POLITICS AND NATURE

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together....

...Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

President Eisenhower's Farewell Address: http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/ike.htm

The Republicans debated for Fox News again the other night. I don't even remember which night it was. They all seem to blend together into one long fog. These candidates were falling over each other to show who is the toughest, meanest hombre this side of the Ukraine. They won't take any smack from other world leaders. Personally, I came away dejected, my hope and beliefs in this nation strewn against the wall of reality as I came away with the knowledge one of these men may lead the nation.

WE WILL PERSEVERE:  to where, we're not quite sure

Essentially, each promised to continue in the blind and ignorant path set up by the current boss-man. Leave it to them and we may well have WWIII. George sure seems itching for it. The arrogance on that stage blew my mind. Now, it is an essential ingredient for anyone running for the presidency to have a giant ego, so none of that is anything new. But no one on the Republican side has even an ounce of humility save for Huck. Even Ron Paul, with all his appeal and his millenarian followers can't keep him away from self righteous anger.

Humor and Rage at the Ultimate Fringe

Imagine a ticket with Ron Paul and Mike Gravel. Two loons who are pissed off about everything. It is hard for real people to even watch these guys. I think they add humor and if they win, they could still give Dennis Kucinich the job of parking cars outside the Oval office. Imagine a grumbling, diminutive dwarf snatching keys away from visiting dignitaries while mumbling under his breath "it wasn't my fault the economy was bad in Cleveland."

So much for the fringe. At least Ron Paul is raising some money, getting press, and motivating people. The two outliers on the Democratic side are just along for the ride. I don't even know if Mike Gravel visits any primary states or if he just bribed somebody to get on the gravy train of a couple of prime time debate events. C-Span broadcast debates between lesser known candidates, people I had never heard of on the Republican side, I assume there are folks on the Democratic side as well who nobody knows. It's good to get up on a soap box and set your tirade in motion. I suppose that is what the blogosphere is all about. But that is neither here nor there.

Those circus freaks really just add some humor to the entire menagerie of meaningless dribble erupting out of the mouths of people like Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and, sadly, John McCain.

Yes, McCain wants to stay in Iraq for the next 100 years. And he is proud of this assessment. To a certain extent, he has a point, the U.S. military has been in Korea for fifty some odd years protecting the East and in Germany since 1945 protecting the West. But how long will they drag this thing on? Everyone keeps supporting the surge. The surge is working. The surge is stabilizing the country. The surge is a stroke of genius. Fred Thompson quipped something along the lines of you know the surge is working cause the New York Times isn't writing about it anymore. Just So everyone here knows, the NYT has been writing about the War continuously. Thompson's a creepy old man who looks like he fits nicely back on the porch in old Tennessee where he can take off every once in a while to play the tired but wisened old admiral or prosecutor in Hollywood so he can make more cash for his second wife and all the family values he preaches.

Bush came out this week warning of reducing troop numbers below the surge, making it the endless surge. It's working, heh heh. What his majesty doesn't seem to get is his approval ratings are so low that anything will look better. They are masters of Spin.

Karl Rove is no genius. He's a guy who worked in the basement of Nixon's White House, befriended a half-wit failure with a lot of cash from Texas who had nothing better to do and a family name, engineered a spurious attack ad against war hero John McCain, and then later John Kerry, and Max Cleland, his candidate barely won in 2000, losing the popular vote, and then his candidate barely won in 2004 with a president at war and a cabinet talking about mushroom clouds.

He proceeded to convince his boss to actively deepen the national divide, not even question spending priorities in Congress, follow the rampantly vicious neo-cons into a second war just to prove the military could do it, kill at least tens of thousands of innocent people in a far away land which was contained before he got a hold of it, ignore Clinton's warnings about national security, deny global warming until the last year of his administration, support political cronies and hacks into positions of power within the federal government who had responsibility over the lives of American citizens, advocate the party line at all costs-to the detriment of the country, and just generally be an asshole.

NO, Rove didn't do anything except get lucky during a deeply divisive race. Bill Clinton f(*&d up by getting a blow job, after taking the helm during one of the most prosperous and peaceful times in the nation's history where the world loved us, thus giving Republicans canon fodder and making 2000 a close election. If you're going to thank anyone, don't thank Rove. Thank Ralph Nader. He took the votes away from Gore (despite the fact he says he didn't) to get the idiot cowboy into office.

Do Not Be Fooled either. These people running for office are the same damn party and have the same ideology which has been crushing the soul of America.

Looters, Spendthrifts, and Goons

They need a war. They need a frightened populace. They need to avert people's eyes from Republican attempts to create a long term leadership coalition based on a fragile combination of social conservatives and fiscal conservatives so they can get back to what they are good at, looting the public treasury and funding wealthy, private investors and business interests with the hard earned cash of the lazy bottom feeders living it up on socialist programs like Social Security, free education, and Medicare.

