Tonight I’m REALLY going to try to write something short. Last night I heard that Iraq had canceled the “deal” made with our multi-national oil companies that was going to allow bush/cheney/mccain to declare “victory.” I had heard a few weeks back that bush had finally strong armed some kind of agreement with al Maliki (Iraqi Prime Minister) to open the spickets of their oil to bush’s “buddies” – while at the same time calling people like me who have claimed from the very first day they began this misadventure to gain possession of Iraq’s oil – I can’t think of the word, but I know it is not a complimentary term – something akin to pro-terrorist. I believe the reason mccain has been spouting about how the surge “has worked” despite the fact that the Shia and Sunni in Iraq are no closer to reconciliation than they were 18 months ago – in fact possibly farther away considering the Sunni “Awakening” is heavily armed (by us) and not likely to give up those arms and submitting to Shia rule – is because of the supposed “oil agreement.”

Well, last night I heard that the Iraqi’s have “scuttled” the agreement with BP, Unocal, etc., etc., (I can’t remember the name of all the companies – I think there were 6 or 7 of them) in favor of an agreement with the Chinese national oil company. Now, I don’t want to say much here because I don’t know much in this regard. However, I’m willing to go out on a limb and say that it will be hard for any historian to call any ending to this occupation a victory for the US when they measure how emboldened Iran has become thanks to our incompetence, how our own economy is close to being in ruins thanks to this war and the incompetence of the people waging it, and now the oil that was supposed to pay for it going to China. I guess that’s the best way for the Iraqi’s to get our dollars. As I sit here thinking of the consequences of this if it’s true, I think back to last night and say to myself, did I hear this right?????

Last night I finished Ron Suskind’s book “The Way of the World” and, before I start on my day, I feel I have to write about it. First, for anyone looking for a good read that will stimulate thought, I highly recommend this book. Second, this morning while reading the New York Times online I came across an article about bush pushing for more power for the FBI to “fight terrorism” in the US including in the “decree” additional powers of “racial profiling” which, of course, was worded in another manner. In the justification for this “executive order” bush stated something like “we’re still engaged in an armed war with al qaeda.” The racial profiling and the lying about war are two of the main thesis of Suskind’s book. To me, they are profound reasons why I’m so concerned for the future of my daughters, my granddaughter, my son, my wife, my friends, etc.

The most startling part of Suskind’s book comes at the end. I don’t believe reading this will ruin the book for you if you’re planning to read it. I bought the book after listening to Suskind being interviewed about the book on Keith Olberman’s “Countdown” program on MSNBC. Suskind is not just making statements that he has concluded from circumstantial evidence. He is pointing out actions taken by the bush administration, presumably ordered through cheney’s office, but clearly with the duplicity of bush. The actions were orders given to the CIA and Suskind’s reporting is from direct interviews with the CIA agents who carried out the white house orders. As I read the book I was thankful that finally a couple of the people involved in all this insane American policy have finally “fessed up” and I’m hoping something in the line of accountability comes from this.

Prior to the US invading Iraq bush/cheney et al clearly had evidence from multiple sources from inside Iraq that Saddam Hussein had destroyed all of his WMD. He was postering that he still had them because he didn’t want the Iranians to know that he was disarmed, so to speak. Of course this knowledge “trumped” the reasons for bush/cheney’s plan to invade, but they chose to ignore it. In fact one of the sources, the head of Iraqi Intelligence – a man named Habbush, was being paid $5 million by the CIA for the information, and after bush/cheney chose to igore him they sent him into exile (I believe in Jordan) to live in secret away from retribution from the Iraqi’s.

Once the war was engaged and the US began to have problems politically because everything Habbush told them was true and they found no WMD the White House came up with another plan. They ordered the CIA to have Habbush, in his own handwriting, create a phony document linking Mohammed Atta with Saddam Hussein with the intention of linking Hussein with 9/11, therefore justifying their action of “invading a soveriegn country.” (If you’ve been paying attention to world events during this time you’ve heard bush/cheney/mccain say on several occasions “this is the 21st century and civilized nations don’t invade soveriegn countries”) Once this document was created the CIA planted it in Bagdad with, or so it would end up with, the original “stooge” they put in power (not bremer, but I believe his name was Allawi – the Iraqi refugee who was on the CIA’s payroll prior to the invasion). This document was then given to a British reporter who took it to London, verified that the hadwriting was that of Habbush (who, by the way, the bush/cheney team cleaverly put in the card deck of “wanted” Iraqi’s while hiding him in Jordan) and then the document was published in a widely read conservative newspaper in London.

