CLOUDS ON THE HORIZON

Americans remember that we won World War II.

But nobody seems to remember how we did that.

First of all, we didn't do it alone. We were part of the Allied Forces. It was a serious strategic blunder for Japan to attack us at Pearl Harbor. We entered the war to fight alongside of Great Britain and her Commonwealth countries. It was a fatal strategic blunder for Nazi Germany to attack the Soviet Union in 1943. The Red Army fought back with brutal ferocity, and were the ones to enter Hitler's Berlin in 1945. We did our part, and can be proud of that. But we didn't win the war single-handedly.

And, secondly, much of the war effort that led to victory occurred here in the United States, not on overseas battlefields. We built war machines in numbers that overwhelmed the opposition. For example, at the start of the war, Japan had 10 aircraft carriers in commission, and the United States had 8. At the end of the war, Japan's force had been reduced to only 4 carriers. The United States had 114. For example, the German Panzer tank was more powerful and more durable than the American Sherman tank. But American Sherman tanks outnumbered Panzers by a ratio of 5 to 1. We won the war partly because of our manufacturing might.

So how are things going these days?

A decade of jingoism and cowboy highjinks severely damaged our relations with our historical Western allies. The present administration is trying to repair things, but the jingoistic and partisan GOP seems to have forgotten the idea that politics stops at the water's edge. Once most of the world saw us as the good guys. That was before Abu Ghraib. They thought our leadership could be trusted. That was before we re-elected Dubya.

And our manufacturing might? Our corporate leaders, seeking to enrich themselves more by paying less to their workforce, have relocated much of that to foreign shores and foreign workers. China now has much of our manufacturing capability and expertise. They are now the world's second largest economy, and growing rapidly while we sputter along.

We were on the winning side in 1945.

But times have changed.

There are clouds on the horizon.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

If you were old enough to remember the Great Depression, here's what you would remember.

After the stock market crash of 1929, our economy and the world economy went into a tailspin. Unfortunately, we had just elected a Republican in 1928, Herbert Hoover, who philosophically held fast to the notion that the government should not involve itself in taking action in the crisis. As conditions got worse, as unemployment hit 25%, hundreds of Hoovervilles sprouted up to house thousands upon thousands of rail-hopping hobos looking for work, and Herbert Hoover assured America that he was staying the course and prosperity was just around the corner.

It wasn't. America dumped Hoover and the Republican Party in 1932, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected. Over his next two terms, he had some success in using government powers and government funds to improve the lives of ordinary Americans. Many wealthy and privileged people in this country still hate him for doing that.

The worldwide economic crisis brought down a new democracy in Germany. A new fascist government allied itself with a militaristic regime in Japan. Western governments, sickened by the horrifying loss of life in WWI, went to great lengths to avoid new conflicts. That didn't work.

War started in with a German invasion of Poland in September 1939, a little after Josef Stalin and Adolf Hitler agreed on a non-aggression pact. Poland was crushed, and afterwards Britain and France declared war on Germany. For two more years, America stayed out of the war. But Roosevelt and many others wondered what would happen if we did not enter the war, and if France and Britain were defeated. Would Germany come after us next?

But the United States did enter the war, after our naval forces in the Pacific were attacked by Japan on December 7, 1941. We declared war on Japan. Germany, Japan's ally, declared war on us. We then declared war on Germany.

No one in this country knew if we would win this war, or lose it. In retrospect, Franklin Roosevelt's statement that "No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory." was a pretty gutsy thing to say. But no one knew if we could win, or could even survive this war.

For at least once in our nation's history, we were united by the shock of Pearl Harbor. We amazed ourselves and the world with the force of our united strength. The tide of the war against Japan turned in the summer of 1942, with an American victory at Midway and the destruction of the carrier force that attacked Pearl Harbor. The tide of the war against Germany turned when they betrayed the Soviet Union in 1943 and attacked. Our inconvenient alliance with the Soviet Union began, and we supported them in their resistance to Nazi Germany.

In 1945, the United States and its allies were victorious. We all experienced the relief and pride of a hard earned victory. But unlike our allies, we had not been bombed into rubble.

Before WWII, the United States of America had been an economic entity. But we were not a world leader in anything, except corn and cotton production.

After WWII, we were Number One. In just about everything.

While the rest of the world rebuilt its houses, we went full speed ahead with our massive manufacturing plants. Suddenly, the backwater pre-war USA became the powerhouse post-war USA.

We're Number One!

Many modern Americans don't remember what the world was like before WWII.

We weren't much then.

We didn't become something more until after other world cities were bombed to rubble.

After that, we got a big head start. We were Number One when there wasn't a Number Two.

The Fifties. The Sixties.

Those were the Good Old Days.

Unfortunately, we've outsourced our manufacturing and ruined our climate and indebted our economy to foreign powers. Oops.

If you are old enough to remember the Great Depression, you came through a terrible time.

If you're not old enough to remember the Great Depression, you're living in a terrible time.

