Palin's Perfect Performance

The Vice Presidential Debate had only one expectation from Sarah Palin : not to say or commit horrendous mistakes that would showcase the absence of any form of knowledge regarding current issues, nor a pathetic inadequacy for logical thinking. In this she was perfect, because she was shuffling cue cards which she had previously memorized but ensured she would not mix these with unrelated subjects.

This Twitter site provided this flow chart for Sarah Palin's thought process, which could have been part of her cue cards. It says everything.

^{There were many questions she answered out of context and merely segued into her cue cards to say a totally different matter. Sarah Palin cannot function without a script. She may not be made of plaster and wood but she is certainly John McCain's Dummy. McCain is a clone of George Bush, and Bush is a dummy of Dick Cheney. No wonder he is sometimes referred to as John McSame... Same old Bull....!}

^{Haaarrrrrrrwwwwwk...Twooooooph...Ting!}

GOP's Gender Gambit

After 8 years of making the office of the Vice President the de facto President with Dick Cheney, a maneuver stealthily undertaken by Cheney and David Addington; the Republicans are now proposing to transform the same office into an apprenticeship program for the highest office of the country. George W. Bush was rendered a puppet President by the previous alteration that became so obvious he had to declare himself the "Decider" (sic). Now, the GOP hopes to make the office of the Vice President a scholarship project with experiments in gender acceptability and suitability.

The selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is undoubtedly a brilliant move. She will add luster to the boring campaign of John McCain and energize the tired and geriatric appearance of the GOP Presidential candidate. No sooner than her selection was announced, the Republican propaganda machinery headed by Fox network, expressed public opinion influencing statements extolling her qualifications and background. The media machinery of the GOP has been busy promoting her and creating news stories that step over the main candidate. Conservative bloggers who had previously rejected McCain but consistently bashed Obama are all praises for theVP nominee, and state that they will now vote for McCain because of Sarah Palin; who is a stunner and a former beauty queen.

They have now changed their minds because of a woman, after trashing Hillary because she was a woman. If Hillary had been a beauty queen, could they have accepted her? There is also the angle that Palin is not a lawyer which is ideal as far as they're concerned. Perhaps Hillary should have had 5 children too and perhaps played hockey? The conservatives have thrown their conservatism out the window because she is a Republican. And one with a lot of spunk, charisma, and a successful track record in governance and administration for at least 2 years. The Republicans have chosen someone better looking than Geena Davis to take over the Presidency as Commander-in-Chief. Strategically, her selection is a brilliant move. It is however, a gambit that is not foolproof.

The Republicans hope that Palin's youth would provide sustainable cover for the alzheimeric age of John McCain, rally the young voters to their ticket by her vibrant personality and younger than Obama's years factor, win over Hillary's supporters disgruntled by her failure to capture the DNC nomination, attract those voters who want a woman in the highest echelons of government, and provide a beautiful face for America in the global stage. Experience is her biggest drawback since 2 years as governor may not be sufficient exposure when transposed to the concerns of America today and in the next 4 years. So too would be her total absence of foreign relations and foreign policy expertise. Her role as facilitator for the President with Congress, Washington lobbyists, and power brokers could be detrimental to her longevity if she pursues her former tack. Her acquiesance, on the other hand, could transform her into a Washington type politician in a very short time.

The empowerment of women and their involvement in the highest positions of the country must be supported and advanced, provided this is not a ploy against all women aspiring for higher position. If elected and she is led to fail in this post, it would take a whole generation before another woman could be trusted with such a post or higher. America is late in this development and it has taken a long struggle to get to this point. If she is merely a smokescreen to get McCain elected to continue the policies of the Bush Administration, then this could be damaging to the idea of having a woman President in the next 2 decades.

