On The Eve Of The US Elections

Just Before Obama Makes History
All my life, it seemed impossible that a black man (and by extension any coloured person) would or could become POTUS. We'd seen Morgan Freeman play a very dignified POTUS in 'Deep Impact', but it just seemed like one of those fanciful Hollywood notions - a bit like Geena Davis playing one or the amazing career portrayed by Martin Sheen in the 'West Wing' series where a pretty wonderful Democratic parallel universe unfolded. All of this was a stark reminder at just how awful a choice had been made in having George W Bush as POTUS.

It's interesting how fast, how far-reaching his candidacy has been in readdressing the countless wrongs that have been done. There is a chance that this is the beginning of something great, like a renewal of the American dream, the great promise that was once there in the Constitution. It just might be a black man who leads America out of its current mess and leads it to a place where it can lead the world with true authority. We'll see. The expectations have never been this high.

This is going to be good.

Saying Bye To Bush
I nearly wrote 'elected' George W. Bush, but in fact I have to say he had the election jury-rigged to steal it from the man who would have made a much better POTUS than himself. The tragedy is somehow Amrica allowed itself a POTUS so committed to abstract notions that he was willing to appoint incompetents based on their beliefs about Abortion and 'Roe versus Wade'. After 8 years of the country being run into the ground, both fiscally and financially as well as international prestige and reputation-wise, it seems appropriate to celebrate the coming end of his sad Presidency.

This is a Presidency that saw (just to name only the MAJOR disasters):
9/11.
The War in Afghanistan
The War in Iraq
The military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay
The Sub-prime loans crisis
The Complete meltdown of the financial markets that led to the bail out - with his treasury secretary begging his own party on bended knee in Congress

I'm sure there are going to be any number of right wing commentators who are going to try and salvage the legacy of this Bush Administration, but the facts are, he ruined America. It is fitting tat just as the last days of GW Bush are about to come to pass, Oliver Stone is coming out with his movie 'W'. I hope he puts the boot in hard.

Watch Out For The Grassy Knoll
Speaking of Oliver Stone, he of 'JFK', of all the things that haunt us all is the 'Military-Industrial Complex'. I always recommend people read this book 'Voltaire's Bastards' which explains just why there is such a conglomeration of interests. It essentially comes down to the fact that the US Government never completely wound down its war-footing after WWII, and as such there were a plethora of firms that kept wanting government contracts to make arms.

That is to say, there's a whole bunch of companies that only make weapons, and weapons for the US government at that - and they form a dirty big part of the US economy.

Years ago, Japanese aviation engineers from Mitsubishi went across to the USA to find out just what resources could be used to build the FSX fighter jet based on the F-16. To their amazement, they found that these companies made parts that were never tested in volume, and were never placed in general domestic civilian use. This surprised the Mitsubishi engineers because even though Mitsubishi make weapons for the Japanese Self Defense Services, they also make vast consumer products from pencils to automobiles.

And yet, here were whole cities in Arizona and Colorado that specialised in making things that were just for weapons, never to see light as commercial parts. The funny thing is, these communities always want small governments, less taxation, but more government spending on arms because that's the only way their economies function. An elaborate kind of corporate welfare for a whole sector of the economy. This is who the Military-Industry Complex are, and this is why they keep harping on about the right to bear arms and the threat of socialism. They're the people who Oliver Stone thinks detested JFK so much because he was going to deny them a war, that they organised the assassination.

Guess who they're voting for, and why there might be gunmen on some grassy knoll waiting for the Barack Obama motorcade.
It's not about race, it's about their collective hip pockets.