Not a single one brought up diplomacy as I understand it. Not even Huck this time around. They gotta show toughness and grit and they are all for change. I don't know how any of these bozos will change anything but their address if they win the White House. They do not believe it is the people's house....they believe it is the corporate house. They have one issue.....taxes. That's it folks. No more.

They talk of conservative values but the legal status of abortion hasn't changed in the nearly 40 years of Republican control in the White House. They made such a debacle of this government over the last seven years I can't even imagine why anyone would stick with them. They have failed miserably and our country is paying for it. They looted the system like it was the Republican National Committee fund and people let them get away with it because they used vile crap like the Swift Boat ads and the attacks on Cleland and now John Murtha.

People in poll after poll explain how negative ads turn them off, they don't work on them, they get tired of seeing them......and then they vote for the fucker with the most horrendous ads on tv or in the mail. I just am astonished.

I used to get color brochures from my conservative congressman boasting about all the money he got spent in this district, which, I just read the other day, is bigger than Illinois. These brochures had a tiny little explanation on the bottom of them stating they were paid for with taxpayer dollars. The Grand Old Party is the party of swindle and nation rape and the fact that the rich stand by them shows their reticence to truly support the Flag and what it stands for. They'll wear their little lapel pin flag though and scoff at those who don't.

McCain and the Others

John McCain. He's getting to where he's wanted to be for twenty years. I've praised Senator McCain in this journal. He's from my state. The state of Barry Goldwater and part time home of Tim McVeigh. New Hampshire's motto is "Live Free or Die" and, although I don't know what Arizona's is off hand, it very well could be "Live Free and Shoot Anyone Who Gits in Yer Way." McCain is known as a maverick, someone who works beyond party lines. Except now he wants the presidency so bad he can taste it, and our boy Huck is helping him get there.

John is 72 come August and he has been in the Senate since I was in High School (I just had my twenty year reunion). He was elected to the House in '82 and to the Senate in '84. He was involved with Keating and the S&L crises and has subsequently spent the rest of his career trying to make up for it by pressing on campaign finance reform. He is the one elected official who has never answered a single one of my letters. If he leaves the Senate, it will give seniority to Jon Kyl in Arizona and a chance for someone else to go to Washington D.C. He says he's made change over those twenty years, but he sat and watched for the last seven while his colleagues pillaged the countryside in the name of patriotism.

 He seems to have forgiven George W. Bush for the truly horrendous things Bush's henchmen said about him in South Carolina eight years ago and he will probably forgive Romney for being the cheap greedhead that he is if Romney gets elected. But McCain is stuck. He will owe these people and he will owe them big if he ever gets into the Big House and it is hard to imagine him sticking to his guns on that final wagon ride out of politics when fat cats show up to cash in a lifetime of chips.

It would be funny to see McCain beat Romney in Mitt's home state of Michigan after the man shoveled who knows how many truckloads of cash into his so far losing run for a nice parlor home in D.C. Most people so far believe Mitt is some low rate hustler who happened to make it big and his smooth talking, slick image makes him look like twice the dunce of Michael Dukakis with a charm that just looks sleazy, but he still, like Dukakis before him, may well wind up the Grand Old Party's nominee if he sticks to his guns and keeps talking about the Olympics, something which I find it hard to believe anybody cares about.

Huck is a wild card and Rudy is waiting for Florida. I heard recently he couldn't pay his staffers so that can't be good. He's banking it all on Florida and no national attention until then. Personally, I just hope Fred Thompson goes home. How can anyone put up with the idea of that man doing anything serious for an extended period of time. I mean, he was the Republican House Counsel during Watergate and he was a Senator. The man is obviously very smart and accomplished. It just looks like he so wants to play the part of president and doesn't understand the desires of the other 60 million Americans who didn't vote for George Bush and this makes me think....well....he's likely to be a cheap clone of George W. Bush if he is ever elected to the White House.  

Be assured, whatever guise they put on, they are all brutes and they will hire menacing thugs to fill their private, praetorian gaurd, able to bust down your doors and monitor your life. Freedom will go the way of the Soviet Union, the Ottoman Empire, and Rome. The nation will go to war with Iran if Bush doesn't get his way first, and War and Greed will become the American mottos for the new millenium. They all think the war is going just dandy and the middle class is ok with living just barely above their means. They will all protect the wealthy because, as we all know, the wealthy are certainly the one's needing protection. And they will not coddle criminals or terrorists. If you are from Sudan, off to Cuba. If from New York City, don't worry, the prisons are full but our newest wannabe Ronald Reagan will build more. It is a truly frightening vision of a future devoid of hopes and dreams instilling fear and motivating failure among the masses.