Monday, July 30, 2007

Obama Blew It

Obama said that if he were president of the United States and received "actionable intelligence" that the Waziristan area of Pakistan “needed” to be bombed that he would not only bomb it but also send American troops in regardless of what Pakistan wanted. This shows the world that Obama thinks he is seeking recognition by the Democratic Party of the U.S. that he will become acclaimed as Emperor of the Planet, rather than a temporarily factotum of one of the now second-world nations in the international body of nations.

Of course Karl Rove will say nothing, only lick his chops, he certainly would do nothing to impede Obama from becoming the Democratic Party candidate in the elections. Nonetheless, a plan of action is now being assembled in Rove's magic kitchen of ways to treat this at the proper time. What if Obama is not the candidate? No matter. Every Democratic Party candidate-to-be will be forced to comment on Obama's statement, and every Republican Party member will have a unified response already prepared for him or her.

Unfortunately Musharraf has no good options, but he cannot let this pass. To remain quiet would be interpreted by his Pakistani opponents – including the Taliban – as acquiesce, and he will be so charged by them. He has no choice but to respond. No matter what, his position as Emperor of Pakistan has been weakened. Not that Musharraf’s passing would be reason for regret, but the region is ripe for political and religious explosion. If we could only bring the diplomatic forces of the world to help soothe the irritations of this part of the world and not to cast more gasoline upon the smoldering embers.

But alas, that is not to be. America has also been shown again to be the little country boy, walking along a dirt road, carelessly kicking rocks out of his pathway and dreaming of becoming rich and famous, but totally unaware of the world in which he lives.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Who to Believe?

The war drums are beating again as generals and staffers claim Iran is providing new types of explosive devices. They leave the matter with a pregnant pause as if to say "So what should we do"? It all seems to imply a need for revenge, attack and more war.

Iran says they are not doing this so who are we to believe? Iran or our president? Unfortunately, George Bush and his entire administration has lied to the American people, the US Congress and the entire world about everything connected with the war in Iraq from the WMD to the Saddam-connection-with-9/11, and on and on and on. Now we have to decide who we should believe in a he-said, he-said type of thing. Too bad this had to come up right after Scooter Libby had his prison sentence for lying under oath commuted by George Bush. Seems that maybe he did lie, but according to our president it was a "necessary" lie, or maybe it was a "patriotic" lie?

So when it comes to a show-down between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and George Bush as to whom do I believe . . . and if the choice may lead to war . . . then . . . well, maybe we ought to just see what this other guy has to say if he will agree to participate in an international discussion. I'm sure Mahmoud has been wrong in the past too, but every - single - time?

© John Womack 2007. All rights reserved.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Commute? Commute What?

The word “commute” means to exchange, replace or substitute one thing for another. Bush said he was commuting Liddy’s prison sentence, but took a prison sentence for lying, and replaced it with a reward for lying. Did Bush misspeak again, or was this something different? Maybe this is some of those “consequenchies” he promised to bring to America if he was elected?

Perhaps what was really commuted was the American constitution. Maybe our system of laws with its checks and balances, and division of powers has just been commuted to a new system of “doin’ what comes nacherly”, a new form of “it’s a miracle, by George!” It sounds like what they used to refer to back in the old swamps of north Florida as a “he-coon” running his territory the way it ought to be done.

It’s not so much that Bush is telling us he is going to do whatever he WANTS to do, but he is making sure we all know he will do whatever NEEDS to be done. Who decides the difference? He does. The He-coon is taking care of his pack. . The Decider is telling us that He and His “people” are above the laws that apply to ordinary people. If His people need to lie, then they should lie. If they tell a necessary lie He will take care of them. And rest assured that Libby will be pardoned along with many others at the last minute.

This also informs the American congress and courts that they really aren’t needed anymore. And if they ever are needed again, the Decider will call them and tell them where and when to assemble and what they need to do. The president will take care of America.

The same may apply to our military. They can now attack whomever they need to attack. How will they know who that is? The Decider will tell them. He may already have done that. Like He already did in Iraq. If He needs advice He can consult His old friend, Dick Cheney.

So – what to do? Well let’s face it, democracy never triumphs, it never wins in the end. It is always an uneasy balance between different and often opposing forces. It’s messy. It always involves uncertainty and makes its citizens do things they really don’t want to have to do. Like talking with each other about our common problems, like war, like presidential power, like patriotism. Notice I didn’t say we need to talk TO each other but WITH each other.

Can we even talk with each other again? Republicans and democrats, liberals and conservatives, white and black, male and female and all the in-betweeners. All that can be done, not easy, but doable. But there is still a bigger problem, and that is the communication between America’s rich and poor, its educated and uneducated. Can we do that? Probably not.

But remember that revolution is always an alternative, too. Let’s not let that become too attractive to too many Americans.

Maybe we can’t talk to everybody, but at least we can talk to our friends and to our congress people. We can do e-mail, telephone calls, letters, blogs, articles to our local newspapers.

© John Womack, 2007. All rights reserved.