Conned again

Now that everyone is finished praising Bush's choice for the Supreme Court (because it could have been so much worse) reality is beginning to raise its ugly head. It is becoming more obvious that the nomination of Roberts is just another Republican scam. Roberts is an unabashed Republican neocon-type conservative who has been groomed for the Supreme Court from the beginning. His most commendable virtue is his adoration of the Executive Branch of government, and more specifically, George W. Bush. This is no last minute decision because of some mythical Bush "weakness." That is, Bush decided on Roberts because he thought he could not appoint someone more controversial at the moment. What BS! Bush cleverly used his perceived weakness to nominate a genuine conservative who would do what he wished and is trying to pass it off as a truly thoughtful and fair choice. Roberts is clearly anti-abortion and pro-business. A perfect choice to satisfy the mindless Christian right as well as the corporate masters that control the world. Brilliant! And he is almost certainly going to get away with it.

We just tonight had a meeting with our Democratic candidate for the House to replace Butch Otter (who is going to run for governor). This is very unusual given that first of all we seldom have a Democratic candidate for anything and, when we do, they rarely if ever visit North Idaho. But he was here, and for our little local Democratic party we had a remarkably good turnout. I like him. I thought he was bright, well informed, soft-spoken but effective, and most of all, opposed completely to the Patriot Act (which he says, and I concur, should never have been passed in the first place). Of course he's a lawyer (are all candidate for office in the U.S. lawyers? It does seem so). Anyway, for the most part I thought he was okay and there is no doubt that he will have my support. However, he somehow idolizes Roberts and thinks that he will be wonderful on the Supreme Court. I gather he thinks this because he thinks Roberts has a wonderful legal mind and because of that has an awesome respect for the Supreme Court. Personally, I don't think the one follows from the other. He may have a brilliant legal mind, and he may also respect the court, but he may very well respect the Executive Branch even more (which appears so far to be the case). Another question can be raised here: should a President whose poll ratings are so abysmally low, and who really ought to be facing impeachment hearings, even be allowed to make a Supreme Court nomination? I don't think so, especially as ultimately the Court could decide on Bush/Cheney's fate. Interesting, no?

Unfortunately, during our conversation the question of Rove and treason did not come up. When I questioned him about homophobia he did not answer. With respect to abortion he apparently takes Hilary's position - we are not in favor of it (as if anyone is actually in favor of abortion). I wanted to ask him what he though about Hilary but time ran out. All in all I liked him. And there is no doubt we Democrats here will support him. But one further problem bothers me.

You have to understand that I am absolutely anti-war. I think we should get the hell out of Iraq now. NOW! Our candidate, however, like so many others including Dean, Kerry and so on, takes the position that as we are occupiers we have legal responsibility to insure the health and safety of the occupied country and, therefore, cannot just pull out. I find this a curious kind of argument. We totally ignored international law when we started this illegal "war" and we have ignored all international law with respect to torture, killing civilians, war profiteering, etc., etc., but now we are supposed to respect international law about how to treat Iraqis? This is just the usual bullshit. We are not going to stay because we are concerned about international law. We are going to stay because we want to control the oil of the Middle East. We are going to establish a puppet government that will do as we say, and we are going to maintain troops there to make sure that is what happens. The Bush/Cheney administration has no plan to ever completely withdraw American troops from Iraq. People who talk about bringing the troops home and/or wating until the Iraqis can manage themselves might as well be baying at the moon. The only way we will get out of Iraq is if there is a change in the leadership of the United States. That is, the neocons have to go - preferably into prison.

Our candidate's solution to the Iraqi problem is to divide the country into three different independent areas - one for the Kurds, one for the Shiites, and one for the Sunnis. He bases this on the idea that Iraq was never a nation in the first place. Not a bad idea except for the fact that it would be totally impossible. So the Kurds would get Kirkut and all the oil wealth there, the Shiites would get the south and all the oil there, and the Sunnis would get the middle and what was left. I don't think so. But again, what do I know? I said Ronald Reagan could never be elected president. I said the Gropenfuhrer could never be elected governor. Actually, I also said Jimmy Carter could never be elected president. Obviously I am a real winner. So maybe Bush/Cheney are not so bad after all. IN A PIG'S EYE!!!