Of course people (I use the term loosely) like o’reilly, hannity, limbaugh, etc. then picked up on it and the plan had supposedly succeeded because the spinmeisters were spouting how they were right in connecting Hussein and bin laden. Well, eventually the document was debunked because the whereabouts of Atta was such that the “meeting” in the document could not have taken place – so they screwed up on the dates – but until Suskind’s book there was nothing to suggest that the forged document originated from the CIA through orders from the president himself (I’m still not sure if that means bush or cheney). Suskind is very clear in pointing out the severity of this action. The CIA guys knew that it was illegal and there is no question that ordering it done was impeachable. OK, I know what you’re thinking (I’ve already thought it) – Pelosi took impeachment “off the table.” And there’s only a few months left till this nightmare is over (unless they can somehow get mccain in office – uggh! the thought makes me want to throw up). But I have to say that every day the democrats don’t bring this stuff to public light and allow bush/cheney et al to continue unabated really worries me. It appears the republicans are correct – the democrats really are spineless!

Epilogue:I wanted to include one final thought regarding Suskind’s book. One of the characters in the book was a Pakistani citizen who came to America to go to college and ended up working in Washington DC. Part of his experience in America included being arrested and questioned about whether or not he was a terrorist, and it led to a lot of fear on his part that he would be whisked off into some internment camp somewhere never to be heard from again. This is the message we are sending to the rest of the world. They are probably more anxious than those of us who have had our fill of the “bush doctrine” (you know, the doctrine that sarah palin hasn’t a clue about!) for the US to re-exert its “moral authority” in the world. We need to live up to our Ideals. That is why Obama was received with such large and enthusiastic crowds when he made his trip over seas. This idea that we should be suspicious of people who are of middle east descent, just like profiling African Americans or Jews, is unconstitutional and should not be OK with anyone – republican or democrat. bush/cheney have pushed this almost down our throats and the world is waiting for the American public to “get it.” I am hopeful that the bizaar selection of sarah palin to be mccain’s vice president will be the final straw, that people will ultimately understand the futility and absurdity of that decision by mccain, and it will usher in the Obama presidency. Then it will be up to progressives (personally I’m going to start calling myself a liberal) to hold Obama to the promises he has made and the ideals this country was founded on, so that the healing can begin.

I was about to go to bed this evening when I suddenly got a flash thought. It was triggered by a short section of an interview I saw this evening with Sarah Palin that I presume will be aired soon on one of the national networks (hopefully, all of them) – I believe the reporter was Charles Gibson of ABC. The republicans must have picked him because he was willing to give her some pretty bland questions so as not to “put her on the spot” about her true “expertese.”

During this interview there were some questions relating to foreign policy and I want to comment on one answer in particular, but first I have to say that I’m not sure how many people will pick up on this, but Palin has no idea what the “bush doctrine” relating to foreign policy is. Now if someone asked me what the bush doctrine was I would probably say something like “how much time do you have?” And my perception would probably be quite a bit different than how bush would portray it to the world, but I can guarantee you that I would have a specific response. Sarah Palin looked completely confused by the question. Later in the interview she was asked some questions about Russia, which is what really got my attention.

First of all, Sarah Palin said something very close to “Russia’s invasion of Georgia was totally unprovoked.” The questioner asked her to repeat that or said something like “are you sure?” I’m sure he fully understood that Georgia initiated the conflict by unleashing a barage of bombs on South Ossetia (you can read some of my previous posts if you want my full opinion of the Georgian conflict) and he seemed a bit surprised that he was talking to a potential vice president of the United States, a “heartbeat” away from the presidency of a 72 year old cancer survivor and she didn’t have a clue about what was happening in the country that is so close to the state she governed – this closeness being what, according to many republicans, is what makes her qualified to be our commander in chief.

She went on to say that “of course” we would have to go to war with Russia if, after a list of countries including Ukraine joined NATO, Russia invaded one of them. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want us to sit around and let Russia invade a bunch of countries. But I believe that Palin has about a front page knowledge of what is really going on in this world. I don’t proclaim to have much more than that, but let me suggest here that the real problem lies in Washington DC with a bunch of radical right wing “neo-cons” who – almost like the guy in a spy movie I saw many years ago (can’t remember the name of it) saying “I’m going to rule the world!”