What American voters should bear in mind is the fact that if the Republicans win, it will be McCain who will be President, not Palin. And if the expectations of the GOP about what they hope to achieve with Palin as McCain's running mate are true, then they consider Republican supporters and American voters at large as an entity with a ridiculous incapacity for logical thinking, blinded by party loyalty that discriminates against the interest of the country as a whole. Party bigwigs and strategists most probably see American voters as manipulable, gullible, and possessed with brains that are valued in the organ donor market for their slightly used or mint condition.

On the other hand, all the enthusiasm and jubilation at the appointment of the sensational Sarah Palin may be appropriate and timely. McCain, who pales in comparison to Palin, could really use the sizzle she could bring to the campaign. The GOP could truly want both their nominees to win and would want Palin to be prepared immediately for the highest post, because, shortly after the election, they expect McCain to die.

Haaarrrrwwwwwk...Twoooooooph...Ting!

Addington's Assault on America

Americans have yet to comprehend the devastating impact of its legal strategies in the War on Terror that has defaced the country's image in the global community, and has tarnished the nation's soul. The "New Paradigm" made a mockery of the Constitution and disregarded ideals consistent with American values which the country once so proudly proclaimed, and nearly succeeded in overturning 200 years of jurisprudence that defined the limits of the President's powers - by making war a substance of dictatorial prerogative. The chief architect of this abomination is David Addington.

The New Paradigm was structured from an interpretation of the Constitution that would compel America's founding fathers to commit harakiri. It provides that the President, as Commander-in-Chief, has the authority to violate the Civil Liberties of its citizens, trash International Laws, and contravene the Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War if national security so requires. All known legal boundaries are eliminated, and illegal surveillance, torture, secret and prolonged detention shall be used to allow the Pentagon to contain terrorists, preempt and prevent future attacks. It devised a system of detention and interrogation called "rendition" that placed suspects outside of the US and beyond the reach of Criminal and Military courts, whose stringent standards on evidence and protecting defendants rights were seen as too complex. Instead, Military Commissions were created and the suspects were not designated as prisoners of war but as illegal enemy combatants - a legal euphemism to go around the established standards of the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners.

David Addington is Vice-President Dick Cheney's General Counsel, and their partnership dates back to the late 80's and early 90's. Both share the belief that the Presidency was weakened by the reform movements after Vietnam and Watergate, and that the Office of the President was meant to be very powerful. When Cheney became Vice-President, Addington masterminded the transition of setting up the most powerful Vice-Presidency in American History. He merged the office of the President with Cheney's into a single Executive Office under the rationale' that the Vice-President is the executive and implementer of the President. Cheney thus became the de facto President of the less than intellectual lightweight George W. Bush, whose eloquence and use of the english language is slightly below the level of porky pig.

Addington is a summa cum laude Foreign Service graduate of Georgetown University who also earned honors at Duke Law School. After 9/11 he was the only lawyer in the Bush Administration's inner circle who was ready and prepared to provide legal certainty at a time of momemtous political and legal confusion. This gave him enormous power and influence in crafting the paradigm that sunk America's respectability and credibility as a just and humane society.

Despite his legal brilliance and mastery of National Security laws, Addington's creations manifest ignorance of military law or the laws of war. Military Commissions can try only violations of the Laws of War, and conspiracy to commit terrorist acts is not a crime under these laws as established by the Nuremberg trials after World War ll. Otherwise, all soldiers can be charged with conspiring to fight for their chosen side. In addition, his model has failed to produce results. Of the 700 detainees at Guantanamo, only 8% are alleged to have associated with Al Qaida, 55% never engaged in any hostile act against the US, and the rest were charged with spurious crimes like fleeing from US bombs. All but 5% were captured by non-US players, many of whom were bounty hunters.

Addington is a reclusive operator unknown to most US voters. But his arrogance, expressed in legal machinations that defy congressional oversight, public accountability, and a predilection for what is legally plausible rather than what is morally upright - even if it is a convoluted method of proving his philosophy of Presidential power. He has become so obsessed with this philosophy to the point of madness, that he would destroy all notions of America's fairness and proceed to construct rules with a vested interest in conviction. He frequently cites Lincoln's suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus during the civil war, which Lincoln never claimed an inherent right; as justification for placing National Security above the rule of law. In this, he has turned a historical aberration into a dogma of Presidential prerogative.

