have closed the gap to the point that this election would be a close one. These next 19 days would be much more critical as the effects of the bailout take hold, and I certainly think the Bush administration would have had at least some temptation to manipulate the results with at least an attempt to stall any positive results until after the election. Despite George Bush’s focus on his “legacy” he has a significant self-interest in McCain winning. The possibility of investigations of numerous potential crimes looms much more prominent with an Obama presidency (in fact my lobbying effort will commence upon the conclusion of an Obama victory on November 4th).

Back to the bailout. So no matter who wins in November, the next president has a certain amount of culpibility in the proposal that is now unfolding. I realize that the bill will be significantly changed if Obama wins, especially if it’s a landslide victory and he brings  a democratic majority into the senate of at least 58 seats, which is a real possibility. But this idea of Wall Street (Paulson, Bush, et al) bailing out Wall Street just isn’t sitting well with me. Every economic expert that I’m reading, have read, and probably will read have said this economic crisis won’t end until the housing crisis is stabalized and housing prices start to rise again. They all say that sooner is better than later. The damage being caused by the one asset of significance for most working Americans spiraling downward is beginning to mushroom. It still doesn’t feel to me like the politicians “get it.” This is probably because they are so insulated from the realities of every day Americans. And of course I can just imagine those Wall Streeters that are getting this government aid licking their chops at the thought of cleaning up the mess by purchasing the homes of the distressed “Joe Sixpacks” as Sarah Palin put it. I heard one “pundit” pointing out that many of the people who are still working on Wall Street are experiencing huge drops in their income – like as much as from two million per year to one million per year. He actually said that they will just have to figure out how to “make it.” After reading that I presumed that I just have no idea what it costs to live the lifestyle they live, but my thought was hey, tough it out!

As I ponder this situation my thoughts keep coming back to the place that if the real problem is in the falling housing prices, the 700 billion would have been better spent bailing out the homeowners who are losing their homes. Based on the so-called economic stimulus package of last spring which was one of the earlier “band-aids” used by the Bush administration in trying to postpone the inevitable with the economy, 700 Billion dollars would amount to almost $4000 for each working American. I know I could have used a bailout like that. And I wonder, “Where does this money come from?” Certainly no investor in his right mind would loan money to the US government at this point in time. I’m presuming the printing presses are working overtime. I believe this leads me to my point. I feel fairly certain that the propping up of these Wall Street banks is just a bigger band-aid (and I was really amazed when I read that Henry Paulson called a meeting of the 9 largest banks – of course including Goldman Sachs with whom he has a significant interest – and essentially forced them to accept the government as preferred stockholders – not letting them leave the room until they had signed a pre-arranged agreement. That is a really major RED FLAG to me. Free market economy???) and this band-aid is not going to stop the hemoraging. Ultimately, I believe Barack Obama is correct when he says the solution to our economic problems will come from the bottom up. I would have felt better if he had demanded that type of approach when this bill was being debated instead of agreeing to this “top down” fiasco.

The sooner those in Washington figure out that the backbone of this country is the people who are at the bottom and not those at the top, the better off we all will be. As I watch the stock market fluctuate wildly every day, I’m more certain than ever that government making policies based on where the stock market is at any particular point in time is a sure recipe for disaster. You don’t solve a crisis created by bad debt, by creating more debt, as least that is the way I see it. Sooner or later the government is going to have to find a way to keep the people who are losing their homes – in their homes. They are going to have to find a way to stop the slide in housing prices. Ultimately, in my opinion, I can see a scenario where this present plan leads the banks to own a bunch of empty houses which they will utlimately sell back or rent to the people who are losing them – selling them at reduced prices. Our leaders should be able to find a way to bypass this scenario and save people the expenses of moving twice.

People in distressed mortgages should be able to renegotiate their mortgages in a way that keeps them in their homes and starts funneling money back into the banks from the bottom. Any government intervention should be to buy down the mortgages for the people. And for those people who have managed to stay above the fray, so to speak, make low interest loans available to them so that they could raise capital for things like home improvements or large purchases such as autos, etc. which are coming to a standstill. There could be a 6 month or 1 year “window” when these loans (like maybe 2 or 3% loans) would be available – only for creditworthy homeowners with incomes less than a pre-determined amount. Low interest loans should be available to small businesses who hire workers and tax incentives could be instituted for companies that move their operations back to the US. I’m just throwing out ideas, but my main point is that for any “bailout” to work, I believe it has to start at the bottom! When you think about it, the mortgage crisis started at the bottom, and it became “toxic” as it “trickled up.” So there you have it, my trickle up theory!