Ray Hopewood '08

I've met the candidate for the future - the only one worth endorsing!

www.rayhopewood.com

No Sense Abroad?

So Condi is playing peace maker. Isn't that lovely. Going back again to the middle east, bravely persevering on her mission of salvation for the Israelies and Palestinians. Moving the ball forward on peace and reconciliation and trying to find their way along the road-map. Will someone please revoke this woman's passport? The BushCo Titanic is sinking fast. Not from the hoped-for Democratic iceberg, (see this weeks craven House vote - shame on you Nancy Pelosi! You've stripped away the Congressional oversight touchdown of any Iran bombing for the sake of a cheap political field goal) but from the weight of their own criminality and incompetence and Condi needs to protect her legacy. So what's a put-upon SecState to do when the admin hawks are circling, the opposition wolves are baying, the subpoenas flying, the clock is ticking and the historians are scribbling? Why go to the middle east of course! Makes perfect sense! Run out the clock in Bethlehem instead of Baghdad where at least they can etch on your epitaph - "Condi - at least she tried." What a farce. As if any body with any sense or understanding is listening to this tired old school teacher now. Her understanding of the subtleties of the middle east is about as deep as yours dear reader and not nearly as wide.

We knew this would be the case when she succeeded Uncle Tom Powell. BushCo was never looking for a serious State Department. As is their view on all Federal Agencies - and shown to its full extent now with the Justice Department Scandal- BushCo was all about destroying the government from within by appointing the most incompetent, partisan hacks to essentially run them into the ground so they could then prove how bad the government is and outsource everything to their corporate buddies. National Security, Emergency Management, the Military, Energy, Health Care, Justice and Incarceration, all the functions that BushCo says are key for fighting the terrorists and preserving our liberties he's sold to the highest bidder so that we are effectively unprotected and unguarded if his buddies can't make a profit on it. Hence why the stock market is at record highs and New Orleans is still not rebuilt. Hence why US health care costs the most in the Western world, delivers the least but HMOs and Pharma show record profits. Hence why we keep demanding that Iraqis take control of their own destiny and work with the Americans and why the American outsourcing companies that are actually running things keep throwing them to the wolves and bringing in Jordanians. And now Condi wants to make peace in Palestine.

That train has left the station and she still doesn't know it. Instead of sitting down with all the power-brokers in the region including Iran, including Syria and forcing the corrupt Israeli government to do the same, she scolds Egypt for not delivering Democracy fast enough. If Iraq is any indication of what US-spread democracy is about can you blame them? Once again administration naivete is in full force and can only unleash tragedy. Instead of working with the Saudis and Jordanians to help drive acceptance of King Abdullah's plan - peace and full recognition for Israel in exchange for a pull back to the 1967 borders, she coddles Olmert in Jerusalem and encourages his intransegence. Using her best school-marm persona she flies back and forth scolding these leaders on what they should be doing with no understanding of the context in which they live. Fortunately though her time has passed. No one in the world arena takes her seriously any more. She has blown whatever credibility she had during the Lebanon War this summer. She's just another BushCo hack with her own airplane. Paradoxically, we're now experiencing the greatest tension with Russia - her speciality I'm told - due to BushCo's talent for turning allies into enemies. Maybe we could just ship her to Siberia. Now there's a trip the American taxpayer might find worth paying...

Lying down to Rio?

For any one keeping score this has not been a good week for BushCo by any stretch of the imagination. 3 scandals, a conviction, and a resignation in waiting. A stock market correction - as predicted by yours truly way back in October - capped off by Chicken George's flight to Latin America to escape the press corp (and setting off riots and mayhem wherever he landed). Why do foreign governments allow him entry knowing that they will inevitably be forced to send out the heavy artillery to protect him? Of course seeing such troop strength being deployed so effectively must surely re-enforce W's conviction in the surge. If it works in Bogota it should work in Baghdad...

But with Fidel on the mend, Hugo on the go-go, not to mention Lula doing the ethanol hula, the continent is potentially moving in the right direction -actually that would be left - from its Yanqui cousin. What we're potentially seeing, in the words of Condi the Irrelevant, are truly the birth pangs of democracy. Not in the middle East but happening now in Latin America. It may not be the powdered wig, 1776 variety, but a very real, market driven, populist democracy and egalitarian distribution of wealth brought about by unprecedented demand for energy - both petroleum, gas and green energy. This is a fascinating turn of events - more so since it is happening under our noses and without any assistance from us. Of course, many of you will say that Chavez is a dictator, that he rules by decree and that he's nationalized several foreign enterprises. I say - Chavez won his election(s), his congress was extremely corrupt and ineffective, he is extremely popular with his people and that the industries he's taken over - utilities btw - he paid fair market value and that it is a violation of sovereignty to have foreigners running your critical telecommunications and electrical infrastructure. He has become a spokesperson for much of the dispossessed in the 3rd world and keeps critical issues on the front burner including global health care, poverty, and education. More importantly, Internet access is widely available, the press is still open, and people can leave the country, and there is a functioning judiciary and a market economy. This of course underscores the egregious violations in our own constitution first perpetrated by John Ashcroft and then compounded by Alberto Gonzalez. Their records would make you think we were the ones living under a banana republic dictatorship.

