Politics

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Repeat After Bush: Have no Fear

I mean does anyone actually pay attention to him anymore? There he was giving yet another keynote speech to yet another captive and compliant audience, in yet another midwestern friendly state, and yet again he claims all is well in Iraq. Do not worry. Have no fear. Stay the course. Do not worry. Have no fear. Stay the course. It’s almost hypnotic. He speaks as if he can make reality just by giving speeches, as if his words will come true just because they are his words. He is, after all, The Leader. Repeat after Him: have no fear, have no fear, have no fear …

Well George, sorry, but right next to the report on your speech telling us all about the good thing that is Iraq, was a story reporting the discovery of 87 more bodies. More victims of sectarian violence. More indictment of the policy failure that was foisted on us by a leader who now seems so remote from reality that even the fairy tale about the emporor’s clothes is an inadequate analogy.

When this history is written the decline and fall of American power began with the misadventure into Iraq. It exposed to the world the real frailty of American erstwhile power: the politicized intelligence; the corrruption; the incompetence; the puffery; the fearfulness; and the overarching complacency of a population who wants to believe a liar because its easier than having to stand up to him. And he keeps on making those stupid speeches.

No we have nothing to fear except more of his incompetence. And that we are stuck with because we have no way of getting rid of his scourge.

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America a Democracy? Now there’s a thought …

The New York Times ways in on the topic of the Electoral College: Drop Out of the College

Well it’s about time the whole Electoral College thing was consigned to the trash heap. It’s undemocratic. No debate is needed beyond that. The U.S. elects its Presidents in a wholly undemocratic and antiquated way. It is very quaint to hear Americans come up with convoluted and anti-democratic defenses of what is an historical fudge. The people who came up with the College had already voted against the idea a few times, but under the threat of failure to draw up a new constitution because of the obstinacy of the slave states they caved in and saddled us with this bizarre anachronism. Enough. Get rid of it before it does more damage to the country. There is no argument worthy of a second’s thought to justify its continued existence. It is a vestige of the country’s slave owning roots; it distorts modern political campaigning toward ‘battleground states’; it gives disproportionate power to small states and thus twists priorities toward issues that resonate in those states; and, most of all, it produces presidential winners who do not have majority voter support. It has to go.

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Security and the Republicans

Here’s a story in the New York Times: Suddenly, a Rebellion in the
G.O.P. on a Signature Issue Basically the argument is that some Repuiblicans are beginning to break ranks with the White House even on security issues, which have hitherto been seen as a place to close up ranks. They hope to separate themselves from the ever unpopular George Bush by doing this. Many want to appear more “moderate” than Bush.

That’s a joke right?

The Times itself, in an editorial, slams the decision not to investigate the illegal wiretapping program undertaken by the Administration as “breathtakingly cycnical” … so where is this breaking of ranks? Where is the “moderation”? On the Dubai ports management contract. On one issue. One. And that an issue more based upon xenophobia than on security. Hardly a moderate posityion.

These so called rebellious Republicans have stood aside while the Bush regime has executed a relentless series of assaults on American civil liberties and human rights all in the name of security. Worse: they have been complicit in this program, they have abrogated their constituional role as watchdogs in order to pursue single minded partisan politics. The entire Republican Congressional delegation has closed ranks behind Bush ever since 9/11. They made security a partisan issue. And now we are supposed to be encouraged that one or two are “breaking ranks” as Bush’s poll numbers threaten to prevent re-election for some of them this Fall?

Nuts!

Moderation was long since expelled from the Republican party. Any Republican who tries to position themselves as moderate by opposing Bush now is flat out lying … unless, of course they have opposed him in all his attacks on our liberty. None have done that. So none are moderate.

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Budget Office Highlights Bush Deficit Disaster

Not much to add here. The Congressional Budget Office now reports that Bush’s budget plans would add about $1.2 trillion to the national debt over the next decade. The New York Times has a report here: Bush Plan Would Raise Deficit by $1.2 Trillion, Budget Office Says

The only thing we have going for us here is that Bush has lost so much support amongst Republicans that his budget plan is never going to see the light of day. The problem is that these same spineless Republicans, who are so keen to fall into line over things like the (un)Patriot Act, have no alternative plans. These are the fools who voted in all those tax cuts, along with the biggest spending spree in the country’s history (remember the bridge to nowhere?). They can hardly claim to be heroes trying to hold the red ink at bay.

Dick Cheney may be right when he says that deficits don’t matter, at least in the short run, but where he has it all wrong is when the sea of red ink now washing over America stops it doing things it mights want to do. There just isn’t enough money to have the size defense (offense?) spending the Republicans love to have and simultaneously have those social programs. Something’s going to have to give.

There’s a budget crisis just over the horizon and the Republicans deserve all the blame.

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Can Condi Read?

Just asking. This is liberating, I can say whatever I want about Condi Rice without any fear of reprisal because she won’t read it. I don’t think she reads anything. So here goes: Condi Rice is fat! There I said it. Now let’s wait for the response ……. nope nothing.

Just a little fun at Condi’s expense. But why am I so certain she doesn’t read? Take a look at this:

“I don’t know anyone who wasn’t caught off guard by Hamas’ strong showing,” said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, referring to the landslide victory of the Islamic Hamas party in the January 25 Palestinian elections. Hamas won 76 out of 132 seats in the Palestinian legislature, compared to 43 seats for the ruling Fatah party.

“I’ve asked why nobody saw it coming and I hope that we will take a hard look, because it does say something about perhaps not having had a good enough pulse on the Palestinian population,” she told reporters on January 29.

The problem is that her own State Department’s intelligence analysts predicted exactly that Hamas was so popular that it could win an election. Here is what they said in a January 2006 pre-election assessment:

“When the parties [Hamas and Fatah] are directly compared, likely voters tend to see Hamas as more qualified to clean up corruption, resist occupation, and uphold societal values”

That’s pretty clear. How about this:

“A lack of hope in the peace process may also contribute to support for Hamas. Likely voters who have little or no hope that there will be a peaceful resolution to the conflict clearly prefer Hamas (30%) to Fateh (12%).”

Or this:

“The likely success of Hamas at the polls reflects the long-term rise of public trust in the party. The proportion in the January survey who say they trust Hamas matches the historic high of 27%, first seen in spring 2005, and represents a 6 point increase since November.”

Now none of this actually predicts a Hamas win, but you’d have to be pretty thick not to get the idea that a Hamas win was possible. And our Condi’s not thick.

Clearly she just doesn’t read.

BTW: Thanks to Secrecy News at the Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy for the quotes given above!

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