Your enemies are domestic, not foreign.

We're only Number One if we're smart enough to stay Number One.

But, geez, what are the odds of that? It's comforting, at least, to remember.

THE GOOD OLD DAYS

ISLAM

I'm not sure whether I met any Muslims before I met ...

Gee. I can't remember his name. He was Egyptian and he worked with me at FourPhase.

FourPhase has disappeared into corporate history, and so has he.

He was a good guy, very competent, very nice. He could write Unix scripts.

His example showed me that Islam has some things in common with Christianity.

You can have good guys like Saint Francis and Saint Theresa and Mother Theresa saying they are Christians. And you can have dirtbags like Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and George W. Bush doing the same.

Islam has decent people , like him, and insane monsters, like Osama Bin Laden.

We Americans have a solution to this insanity.

Everyone, from bigoted racist Christians to civilized tolerant Muslims, are entitled to pursue their own personal religious convictions.

And we prosecute anyone who threatens our Constitution and our existence as a nation.

That's the American Way.

Yeah!

OMG

So the Obama Administration has followed the same course as the Nancy Pelosi Congress.

It was possible, and frankly fully justified, to impeach Bush and Cheney for war crimes.

We did, in fact, convict and punish others for waterboarding our own soldiers in WWII.

So Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld, who authorized waterboarding, deserved at least to go to prison for war crimes. I know, some idiots think these guys were desperate to save American lives. But that's not the truth. The people being tortured were Al Qaeda leaders, and they were being asked specific questions. They were being asked to confess some contact between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. The torture had nothing to do with saving American lives. It was ordered from the White House to produce false confessions, to save the lily white asses of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Pelosi knew enough to start impeachment proceedings. She should have. But she didn't. She decided that getting the Democrats into power in the next election was more important than seeking justice for these crimes. Was she right? I don't know.

Now the Obama Administration has avoided partisan confrontation on this issue and many others. They have sought to show progress, and to deny the right wing any inflammatory positions that might be used to frighten centrist voters. They have followed the Nancy Pelosi path of seeking power by soothing the anxieties of moderates rather than implementing the rightful demands of their own supporters.

Is it possible that they have miscalculated, that their own supporters will neglect their civic duty and vote this November? Is it possible that the racist base of the Republican Party will show up and steal the next Congress away from the rest of us?

OMG

AMERICA

I was watching Fourth of July celebrations today.

We are a nation of diversity. There are Americans of many colors and from many cultures.

But are we a nation any more? What holds us together? It's not an unreasonable question. Our political system and our national discourse are deeply divided in a way not seen in decades.

America is a special place. A nation of immigrants, descended from those who were not content to stay close to home. A nation of survivors, who endured hardship and oppression and emerged with a hunger for freedom and independence.

But these days we seem to be a nation that is splintered and divided. There are daily echoes of our terrible Civil War. Southern whites are screaming. Southern governors are talking about secession.

All we can hope for is that the greatness of the ideas upon which our nation was founded will prevail, that the center will hold.

We believe that all people are created equal, with inalienable human rights.

We believe our government has been created to serve us, and derives any legitimate powers from our consent.

On this day of national celebration let us resolve to honor and defend those ideals.

We are Americans, and we believe in human rights and human dignity.

We are Americans, and we believe in vigorous, open, honest debates about our future.

We are Americans, and we believe that government officials should work for us and not for private, corporate interests.

Each generation of Americans has faced challenges to these ideals and to our nation's survival. Our own generation faces dangerous enemies, enemies from within. They are willing to sacrifice our national interests to those of their corporate cronies. They dismantled SALT agreements to enable pork barrel Star Wars spending. They sent our troops into harm's way, and followed them with thousands of six-figure contractors and no-bid contracts. They have violated our laws and treaties with open contempt.

Whether America survives depends, as always, on whether this generation measures up.

At least we should try. At least we should try to keep the ideals of America alive.

ENEMIES FROM WITHIN

Do you have the feeling that something is wrong with this country?

A lot of people seem to feel that THE government is no longer OUR government.

WE THE PEOPLE are supposed to be in charge. But it feels like WE are ignored, patronized, used.

It's no wonder a lot of people feel this way. We have been betrayed.

An arrogant elite has seized the powers of government, and used those powers shamelessly for their own secret purposes, and for their own fantastical enrichment.

Fortunately, we got rid of many of them by electing Barak Obama in 2008.

But they are still ravenously seeking new prey, and they are a deadly threat to our democracy.

Some people call them NeoConservatives, which apparently means FakeConservatives Who Lie and Steal a Lot.

Perhaps you've wondered where Dick Cheney and his buds hung out after that nasty Bill Clinton made George Bush the Older move out of the White House. Well, part of that time they were flying high with Billy Kristol over at his Project For a New American Century. This was a little think tank where rightwingers could dream big dreams and giggle all day long.