We were supposed to be building a positive relationship with Russia, but I think they’re getting a bit impatient with us – after our so-called “free market” experts went in and made their economy much worse after the fall of communism. And of course, with Russia sitting on huge reserves of bush and cheney’s favorite “idol” – oil – well it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that the bushies are trying to figure out how to get their hands on as much of that oil as possible without the Russians getting anything for it – you know, this is what they’ve done in numerous places around the world over the last many years, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. What is a surprise to me, is that so many people are surprised that Russia is not surprised – and not going along with bush/cheney any more. So, can you imagine the mayor of a city that is probably smaller than Hazel Dell, who’s been the governor of a state that’s about 1/8 the size of Seattle (population wise) dealing with the other country in the world that has the strength to make Armegeddon real – thinking we would have to go to war with them (I’m not sure where we’d get the troops at this point, but that’s a story for another day)

The other day I wrote about how the election is between Obama and mccain and that Sarah Palin has been successfully used to be a sideshow by the republicans to take the focus off of mccain and his gaffes. However, this woman needs to be fully vetted, interviewed, and the American people need to know what they’re voting for on November 4th. I fully understand that there are millions of Americans who will vote for her because she’s a right wing Christian. Being a Christian, I don’t want to say anything more than, to me, that doesn’t qualify anyone for anything – even a job at a church. Any person should be thoroughly interviewed for any job of importance – and for the job she’ applying for, she needs to be vetted completely and asked, in public, to explain any and all inconsistencies in her record. That only makes sense for the good of the country.

Tonight, I’m hoping that at least she has to explain why she didn’t know that Georgia initiated the violence in South Ossetia. To me, that is unacceptable. And I don’t think she was lying to protect the position of mccain (he probably played a significant part in encouraging Georgia’s president Saakashvilli to start the conflict) I think she just didn’t know. I don’t think she knows much about foreign policy, foreign governments, diplomacy, the military, and on and on. And the suggestion that she, one who managed a sports journalism degree from the University of Idaho, would be a fast learner – gives me little confidence that my daughters, son, granddaughter, my students, and everyone I know would be in good hands if she had to take the reins of our nation. As I listened to her this evening the only thing at all positive that I took from the interview was that if she’s really qualified for the office she’s running for then I could be vice president!!!!

I keep thinking about how republicans are the masters at getting democrats to focus on something besides the issues. Now I can’t speak for Obama because I don’t see a lot of his ads and only hear him speak occasionally, although he seems to be staying “on point.” However, those few in the so-called Liberal media who are actually “liberal” seem to be very easily manipulated. This nomination of sarah palin is a good example. Since the nomination the focus has been on sarah palin. The problem I see with that is that john mccain is the one running for president. mccain’s campaign manager said they were going to run a campaign on personalities and not on issues and this is how they are succeeding.

I hope this doesn’t continue for long, but ever since her nomination that’s all I hear about is sarah palin and liberal pundits wondering why the so-called main-stream media is not picking up on all the lies. Well, at some point it will finally sink in to them that the media they are hoping to see jump in and do mccain’s “vetting” for him want nothing less than to see Obama as president. His presidency is likely to cost the corporate welfare system substantially if he follows through on even a few of his most profound promises. To them, the good of the country is measured in their “bottom line” and the huge checks the CEO’s are now receiving, even if they lead their companies to total disaster (if you don’t believe me, check out the separation compensation for the CEO’s of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac who just got virtually bailed out of failure by the government).

The truth is that unless mccain should die (which I realize is a possibility at his age with his health history and that is why the dems are so beside themselves with this “upstart” pick for VP) he will be the president and all of palin’s inexperience will matter little. As one person’s point of view which I read tonight, she is supposedly the “savior” of the republican party. Well, if the dems keep concentrating on her and forget that they are running against mccain, that person might be right. It is the dems who are turning her into such a celebrity. They should just let the record speak for itself – that’s not to say that they shouldn’t have people in Alaska to find out the truth about this phony woman, but they MUST remember they are running against mccain. He’s managed to slip quietly into the background and, while all the focus is on her, people are not talking about all the lies he has committed during this election cycle.

I have to admit that the ruthless “rovians” in the republican party are the masters at manipulating the media. But after close to a million dead in Iraq, counting the Iraqi’s, not to mention the injured and displaced, with an economy that is about to go into a severe recession or worse, with close to 50 million Americans without health care, with the constitution in the balance – especially the Supreme Court, with a candidate that wants to destroy Social Security, a candidate who thinks the economy is basically sound and wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years, the rovians have totally succeeded in deflecting the majority of people from the true issues. They have no scruples and the question I have after 8 long years of the worst administration in my lifetime, and according to most historians in our nation’s history, are we falling for it again?????????????