It's absolutely obscene - from prisoners being held at Gitmo, extraordinary rendition, FBI agents violating wiretapping and habeas corpus, to the firing of Federal Prosecutors for failing to pass the political litmus test. Who's the one defending democracy and who's the one subverting it? We could be listening to reports from Peronist Argentina or Pinochet's Chile but we're not - they're happening right here. With Libby's conviction this week we were shown a spotlight - albeit a small one - but a spotlight nevertheless on how this administration has conducted itself. Using fear, uncertainty and doubt, not to mention all the viciousness and pettiness of fighting sorority sisters, there is nothing too vile that they wouldn't do to keep their grip on power. Most tragically for this country is that they're also hopelessly incompetent - as we keep seeing over and over and over again. And that is precisely why they are so dangerous. They cannot control the events they set in motion which in turn creates its own consequences they cannot foresee and cannot overcome.

All the birds are now coming home to roost - Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, the environment, the economy, all at the same time. Given this administration's abysmal track record with even minor crises anyone taking bets on how well they're going to do over the next 18 months? Caracas is looking pretty good about now...

The Iraqi Falcon?

Why is anybody at all surprised by what's going on with Cheney? This man learned his politics in which administration? That would be the Nixon administration. The same administration that used all kinds of dirty tricks, wicked deeds, and who knows what levels of lies and deceit to retain power. This was the same administration that could have made peace in Vietnam 2 years before it actually did and lied the entire time about bombing - not North Vietnam - but Cambodia - who it claimed was aiding the Northern insurgents. This is man who's political mid-wife was HR Haldeman, who's wet-nurse was G. Gordon Liddy, and who's nanny was Henry Kissenger. And people are surprised that we're rattling sabers at Iran while we continue to fight a losing war of choice in Iraq. Surprised that Cheney is so far out there that even dyed-in-the-wool Bushies are creating some distance. So why should anybody be surprised that the lies about the Valerie Plame outing leads over the body of Libby the pathetic patsy to Cheney himself?

I'm reminded of the Maltese Falcon, in the final scenes where Sidney Greenstreet is convinced by Humphrey Bogart to give up Elisha Cook Jr. his trusted gunsling, to the police in exchange for the Maltese Falcon "I couldn't be fonder of you than if you were my own son. But lose a son and you can find another, but the Maltese Falcon..." And that's exactly what we have here. And like the Maltese Falcon what we have is a similar cabal of reprobates driven mad by greed and their obsession with power. Condi could even play Mary Astor - she's the real killer in the bunch. Leaves no prints but lot's of blood. Of course that leaves W to play Peter Lorre - and while he doesn't look the part, his internal machinations clearly do. Of course there's no Humphrey Bogart in that lot - unless Chuck Hegel is for real. He seems to be auditioning...Of course the end doesn't bode well. The Falcon is a fake just like the rationale for the War. Shakespeare was partially wrong in this case. History repeats first as tragedy - true, and second not as farce but as cheap melodrama.

Write your congress-people! Impeachment is the only way to stop the madness! Silence equals complicity!

Surge Protection?

The state of the Union was about as exciting as Oscar night with Tom Hanks in the running. You knew the outcome before the envelope was opened. Bush blathering on about "victory this", "will and determination that", and some half-hearted domestic policy suggestions thrown out like parsley on meat loaf. Pathetic. I'd go on, but there's no point. You know and I know what the situation is, and of course, what the remedy is. So write your congress people. Get impeachment on the front burner before more of our brave children die in what Chuck Hegel rightly calls the meat grinder.