You see, Communism had died. It was buried on August 13, 1961, the day that East Germany began construction of the Berlin Wall. There aren't many walls constructed by a state to keep its own citizenry from escaping. Can you think of any others? Me neither.

In 1991, Boris Yeltsin was elected President of the Russian Federation. He had disappeared from public view during the final week of the election campaign. Many Russians believed he had died of a heart attack. But they elected him anyway. The Communist on the ballot finished third, behind the apparently dead Boris Yeltsin. In Russia. Where Communism had ruled since 1918.

With the demise of Communism, some folks got the notion that this was a great opportunity to reduce defense spending, and pay ourselves a Peace Dividend. But the NeoCons had another idea. They had a dream. The big one. World Domination.

If we sent in our Marines to a bunch of Third World regimes, and set up our own friendly regimes, who could stop us? Nobody! This was a priceless opportunity!

And so was born the NeoCon vision of world domination. (1) Get back into office by any means. (2) Terrify or deceive the electorate to gain unlimited powers. (3) Send in the Marines wherever we can get away with it. (4) Make sure we end up with a docile foreign state and sweet deals for our buddies.

You can read about it at http://www.newamericancentury.org/ , Billy Kristol's Project For A New American Century. Names on the site? Dick Cheney. Donald Rumsfeld. Paul Wolfowitz. Jeb Bush.

Be sure to check out page 63 of the "Rebuilding America's Defenses" document (http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf). It says this:

"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."

Yes, they did steal an election, letting the Scalia slimeball cast the only vote that counted in putting Bush the Clueless into the Oval Office and Dick Cheney into power.

Bu they still needed a catastrophic and catalyzing event. So they demoted Al Qaeda expert Richard Clarke from the National Security Council and waited. When a CIA officer visited Bush the Dumber in Crawford in August 2001 to tell him that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent, Bush responded "Now you can say you covered your ass." and did nothing. When an FBI office in Arizona identified 9/11 hijackers who were learning to fly but not to land, they did nothing. And guess what? They finally got what they wanted. A terrified American public. And unlimited power.

So what happened next? Absolute Power.

THIS SPECIAL PLACE

The United States of America has been and can be a great nation.

We are unique in all of human history because we are where the world met.

Our first immigrants arrived from Asia, before civilization existed. After thousands of years in the Americas, native populations numbered in the millions when Christopher Columbus arrived. The next century brought them horrifying devastation, as infectious diseases like smallpox killed nearly 90% of the first Americans. Some echoes of this past survive in the remaining tribal nations.

Waves of immigration from Europe helped to grow this country, as famine and persecution and war and poverty drove people across the ocean to seek a better life.

The brutality of slavery brought millions of Africans to our shores. They have not had an easy road. Over 200,000 fought for their freedom with the Union Army in the Civil War, and to some extent that fight against racism continues today.

Modern times have brought immigrants from every nation on Earth, seeking opportunity and freedom.

We are a special place because of the people who came here. They were visionaries, who left home to search for a brighter future. They were survivors, who endured peril and hardship and became stronger and tougher from it. They were determined idealists, who crossed oceans in wooden boats rather than compromise their religious beliefs.

And, most importantly, we are a special place because we have chosen a path that values individual rights and liberty above all else.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

If we can manage to live in peace and prosperity among ourselves in this nation, based on these principles, we can and should lead the world into a better future, because of who we are and what we believe.

But each generation of Americans has had to face enemies of one sort or another. We face new enemies today, dangerous ones. Enemies from within.

LINDA TRIPP RETURNS

Do you remember Linda Tripp? She was a Bush 41 administration employee, who kept her Defense Department job into the Clinton administration. She met Monica Lewinsky when Lewinsky was transferred out of the White House to the Defense Department. Tripp then learned details of Lewinsky's sexual activity in the Oval Office, secretly taped Lewinsky's conversations, tried to get a book deal from gossip specialist Lucianne Goldberg, and finally turned over all the dirt she had scraped up to political hack prosecutor Ken Starr.

I hate to remind you of all this. People remember the Clinton scandal. They don't remember the perverse abuses of power that the GOP used to attack Clinton. They don't remember that the Newt launched politically motivated special counsel investigations of Whitewater land deals, the White House travel office, White House requests for personnel files, and Vince Foster's suicide. No crimes had been committed; nothing improper had occurred; all of this was deception.

Clinton was finally impeached and acquitted, for giving deceptive answers to Starr about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky. There was no crime to investigate here; consensual sex between adults may be sleazy but it is completely legal. The "crime" Clinton was impeached for was giving misleading answers to an unprincipled, corrupt, right wing hack who was abusing his official authority for GOP political gains.

But let's remember that Linda Tripp played a key role in the attack. Essentially she was a right wing subversive, working from within the Clinton administration to bring it down.

Obama does not have to deal with the nightmare of a corrupt, unprincipled GOP Congress yet. For the sake of this country and the future of the world let's hope he never has to.

But he may need to deal with the problem of right wing partisans infesting federal agencies at high levels.