I hope I can make this short (If you’ve read any of my other posts, you’ll understand my uncertainty). Today I was driving around thinking about some of the books I’ve read regarding the bush administration, cheney, and the wars in Iraq and Afganistan. I think it is indisputable that most Americans felt the extreme sense of violation when the al qaeda criminals murdered around 3000 Americans on 9/11/2001. As the anniversary of that date approaches my thoughts are that I really hope that something isn’t planned for a “re-enactment – that’s my first wish for any republican that thinks I’m “un-American” – and my second thought is; why haven’t the criminals in our government had to stand for their violations of the most basic laws that have served this nation for over 200 years?

I’m presently reading “The Way of the World” by Ron Suskind – another fabulously informative book that gives ample evidence that, not only has bush/cheney et. al. been incredibly incompetent in their decision making – they have virtually taken the position that the laws don’t apply to them. Additionally, telling the truth seems to be something for whimps. They seem to believe that the American public needs to just keep shopping and everything will be all right. At some point they will figure out how to kill all the “bad guys” as they call them, and eventually we will have what bush/cheney/mccain have infused into the republican “talking points” as victory.

This victory is coming at a very high price. And the discussion here could go on for – well I’ve read about 20 books about the subject since the invasion of Iraq, and these books aren’t short on information about the incompetence, the lies, and the purposeful disregard for our legal system. But for starters, somehow the republicans are going to have to eventually be able to claim their “victory” was worth more than the 4100+ American troop’s lives, the 30,000 and rising wounded (and poorly cared for veterans), the estimated 1,000,000 Iraqi lives lost – not to mention the wounded and displaced, the distruction of the Iraq infrastructure and it’s internal institutions, and the impending failure or near failure of our economy. Additionally, any “victory” will find Iraq and Iran “united” in the sense that the Shia majority in each country will more than likely lead to a “union” that will put the worst fears of many middle eastern “experts” on red alert. Moqtada al Sadr is presently in Iran, and supposedly his return to Iraq in about 3 years will happen when he has become the “Grand Ayatollah” with, I’m sure, a similar vision of Iraq as that of Iran since 1979. And, of course, our leaders have done everything in their power to guarantee that al Sadr will be very strongly anti-American when he takes power in Iraq.

To me, an even bigger price for “victory” in Iraq, will be what the bush/cheney criminals have done to our “nation of laws and not men.” They have broken laws with impunity, they lie about what they’re doing incessantly, they refuse to even appear before congress for questioning – like we don’t have a right to know what is going on, and the biggest “price” for me is that without the so-called Christian “right” these guys couldn’t win an election for dog catcher. These people have attacked the constitution ruthlesslly. And for all my Christian friends who seem to think that the right to privacy and habeous corpus are insignificant “sacrifices” to gain this “victory” well, to me, the fact that we have cowered down to the point we are giving up our civil rights means “victory” isn’t possible – even if ultimately bush/cheney/mccain get their precious oil out of Iraq.

Additionally, bush/cheney (I’m trying to be judicious about including mccain, but make no mistake about it – he will be the perfect puppet for whoever is behind these goons) have committed treason – at least once – in the Valery Plame Wilson affair – congress seemingly willing to look the other way. They have committed fraud on a huge scale in the doctoring and forging of documents used to justify the above mentioned disaster in Iraq. They have totally politicized the justice department – and when I bring this up to any “conservative” (to me the so-called conservatives are anything but conservatives) friends, instead of thinking about the danger of having a justice department made up of political cronies, they start babbling about how Clinton replaced all 93 US attorneys when he took office in 1992. They can’t bring themselves to think that this is a horribly dangerous precedent – probably thinking that they would never be in a position to have to worry about this – but if republicans are putting people in jail for being democrats – I don’t think they want to think about the shoe being on a different foot. bush/cheney have “privatized” enormous parts of our most important government structure – the scariest being the private militias that, should they get out of control, will be a story that will be, for most people in this country, a nightmare.