Let's talk instead about the spate of democratic presidential nominations that came out and a potential republican one. Pretty nifty of Obama to scoop Hillary so completely by not only announcing first, but by doing it on the internet. No nasty press questions that way-- just push play and poof! Message sent; message received. In looking to regain lost ground, Hil not only announces on the internet but then proceeds to host her own cyberfireside chats. A kinder gentler Hillary? Nah. She's still not baking cookies and she's not repudiating her war vote either. In perfect Clintonian cadence we got to hear yet again how if the information she had was what the facts on the ground really were she never would have ....blah blah blah. The bottom line is Hillary Clinton would take a poll before she turned over in bed for fear of flipping too far to the left or too far to the right. And if that's not bad enough-- who does she revive to run her campaign? Your favorite and mine-- Terry "Moneybags" McAuliffe! Yes, the man who sold the DNC and lost Al Gore the presidency! The man who anointed Tom Daschle as party leader...the hits just keep on coming! This is the man who rolled over after 9/11 and is in good measure responsible for the ineffectiveness of the democratic response to W and his thugs. Game Set Match.

As for Obama, I have no gripe with him-- except for the fact that he has no experience and has never run anything more complex than a 3-legged race. He's a charismatic, highly intelligent, extremely charming individual who could do more to re-establish American prestige-- at least in Europe-- than most. But face it, he ain't up to the cleanup we've got in front of us. So who does that leave? Edwards has been running since 2004 and could be an interesting candidate in his own right. He's got something to say and is no stranger to life and death decisions. Personally though, I think we've got to get Gore back in the race. He won once; he could certainly do it again. And if anybody's the rightful heir to the Clinton/Gore legacy, it would be, well.......Al Gore. But like Mario Cuomo before him: will he run or just tease?

And what of Chuck Hegel? He of the furrowed brow and Richard Burton looks? Will he run? There have been rumors of a unity ticket. Perhaps the Chuck and Joe (Biden) Show will leave the Sunday morning circuit (much to the chagrin of Wolf, Tim, Bob, George, and Chris) and make a stab for the WH. He's certainly scored big points with many dems, not unlike crazy John McCain did a few years back. But before most dems realized he really was a crazy ass right wing whacko and not just playing one on TV. Of course, Chuck is equally on the debit side of every other issue dems hold dear: a 0 rating from NARAL as an example. So applaud him for his stance on Iraq but he's not one of us no matter how hard we might wish to whitewash his voting record. We won't get fooled again...I hope.

Please write to your congressional representatives. Demand they submit articles of impeachment. If you don't take action, you condone what's being done in your name!

Eyes Wide Shut?

Another Sunday, another round of talking heads, and of course, another round of spin from the criminals in the White House. After the broasting, our gal Condi received last week at the congressional hearings, she was kept well out of site leaving the spin duties to a very busy Stephen "you've been" Had-Ley (appearing on both Meet the Press & This Week), and Darth Cheney himself on Fox (the media equivalent of Vice's unknown bunker). W, the idiot king himself, goes on tonight on 60 Minutes and to no one's surprise admits nothing, repents nothing and when asked if he'd do it again answers exactly as you'd expect...... "of course". The more stubbornly the administration digs--in and the more congress strikes back, we are rapidly moving to a constitutional showdown of epic proportions. Can congress rein in a renegade president and what will it take to bring things to this pass? The dangerousness of our situation cannot be understated. During the last days of Watergate there was serious concern that Nixon would attempt to stage a coup against the congress and so the oath of military loyalty was re-administered among the troops as a preventative measure. But with more and more belicose posturing against Iran, the administration is clearly pushing its final agenda with greater velocity and desperation.

This should take no one by surprise. After losing the popular vote in 2000, the Bush gang proceeded to govern as if they had won a mandate. The best analysis to date of what's happening was given by Robert Perry in his column on Truth Out entitled "The US-Iran-Iraq-Israeli-Syrian War. ( http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011207L.shtml)

In it, he clearly outlines how the combination of a new deployment of the Navy's fleet in the gulf (unnecessary for managing the situation in Iraq, but critical if he's planning on launching attacks on Syria and Iran) as well as the replacement of Army General Abazaid with Admiral William Fallon as Chief of the Central Command for the Middle East underlines his intention to pre-emptively strike outside of Iraq. In addition, in the international firestorm sure to follow, his placing Negroponte to back up the hapless Condi in the State Dept. as well as putting Zalmay Khalilzad as our UN face also makes perfect sense. In the context of a first strike at Iran's nuclear capabilities, mobilizing 20,000 additional troops now also makes a certain sense-- not to pacify the country as a whole, but to seal off Sadr City and the Shiite militias after the bombs stop falling in Natanz.

The Navy in charge of the Middle East Central Command?!?! I'm reminded of the famous exchange between Humphrey Bogart (Rick) and Conrad Veidt (Major Strassa) in Casablanca:

Major Strassa: So how did you come to be in Casablanca?
Rick: I came to Casablanca for the waters.
Major Strassa: Waters? But Casablanca is a desert?
Rick: I was misinformed.