Do the recent actions of the Department of the Interior and the Minerals Management Service seem a little odd? Have you noticed the Obama Administration announcing one thing - like a drilling permit moratorium - while Interior Department underlings announce something else?

This may be just the normal operation of a large bureaucracy, and a difficulty of coordinating the efforts of thousands of civil service employees.

But there may be more than a few Linda Tripps out there. And the Obama Administration had better beware of the dangers of fanatical subversives working to bring them down.

IT AIN'T OVER TIL IT'S OVER

It was a wonderful thing for this country to reject the incipient fascism imposed by Bush and Cheney, by turning away from McCain and electing Obama.

Some of us might feel that this was inevitable, because the disasters and disgraces of the Bush years were things we needed to put behind us.

But not all of us. Those horrible Bush years weren't so bad for some. The rich didn't just get richer - they got way richer than ever before. They did this in part by corrupting our political system to work on their behalf. So, lower taxes for the rich, dismantling of public interest constraints like environmental protections, and incredible boondoggle porkbarrel projects like Star Wars. They got way richer. We got shafted.

You might think that electing Obama fixed things. But it wasn't enough. The people in the shadows who put Reagan into power, who profited so handsomely from the reckless deficit spending he and Old Bush produced, who created and unleashed a right wing propaganda plague against the Clintons, who stole the 2000 election and then nearly destroyed the world economy - they're still out there. And they're still greedy for more.

You might think that electing Obama fixed things. But the people who created the mess we are suffering through right now are eager for more.

If you don't vote against them, they're going to come back.

Please be sure to vote on June 8 and in every election.

It ain't over.

RECONCILIATION

Of course the GOP is lying about reconciliation.

They've discovered that lying creates a solid base of the 25% of the American electorate that CAN be fooled all of the time.

And apparently the mainstream media no longer takes any responsibility for broadcasting truthful, fact-checked stories. It makes for better ratings to have Jerry Springer-type conflicts in your news coverage. And it's politically safer for a corporate entity to broadcast both sides of every story. Truth. And Lies.

The simple truth is that the GOP has disappeared as a true political party. They were acquired by the American Corporate Empire at some point in the 1980's, and have been a wholly-owned subsidiary ever since.

Now they have a mission, and that mission is to subvert the operations of the United States government so that it serves their own purposes. Defense policy to serve defense corporations, e.g., a non-functional Star Wars system and Iraq contractors who outnumber - and cost more - than our troops. Energy policy to serve energy companies, e.g., a tobacco-industry-style campaign of disinformation and denial to derail any attempt to conserve energy or seek new energy sources. Health care policy to protect the interests of health care companies. And on and on. If you are still listening to anything coming out of the GOP, I have a question. Why?

One can only hope the Democrats will have enough smarts to produce a House/Senate compromise bill that does some good. Because once they do, the American people will see once again the the GOP is lying. This isn't socialism or a government takeover or martial law or anything bad. This is government more or less of the People, by the People's elected representatives, and most definitely for the People.

And that's a big change from the last eight disastrous years of GOP corporate butt-kissing.

I'm not saying there shouldn't be a legitimate conservative political party in this country.

I'm just saying that the GOP is so putrid and corrupt that somebody should bury it.

IS THIS THE YEAR?

Bill Clinton wasn't supposed to win in 1992. After the first Gulf War, Bush-Daddy had such high approval numbers that a lot of potential Democratic candidates decided to wait four more years. It was left to an unknown governor from a small Southern state to take on the GOP - and win. The right wing was shocked and disgusted, but they behaved themselves for a while. They were sure that Clinton would fall on his face and fail to govern effectively. Remember poor Jimmy Carter?

Only he didn't fail. His pragmatic and responsible approach to governing actually started to make things better. After a year in office, after the dire wailing from the right about his first budget, after the idea of taxing people more who can afford to pay more started to make sense, they regrouped. They started a non-stop smear campaign that lasted seven more years. Sadly, it worked.

When Al Gore should have been elected President - and was, if you counted our votes instead of Scalia's one corrupt vote - our nation was stolen away from us by essentially a new political element in this country, the Fascists.

You may or may not know what fascism is. It is a political system that emphasizes nationalism and conformity and especially a unification of industrial, military, and political leadership. It is a totalitarian approach to government in which a powerful elite exercise power for the growth of the nation, a nation of loyal and subservient and usually white people.

This is exactly what the Republican Party has become. They promote defense policy to benefit defense companies - like the Star Wars boondoggle and the Halliburton/Blackwater/Etc. contractor army they sent to Iraq. They promote health policy to benefit the health corporations that use 1/6 of our national income to give us a life expectancy that ranks 49th in the world, just above Albania. Those darn Canadians, with a national health care system? Seventh.