The trail of lies to justify invading Iraq is obscene and long, the outing of a CIA agent, the profiting off of a war they created, the direct violations of the constitution, and the thumbing of their noses at congress. I’ve always been an “independent” and I’m definitely voting for Obama in November, providing bush can’t figure out how to cancel the election, but I can’t understand how Nancy Pelosi can say “impeachment is off the table.” This is like enabling a 6th grader to lie, cheat, and bully his/her way in school – it’s just going to get worse. Additionally, I will be extremely disappointed in Obama if he, like Clinton before him regarding ghw bush and Iran/Contra, looks the other way once in office – not wanting to “rock the boat.” The bottom line is that these criminals need to be sent a message and future administrations need to be sent a message – and the message is that WE ARE A NATION OF LAWS!!!!!!!

Well, it’s time for school again, and I need to get focused on teaching my students. Today, as I was getting my room ready, I thought about how insignificant one voice among billions is, and that in this case I’m basically writing to myself. It does make me feel better to write about some of today’s issues, issues that I obviously have passionate feelings about, and it helps me to understand my own thoughts. But I have to make sure that I don’t get too carried away. The truth is that whatever is going to happen is going to happen no matter what I write here. I was watching Fox “news” (it was my only option while I was getting my room ready – I’m not a fan of fox “news”) today as they were covering the blast from hurricane Gustav on the gulf coast and I have to admit that I was very happy to see that the federal government – who failed so miserably 3 years ago – showed that they have the capacity to learn. bush had the good sense to act like a leader and I hope this sets the tone for the future, that the government has a major role in situations like this – that’s why we have leaders. I’m hoping and praying that we will not have to endure another four years of republican “rule” but at least I have to give credit for this “crisis” as being handled very professionally.

One other thing on my mind from what I heard on fox “news” today. Evidently Sarah Palin (who, by the way is the niece of a man in Vancouver who was in the real estate business in the late 70’s and early 80’s when I was doing the same – I did business with him) has a 17 year old daughter who is pregnant and expecting toward the end of this year. I just have to say that I admired, and agreed with, Obama when he said he would fire any one assosciated with his campaign who used this issue politically. He rightly said family members are “off limits” and to leave the debate to the issues. I hope people do that. I believe that Sarah Palin needs to answer a lot of questions due to the fact that mccain has brought his own age and her lack of experience to the forefront of this election by nominating her – but the questions need to be about Sarah Palin and not her daughter. I would say Kudos to her for having the baby (I’m assuming it wasn’t planned) and kudos to the family for supporting her, assuming that they are.

There probably won’t be many posts as school gets underway, but it is fun for me to write and just throw out my thoughts – of course it would be more fun if there was someone to respond to. I fully understand that I come off as a flaming liberal – and I’m perfectly fine with that – but I still contend that most of my thinking is very conservative and old fashioned. I believe the republicans have convoluted the term “conservative.” When I first got interested in politics the first book I read was “Conscience of a Conservative” by Barry Goldwater. I can guarantee you that he would be no where near these so-called neo-cons. And today I heard one of the national republican “advisors” defending the deficit spending of the nixon/reagan/bush/bush administrations as simply a “small percentage of the GNP.” That was how nixon justified it in the early 70’s as if he was simply mortgaging all the government real estate across the nation. With that thinking it won’t be long and it will be Chinese real estate! Getting back to my point, a balanced budget, prudent national defense, traditional values, honesty in government, these used to be conservative values. I just would add to that that we are stronger together than we are divided and that as Jesus says; “What you do for the least of these, you do for me.” Government should work from the “bottom up” and not the “top down” approach of the republicans. I look forward to the day when we realize we haven’t ended welfare, we have just shifted policy so that welfare has become corporate welfare.

The major thought on my mind as I sign off here is that I still can’t believe that someone like Sarah Palin could conceivably be “a heartbeat from the presidency.” I’m sure that America’s women won’t be fooled by the move, but until November 4 we won’t know for sure. Today I googled mccain and the keating 5 and I’m just waiting for this to be injected into the campaign. There was plenty of “stuff” about mccain readily available for people to mull over. I think of the accusations against Obama by the right and then I wonder why mccain is able to get away with helping a donor try to avoid charges – a donor who’s actions ended up costing American taxpayers 3.4 billion dollars – why isn’t that part of the debate if William Ayers and Obama being on the same board is – why isn’t mccain’s admitted adultery part of the debate, why aren’t his numerous “flip flops” part of the debate. I guess the reason is that Obama is trying to run an “above board” campaign and if he doesn’t bring this stuff up, the media isn’t going to do so – although it seems to me that much of what Obama has had to answer for has come from the media. All this said, I still believe that the American people will vote Obama into office and the direction of this country will change in a way that will be beneficial to the vast majority of it’s citizens. Well, I’ve got to sign off, it’s time for school!

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!!!!