David Addington has assaulted America's honor among the community of nations which has damaged the country's reputation beyond what any other US President has done. But it is the face of George W. Bush that will be dragged to the slime and the mud for this atrocity; and it will be the American people who will carry the burden of this shame. The only real restitution that can be obtained for this crime is to make him a stateless person with sanctions on any country that would grant him asylum. Then we will witness what justice will be unleashed by the forces the New Paradigm sought to demolish, to this dog of war.

Haarrrrwwwwk...Twoooooooph...Ting!

Sources: Jane Mayer, The Hidden Power
The Legal Mind Behind the White House War on Terror
The New Yorker

Jeffrey Steinberg, Cheney's Lawyer Addington Penned Key Torture Memo
Executive Intelligence Review

Bob Herbert, Madness and Shame
New York Times

UFOs Unwavering Updates

Has the United States Federal Government abolished its Men in Black? Those fast talking, alien zapping agents of the night, out to protect humanity from undesirable creatures intent on changing the world through deceitful means? Did such an agency really exist or was this just a figment of Hollywood's declining creativity? If no government agency in the United States is in charge of investigating UFOs, what good would any immigration legislation be, regardless of whether it is a stringent stand on illegals or not, if the entry of aliens from the air goes on undetected and unabated?:-) Isn't there anyone in Washington who would take up the cudgels for the farmers in Stephenville, Texas eight days after they reported sighting an Unidentified Flying Object?:-)

Today, no one in the government takes the UFO sightings as seriously as it did six decades ago. The United States Air Force has ceased investigating UFOs in 1969 after evaluating 12,618 sightings between 1940 to 1969. The investigations , code named Project Blue, concluded that:

1. No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of a
threat to our National Security;

2.There was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as " Unidentified" represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge; and

3.There was no evidence indicating that the sightings were categorized as "Unidentified" were extraterrestrial vehicles.

So what are the Texans in Stephenville looking at, a mirage? The government has long denied the existence of UFOs; and countless speculations and conspiracy theories, even profitable TV series, books and films were produced to perpetuate this phenomena. Private organizations and private funding are now the only ones active in UFO research. Sightings continue to be reported up to 200 per month, mostly in California, Colorado, and Texas. The Mutual UFO Network, a private organization, plans to investigate the Texas sighting which was witnessed by several people in different parts of the locality.

Recently, a spokesperson for the Japanese Government Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura declared that he "believes UFO's definitely exist". Japan keeps a vigilant watch over its air space and is always ready to scramble jets to investigate suspicious flying objects. In the US, former Arizona Governor Fife Symington declared that in 1997, he saw an Unidentified Flying Object witnessed too by many constituents.The former governor will be joined by 14 high ranking military and government officials from 7 countries to share evidence on their UFO experience. He was never happy with the concocted explanations of the US military regarding the sightings.

The former governor has perhaps benefited from the UFOs. They might be his constituents that helped him win in Arizona! Could these be his flying voters? The Japanese spokesperson has never seen one but he definitely believes these exist; is this part of the modern Shinto faith that's geared towards technological advancement? And the farmers from Stephenville must be reeling from the entry of illegal immigrants that they have collectively agreed that UFOs were what they saw. Could they mean Undesirable Foreign Orange-pickers? If anything, it could be a top secret US vehicle for President George Bush, to take him to the wild blue yonder after his term, to get away from Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice who keep thinking for him and telling him what to say. He may want to think and speak for himself, "Errr... ahhh... I don't particularly like it when people put words in my mouth, either, by the way, unless I say it". Smart huh!

Oh dear Lord..............!

Haaarrrwwwk...Twooooph...Ting!