And these traitorous fascists are now Obama's political opponents. But they have some problems of their own. Eight years of right wing power nearly destroyed our economy, produced unjustifiable wars that weakened our military defense and disgraced us before the world, and shredded our hallowed human rights, including a de facto suspension of any right to a fair trial and unchecked government surveillance of all our private communications. Anyone who was paying attention knows that Republicans can never be believed or trusted again.

Fortunately for the fascists, there are some people you CAN fool all of the time. Apparently they make up about 25% of the American electorate. Probably they are descendants of the American Loyalists, the folks who fought against the Founding Fathers to remain loyal to a King.

But Obama is working hard to do the right things. And the right things will eventually start to work - just as they did for Clinton. A final withdrawal from a stable Iraq. A final defeat of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. An improving economy. Better financial regulations to protect our pocketbooks and our financial systems from Wall Street parasites. A strategy for national energy independence. A health care system motivated by providing health care instead of by profiting obscenely from the sick and the dying.

In time, things will get better, and it will become obvious that the scare tactics of the right wing were just self-serving lies. In time, the right wingers will be exposed as the democracy-hating, soulless, corrupt monsters they are.

Is this the year?

I certainly hope so.

HOW QUICK WE FORGET

There are those - Stanley McChrystal are you listening? - who are whimpering about Obama's delay in committing to a new strategy (really an ACTUAL strategy) in Afghanistan.

How quick we forget.

A year ago, before the election, we were experiencing a total meltdown in the financial sector. I don't know how things were going for you, but the bank where I have my mortgage and checking account went bankrupt! Out of business! Sold to the highest bidder!

And dear old Iraq was still killing Americans despite McCain's devout mantra "The Surge Is Working!"

And the polar icecap was melting and the national deficit was exceeding $1 billion and the NSA was tapping all our phone calls and prisoners were being tortured at Gitmo, etc.

Obama inherited a HUGE mess to clean up.

He's stabilized the economy.

Our military troops in Iraq are relatively safe on their bases. (Support Our Troops!! Bring Them Home To Their Families!!)

And Obama is working to develop a successful and intelligent strategy in Afghanistan.

So chill out, dudes. Remember, the goddam GOP created a HUGE mess.

Or have you forgotten already?

SARAH FOR SALE

The last time I posted, I said Sarah Palin might have decided to resign as governor so she could spend more time with her family. I also said she might be hooked on national politics and positioning herself for a 2010 candidacy.

But now I don't think either description really fits the facts.

After the McCain/Palin ticket went down in flames - an oddly appropriate description considering McCain's "Ace" status in losing five aircraft during his military service - Sarah had lucrative offers rolling in from wealthy right wing reptiles all over the country. But as Governor of Alaska she was legally prevented from accepting outside employment. On the other hand, she was incompetent and increasingly unpopular as Governor of Alaska. Why not just quit? Why not indeed.

Well, one might consider that election to a public office implies an obligation to serve if elected. One might consider that running for public office should be done to serve one's country and community. One might consider that promises made during an election campaign are moral obligations that must be kept. One might consider that a public office is a public trust.

"Oh the hell with that. I'm takin' the book deal."

At this point, it's not a question of whether Sarah will run for Pres in 2010. Sarah is not capable of organizing and planning such an effort. The question is whether the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy - which apparently does exist - will choose to run her. They have already had spectacular success in electing idiot spokespersons to the White House. Reagan was a corporate shill doing radio promos and hosting "Death Valley Days" before rightwingers decided to rewrite his scripts and bankroll his TV ads all the way to the White House. They still get a certain thrill "down there" when they think about it. Dubya was a complete idiot, but they stole two elections from overly polite and underly patriotic Democrats to put him in the Oval Office. Didn't that work out well? It sure did, if you were a crony collecting federal dollars and chortling over federal tax cuts.

So the question is, will the right wing decide they can elect Sarah? She's infinitely pliable and gullible. Plus. She's unprincipled and self-centered. Plus. She's a whacked out revivalist rapture-lovin' so-called Christian. Plus for the nomination, but maybe a negative for normal voters. Who knows what they will decide?

But one thing we do know, if they do decide they want her.

Sarah is definitely For Sale.

SARAH PALIN

Hmmm.

So Sarah is resigning because she doesn't want to "accept that lame duck status" and "draw a paycheck" and "kind of milk it" and "put Alaskans through that".

Ridiculous. You don't run for public office, particularly a powerful position like Governor of a state, and then resign when you decide not to run for re-election. You have a civic responsibility to serve out your term, to exercise the powers of your office according to the promises you made to the people who voted for you.

Only Sarah knows the real reasons she decided to resign.

It seems to me there are a few possibilities.

First, she may have gotten a taste of national politics and hated it. The timing of the recent Vanity Fair article would support that idea. She was asked to join the GOP ticket. She did. She did her best, and for a brief moment, enthusiasm for her choice lifted GOP poll numbers above the Democrats'. But, in the end, her ticket lost and her own inexperience was blamed as a factor in the loss. Sniping from ex-McCain personnel has been ugly and painful.