Acknowledging no oversight but their own, no possibility of their own fallability, pathological stubborness, and a psychotic denial of reality on the ground, the Bush gang is driving the Porshe at 120 mph drunk and blindfolded and it is about to hit the wall. Unfortunately for us-- we're the Porsche. Congress must act and remove them from power with the same velocity and vigor that this gang has acted all along. Half-measures will simply not work any more. Legislative niceties and etiquette are nice but we simply don't have the time. Before more troops are committed, more lives lost, and the Middle East explodes beyond all hope of recovery, Bush and his gang must be ousted. Write your congresssional representatives-- keep the pressure up. They must be stopped and time is getting short. It's only a matter of days before we see him on our TV screens: blinking like a broken traffic light and saying the words that will truly end the "American Century" ...... "Today I ordered the 5th Navy Air Command to bomb the Iranian nuclear faciliites at Natanz."

Slouching Towards Babylon

20,000 more troops. 20,000 more brave children in the first blush of youth, potential, and power simply tossed away like so much trash. 20,000 more families torn apart with fear, uncertainty and grief. For what? The enormity of this tragedy is simply beyond the reckoning of any possible justification manufactured by the criminals in the White House. As I wrote back in October either we would have to begin to draw down our forces or a draft would have to be instituted to provide the necessary force concentration, to at a minimum, stabilize the country. For what? Why would the addition of 20,000 more troops - bringing overall troop strength back to where it was a year ago and ineffective then - make a difference now? It wouldn't and it won't. This is neither a strategy or a solution. It is simplistic and it is delusional. And It is in the final analysis, criminal.

The single largest conclusion drawn from this tragedy is that Iraq is not a "country" in the Western sense of the word. Iraq is an artificial creation of the British government which, in the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire needed to create an administrative entity for this particular part of the middle east. With Kurds in the North, Shias in the South and Sunnis in the West - all with complex webs of mutually hostile tribal and clan alliances. Saddam kept Iraq together by pure brute force. And, even with his depravity Iraq was, prior to UN sanctions, a secular, stable, and safe corner of the middle east. A country with high levels of education, health care, women's emancipation and integration into the professional classes, and a modernized infrastructure. This is now only a fond memory to Iraqis. With the failure of the Iraqi government to control the violence and deliver basic services, Iraqis have reverted to the time tested method for protection - align with your clan and its militia. The middle class exodus from Iraq has been well documented - those that could re-enforce secularism and keep the engines of commerce going have left the country leaving the worst elements of the society in control - the mullahs, the criminals, the thugs. Things fall apart, the center cannot hold.

In what is emblematic of this president, rather than elevate his capabiities to the level of the crisis - like Harry Truman or JFK, he approaches the crisis from within the narrow context of his minimal capabilities. He cannot move away from simplistic good-bad formulas and analysis. He cannot synthesize contrary opinions. He cannot adapt to new conditions on the ground. The devastating whirlwind of historic forces he has unleashed are so far beyond his level of understanding and vision that he is now truly at the mercy of events - not their master. While Bush fatuously demands that the Shia led Iraqi government step up and gain control of the situation and stabilize the country - there is no country left to stabilize. Bush's invasion saw to that. It is also not in the Al-Maliki's Government's interest to subdue the civil war because that is what its goals have been all along! An indepedent and ethnically cleansed Southern Shiite state, in control of significant oil reserves and aligned with Iran. The Kurds in the North have been simply running out the clock and waiting for the inevitable collapse so they can declare an independent oil rich Kurdistan. It is the Sunnis - cast out into the wilderness of Western Iraq without any oil or commerce areas that have the most to lose from this break-up and is why the Saudis and Egyptians (and don't forget the Israelis!?!) feel they may need to support their brothers. A third, hostile, fundamentalist Shiite state aligned with Iran is simply unacceptable. Turkey, always hostile to the idea of an independent Kurdistan looks on with increasing agitation and in the event of Indepedence may feel it necessary to invade the territory under the guise of quelching the PPK and other Kurdish seperatist activity. It is into this cauldron of scorpions that George W Bush wants to send 20,000 more our children.

If any Dictator consigned 20,000 of its own people to certain grievous injury or death, (s)he would be branded a pariah by the international community and a monster by history. And that is what we are dealing with now in no uncertain terms. The legacy of the Bush presidency is that of chaos, death, and destruction on a scale unimaginable. There is no turning back, there is no easy solution, only long, hard, and very painful choices for us, for the Iraqis, and for the middle East at large. We lost from the moment our Congress voted to endorse Bush and his war mongers on this absurd and tragic adventure.