Month: September 2008

If ever any political party deserved to lose an election, it has to be the Democrats in 2008. If ever any Democratic politician needed to prove their worthiness to the party, it’s Hillary Clinton now her race for the presidential nomination has ended.

Where is Hillary Clinton? At a time when her party needs her more than ever, it appears Clinton has taken a vacation. Does this indicate a serious case of sour grapes?

There isn’t one male politician among Democrats who can stand up and talk truth about Sarah Palin without being denounced as sexist. Karl Rove knows it. This Satan in human form has outflanked the left by his choice of Palin for Republican Vice Presidential candidate. Hillary Clinton is now the only female Democrat with the clout to shove Palin off the podium once and for all, but instead she chooses to closet herself away where the media can’t reach.

“Ah,” you say, “then she should have been the VP choice.”

No, she shouldn’t. It made no sense, and if Clinton is half as bright as she wants us to believe, she would realize that. Give her a plumb job in the administration, but not as vice president, where subordination to Obama would have rankled too much.

Sarah Palin is being used by Karl Rove, and to great effect. How easy it is to fool the American people. All they want is an icon to cheer, a hero to applaud. Politics means nothing to Mister Average American. He’d rather have a Hollywood star than a statesman, which is why Ronald Reagan is still hyped as a “great” president, when in fact, he was truly the architect of the mess America is in today.

For all her “Barracuda” bluster, Palin is no match for Clinton. Clinton has the experience it will take Palin years to accrue. Clinton could demolish Palin virtually overnight.

So, where is she?

At a recent Obama meeting, he was asked by one frustrated Democrat, “When are you going to start fighting back?”

Obama responded that he campaigned differently, with truth. That’s a real shame, because Mister Average American doesn’t know truth if he falls over it and breaks his neck. You can speak truth to him till the cows come home and he’ll still go out and vote for the pretty one with the big mouth and Karl Rove answers.

The Democrats are hamstrung. There’s no influential female politician in the party with the clout of Hillary Clinton; no-one who can attack Palin’s pathetic lack of experience without falling foul of the ‘sexism’ Republican response.

On Wednesday, Joe Biden admitted Clinton may have been a better pick for VP candidate.^[1] He was wrong.

Hillary Clinton now needs to prove she is the person she says she is, someone with the guts and fire to be president of the United States one day.

By staying at home and sulking, she merely vindicates all those who voted for Obama as the better choice.

By staying home and sulking she is guaranteeing another four years of Republican domination.

^{[1] “Maybe Clinton Would’ve Been Better, Biden Says”, WSJ Blog, September 10th 2008}

Filed under: Woman power?

…….on hearing Sarah Palin’s interview on ABC:

If Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination, which black governor would the Republican party have chosen to run on the Vice President’s ticket?

Filed under: Political musings

Set out below are the words of George W Bush as he announced that henceforth September 11th would be known as ‘Patriot Day’:

A Proclamation by the President on Patriot Day 2008:

“September 11, 2001, was etched into America’s memory when 19 terrorists attacked us with barbarity unequaled in our history. On Patriot Day, we cherish the memory of the thousands of innocent victims lost, extend our thoughts and prayers to their families, and honor the heroic men and women who risked and sacrificed their lives so others might survive.

Since 9/11, we have recognized the threat posed by terrorists to the safety of the American people and worked to protect our homeland by fighting terrorists abroad. We are confronting terrorism by advancing freedom, liberty, and prosperity as an alternative to the ideologies of hatred and repression. Our Nation pays tribute to our courageous men and women in uniform serving around the world and the devoted members of our law enforcement, public safety, and intelligence communities at home who work night and day to protect us from harm and preserve the freedom of this great Nation.

Seven years ago, ordinary citizens rose to the challenge, united in prayer, and responded with extraordinary acts of courage, with some giving their lives for the country they loved. On Patriot Day, we remember all those who were taken from us in an instant and seek their lasting memorial in a safer and more hopeful world. We must not allow our resolve to be weakened by the passage of time. We will meet the test that history has given us and continue to fight to rid the world of terrorism and promote liberty around the globe.

By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001 (Public Law 107-89), the Congress has designated September 11 of each year as ‘Patriot Day.'”

It’s right that we should remember those who died on September 11th 2001. They were the innocents, going about their day by day lives with no thought of the horrors to which they would be so cruelly and violently subjected.

While we remember them, let us remember other victims associated with the attacks of 9/11/2001:

The many Russian soldiers killed and maimed fighting the Mujahideen in Afghanistan. They died because America supplied the weapons to the Afghan “freedom fighters” who killed them. The offspring of those “freedom fighters” are now named ‘terrorist’ by the US government. Osama bin Laden, himself, was supplied with weaponry by the United States to kill Russian soldiers.

Let us also remember the 241 US marines slaughtered when a truck bomb blew up their barracks in Lebanon, in 1983. They had no right to be there. To this day, no-one really knows what purpose they served, except it was at Ronald Reagan’s whim.

Let us remember the thousands of Iranians and Iraqis slaughtered during the Iran-Iraq war, with weapons of mass destruction sold to Saddam Hussein by the United States, while also being sold secretly to the Iranian mullahs (later revealed in the Iran-Contra scandal, that should have seen the impeachment of Ronald Reagan) just to ensure the war was prolonged so US arms dealers could get rich on the immeasurable suffering of two countries.

Let us remember the 297 innocents (including 66 children), who in 1988 were on Iranian Air Flight 655 when it was blown out of the sky by the US missile cruiser, “Vincennes” – illegally in Iranian waters – as the Airbus A300 was flying over the Straits of Hormuz, well within Iranian airspace.

Let us also remember the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of Iraqi innocents dead because of the US government’s unwarranted invasion of that country, using the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to commit an international war crime, and the five million children of that country now orphaned as a result.

All are, to some degree, linked to the attacks of 9/11. Add them together, and the 3,000 or so Americans who died at the WTC and Pentagon pale into some insignificance.

Was 9/11, as suggested by a certain infamous pastor, the result of ‘America’s chickens coming home to roost’?

Hardly chickens; the attacks of 9/11 were the only way possible for aggrieved and frustrated “freedom fighters” (an American description) to hit back at the imperialism and cold-blooded militarism of the United States in the Middle East.

Not chickens, but all the barbarism, corruption, profiteering, invasive militarism, and imperialistic endeavors of the United States, in a campaign to secure its inane thirst for oil at any cost, came home to roost on September 11th 2001.

Instead of learning wisdom from the horrific event, it sent America on yet another wild and bloody venture that has wrecked one nation and torn another to pieces.

Perhaps, when we share our moments of silence at 8.46 and 9.02 today, above all else, these are the things we should remember?

Filed under: Remembering All the dead