Sarah has five children, and Bristol has a newborn Palin grandchild she can't support. I don't know if you've been in a similar situation. I've helped raise four kids, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if Sarah Palin has decided that her young family needs her more than Anchorage does these days. She may really have decided to leave public life for a while and to stay home with her kids.

But there are other possibilites.

Sarah may have gotten a taste of national politics and LOVED it! It's quite possible she has offers to do national fundraisers or to be a Fox fake news spokesperson that would get her out of Alaska and onto a national stage. She may simply be quitting her present job because she got a better offer. It would be typical of the faux patriotism displayed by many on the right. Country First -and by Country I mean ME!

Only Sarah really knows what's going on. But it will be easy for the rest of us to tell if either of these guesses is right. Three months from now Sarah will either be (1) in Wasila taking care of her kids while her name fades away from the news or (2) somewhere else - Los Angeles, New York, Dallas - trying to get ready for 2012 candidacy.

I hope she gets the nomination. It would be even better if the 20% of Americans who vote for her in 2012 decide to move to Alaska after she loses.

There's another possibility, considering the moral depravity of the GOP these days. She may be facing some terrible legal or personal crisis. Will she be arrested for leaking classified information to the media? - no, that's Karl Rove's nightmare. Is she facing charges for reaching under a bathroom stall seeking gay sex? - no, that was ex-Senator Larry Craig. Did she disappear on National Nude Hiking Day, with a cover story that she was hiking the Appalachian trail, and then surface tearfully with a confession that she had an Argentinian lover? Are you making this up? No, really, that happened, but it didn't involve Sarah Palin. Still, with GOP lowlifes, it's always a possibility.

Let's see if Sarah ends up spending October 1, 2009 in Wasila or elsewhere. Is she a devoted mother? Or something else?

YOU MIGHT BE A CONSERVATIVE IF ...

How times have changed.

A "conservative" once meant someone who wanted to "conserve" things, to keep things from changing, to preserve things the way they were, especially to limit the size and powers of government. Now so-called "conservatives" are recklessly gambling with the earth's environment despite the clamor of alarm bells from all over the world; smiling in agreement at universal, unsupervised, unconstitutional monitoring of all forms of electronic communication by the federal government; and consenting to spending deficits and shady corruption that truly boggles the mind.

I don't really think they should call themselves "conservatives" any more, or that we should call them "conservatives" either. It isn't fair to the reputations of real conservatives who have something valid to say - and actual ideas.

We should call them by their own term, one that summarizes their intellectual traits and reasoning processes.

Dittoheads.

Let's put it this way: If you haven't caught on yet that Fox News and AM radio are owned and operated by big-money people, who pursue their own interests by lying and especially by distracting ordinary people from reasonable discussion about our own welfare, well, now would be a good time to wake up and smell the stuff that Limbaugh and Savage and Beck and Hannity and Coulter and the rest of the crew are dishing out. They are protecting big-money interests like coal and oil by casting doubt on the truth about global warming.

You might remember how the cigarette companies reacted to the 1965 Surgeon General's Report about smoking. It's deja vu all over again.

Dittoheads, please wake up. The last eight years did happen, and your "conservative" leaders did exercise virtually unlimited powers to implement their destructive ideas. It's time to realize that you have been betrayed by those who knew what lies it would take to ensnare you, and who are absolutely shameless liars.

Wake up, already.

VICE PRESIDENT HILARY CLINTON?

Yesterday Oprah Winfrey - following in the sly gotcha-journalism footsteps of Katie "Velvet Fist" Couric - exposed a shocking secret in O's interview of Dr. Jill Biden, wife of new Veep Joe Biden. "Joe Biden had been offered a choice of positions in the new Obama Administration: either Vice President or Secretary of State." Whoa!

Joe quickly tried to shush her up, but it was too late. Now the secret is out.

So Joe could have had Hilary's new job. But think about it. What if he had wanted that job?

It makes sense to me that Obama picked Biden first. Obama was expecting that the main campaign against him would highlight his relative lack of experience in Washington. Although he had spent eight years in the Illinois state senate, he had only been elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. Joe Biden had already been there for 32 years when Barack arrived.

What about Hilary? First elected to the Senate in 2000, she was the junior senator from New York, not as experienced in government as she portrayed herself. And having been demonized for so many years by the right wing, she would face her own questions - unfair and biased questions, to be sure - about her own readiness to lead.

I think Biden was a good choice. No one ever questioned that he would be ready to serve as President if needed. (By the way, Sarah, that's what the Vice President's job is. He's not "in charge of the U.S. Senate". He or she is supposed to be ready to serve as President. Give Colin Powell a call; he'll explain it to you.)

I think things worked out really well. Joe Biden, as Vice President, will return to the Senate chambers, working with his friends and colleagues to achieve the goals of the new Administration. Hilary Clinton will be a dedicated and energetic Secretary of State, working to bring peace to the Middle East, holding the respect of both Israelis and Arabs, resurrecting a peace process started by President Clinton and abandoned by the neocon warmongers.

But what if Joe had wanted to be Secretary of State?

It seems clear from his later actions that Barack Obama tries to reach out to political opponents, and to build unity and consensus wherever possible.

It seems clear that there was a time when Obama was reaching out to his rivals for the Democratic nomination in the same way.

He offered the positions of Vice President and Secretary of State to Joe Biden. Joe decided to stay in Washington and on the Senate floor as Vice President.

He then offered the position of Secretary of State to Hilary Clinton. It seems clear that she was next on his list after Biden.

If Joe had wanted to be Secretary of State, would Obama have offered the Vice Presidency to Hilary Clinton? We can only speculate, but it certainly does make sense.

Vice President Hilary Clinton?

I really think it worked out better this way.

I hope that everything the Obama Administration attempts works out as well.

Our nation and the world could use a change for the better right now.

EVOLUTION

Do you want to hear something really spooky?

Evolution is in the Bible. And so are a whole lot of modern scientific ideas.

Let's sum things up. In the ninteethth century, naturalists explored new ecosystems around the world, and Charles Darwin proposed the idea of species differentiation through natural evolution. In the early twentieth century, red shift measurements of star spectra by Edwin Hubble implied the notion of an expanding universe. And later ideas about nuclear and subnuclear particles defined a theory now known as The Big Bang. It kind of goes like this.

In the beginning, all of the matter and energy of the entire known universe was concentrated in an area of space smaller than an atom. We don't know or understand how this happened, but the evidence points to this as our reality. An explosion into empty space started in darkness, because the density was too great to allow light to propagate. Some time later, energy was converted into nuclear particles like protons and electrons, and some time after that stars formed from the hydrogen gas clouds. Planets formed from supernova debris ejected by early, massive stars. Our own Earth formed as a hot, rocky, impact-scarred planet, later covered with water oceans formed from icy asteroids. Primitive life originated in these oceans, and later developed into land animals.

Now suppose you are Moses. You were found in a reed basket along the river, and raised in the Pharoh's court. You have been educated by the most civilized, most powerful, most sophisticated culture in the Western world.

But you still don't know as much math and science as a typical third grader these days. You don't have numbers like billions and trillions, because you don't have the modern number system invented in the ninth century. You don't know the sun is a star or that planets like Earth move in orbits around stars. You don't know about deep ocean thermal vents or bacteria or kangaroos.

Just suppose that some other being comes to you in a dream, and shows you how the world began. Just suppose your words are passed by word of mouth for many centuries before being written down for the first time. Just suppose even the first hand-copied written Scriptures don't even agree exactly with each other. What would we be left with? Maybe this?

In the beginning, there was nothing. And God said, let there be Light, and there was light. And first He separated the light from darkness, craeting the stars in the sky. Then He created the Earth, and covered it with seas. Life began in the oceans, as fish. Later forms of life were the amphibians - who moved from the water to the land - and the reptiles. Then mammals appeared on Earth. And finally, last in the chain of life, most recent in the history of this planet, mankind appeared.

I think it's a pretty good description of Evolution, and a whole lot of other stuff. It's spooky.

Why do so-called Christians object to Evolution? It's not because they are defending the Bible. What they are defending is their own egotistical, self-worshiping, sanctimonious desire for the Bible to mean what THEY say it means.

It's one thing to believe in the Bible. Then you approach it with reverence and humility, believing it was inspired by a superhuman, immortal creature far beyond your comprehension. You seek to learn and understand, with the admission that your knowledge will always be limited and imperfect.

It's another thing to say you believe in "a literal interpretation of the Bible". That's just code for "The Bible means EXACTLY WHAT I SAY IT MEANS!" It's kind of a way for a sanctimonious creep to identify himself as a sanctimonious creep.

People who attack attack Evolution aren't defending the Bible or any legitimate religious belief. They are simply showing themselves to be one of two things. They may be timid sheep who do not dare to admit that they are responsible for their own choices, and desperately wish to yield that responsibility to some other authority. Or they may be arrogant, self-worshipping asses.

The Bible itself has no problem with Evolution. In fact, it's kind of amazing that Evolution appeared in it so many centuries before science figured it out.

LURKING IN THE SHADOWS

There are those who feel some sympathy for Dubya.

Matt Taibbi, for example, in his funny and sad article in Rolling Stone, describes Bush as "desperate" to fulfill expectations of "emotionally absent" parents, and lets Bush end a fictional interview by saying, "I really am sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

My aunt, a lifelong Democrat and ardent Hilary supporter, said Bush was pathetic in his final press conference, that he just didn't seem to understand what people were saying about him.

I don't agree.

Bush and his administration are war criminals and thieves, shameless liars and contemptible hypocrites. They deserve to be tried for war crimes by an Iraqi jury - one chosen from outside Baghdad, miles away from the Green Zone. I have no sympathy for them. They are traitors to my country, enemies of the People of These United States.

But they're not failures.

Their goal, from the beginning, was to expand Presidential powers to seek their own ends. They waited until the warnings of a terrorist attack came true, they created wars and a wartime environment to stifle dissent, and they ran rampant through eight years of unchecked power.

Their goal, from the beginning, was to subvert the powers of government to benefit their private sector allies. They created a foreign policy in Iraq designed for the benefit of the oil industry, with more private contractors on the ground than soldiers. Do you remember the Declaration of Principles Agreement promulgated by the White House in November 2007? Permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq and preferential treatment for U.S. corporations. That's what it was all about from the beginning. That War On Terror thing? Pure propaganda for the gullible and the unwary. Pipsqueak Iraq was never a threat to the U.S., and the scheming, secular Hussein was never connected to any Islamic fundamentalist group, especially Al-Qaeda.

Their goal, from the beginning, was to protect the oil, gas, and coal industries from any actions to stem global warming. Done. Their goal, from the beginning, was to eviscerate government regulation of the financial industry. Done. Their goal, from the beginning, was to cripple enforcement of any environmental regulations. Done. Their goal, from the beginning, was to reward their backers with irresponsible tax cuts. Done.

Don't call these guys failures. They are spectacularly successful traitors and thieves. They are only failures if you consider that they intended to govern this country with honor and patriotism. Did you really believe that? You are an idiot.

The danger now is that the shady characters who distorted the media and perverted the political process to put these guys into power won't be going away on January 20. They've done pretty well for themselves during these eight years of corruption. And they want that power back.

We won a tremendous victory for our democracy and our nation's future by electing Barack Obama. But don't kid yourself. Bush, the tongue-tied fool, and Cheney, the delusional paranoid, were not the whole problem. The danger now is that the darkest monsters were the ones pulling the strings, manipulating public opinion, insinuating themselves into our government. They're still out there: unrepentant, ravenous, greedy for more.

Keep your eyes open. For there are still dangerous beasts lurking in the shadows.

SENATOR BILL CLINTON?

Hilary has apparently been invited to serve as Secretary of State, and if she accepts, she will have the opportunity to serve her country during an historic period.

It would be a bad idea to appoint Bill Clinton to fill her Senate seat. It would be too much of a temptation for Bill and Hilary to work both sides of the street, trying to create their own version of a foreign policy. But this would lead to mistrust and contention within the Obama administration - confusion that we do not need in these precarious times.

It would be better for Bill to take his turn at Hilary''s side, as a respected advisor within the next Administration, free to speak his mind within the private councils of the Executive Branch. In foreign policy, it is vital to show the world a clear and unified determination of purpose. For Hilary to be Secretary of State, Bill must play a supporting role this time.

I like Caroline Kennedy for the job, myself.

SOME PERSPECTIVE

In the 1970's, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger began a series of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, and enacted several SALT agreements with the Soviet Union.

The first, SALT I, limited defensive systems (ABMs) to small areas around capital cities and missile launching sites.

Later agreements brought actual arms reductions and supervised dismantling of nuclear missiles. Great, huh?

Unfortunately for us, the SALT I treaty included a provision that the President could unilaterally suspend it if he thought that would be in the national interest. And that is exactly what George W. Bush did, in December 2001.

Why?

Well, the deployment of a Star Wars system would be in violation of the SALT I treaty, and Star Wars was really, really important to the defense moguls pulling the strings of the Bush administration. They wanted Star Wars because it meant truckloads of money, and because it wouldn't work.

Even the hawkiest hawks had to admit we had enough nuclear weapons to wipe out the world several times over. They just couldn't sell Minuteman III, where we put nuclear missiles on trucks and trains and kept them circling around our prairies to keep them from being targeted. They just couldn't sell the N-bomb, which killed people by enhanced neutron radiation but would be detonated high enough to leave buildings standing. Our European allies wouldn't allow it. Sure, it would kill invading Russians in their tanks, with minimized collateral damage. But that collateral damage included our own allies in their own houses, and they just didn't like the idea.

But defensive systems can still be sold. And defensive systems that don''t work are even better. Once you get a few billions invested, you can go back to Congress year after year, exposing vulnerabilities, scaring people, asking for a few billions more. You'll get it.

That's why.

Star Wars has no chance of working. It's a 21st century Maginot Line. It's pork barrel politics combined with the utter insanity of Dr. Strangelove (a character rumored to be based on dear Dr. Kissinger himself).

So why are we doing this? Because it means billions and billions of dollars of federal spending, and it won''t work. It's a scam, and what's worse, it's a deadly threat to our national security.

If you''re a defense contractor, these are the good times. If you're a loyal American, or even a decent human being, you have to ask Why are we doing this to ourselves?, Why have we sabotaged the SALT treaties?, Why are we reigniting the Cold War and stimulating nuclear proliferation around the world?

Why?

The conflict in Georgia is only the first bloody mess we face unless we stop the Star Wars madness.