Shocked, Shamed, and Shooed by a Shoe Thrower

The United States Secret Service have always dedicated themselves to the idea of taking a bullet for the President, sacrificing their lives to save the most powerful man on earth. This has been proven many times throughout its history. Security arrangements for the US President always precedes the visit by at least 2 days, to ensure utmost safety, and to assure that all precautions are taken with all factors considered, and activities moving with pinpoint precision. While the US Secret service are willing to die, they may not be willing to take a shoe, and leave it up to their President to be agile enough to duck.

The good news is that President Bush knows how to duck, it's what he's been doing for the last 8 years - ducking all the exposed actions and machinations of his administration that are immoral and illegal with falsified reports, spurious constitutional arguments and outright lies. But the Secret Service has been caught napping by Iraqi reporter and shoe thrower Muntandhar al-Zeidi. What is most embarrassing is that the Iraq trip was supposed to be top secret, where they even released a schedule of activities for the President, only to be seen on a news video being shooed with a shoe, followed by the words " Take a farewell kiss you dog".

The news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was held in the green zone - the most heavily secured part of Baghdad - which turned out to be of questionable safety since the Secret Service and those securing the zone had not checked the background of the Al-Baghdadiya reporter who had been kidnapped as a result of the conflict and has always hated the US presence and Iranian interference. The Secret Service failed to thwart the shoe throwing which was done twice, and could have made the President of the United States kiss corrugated rubber or worn out camel leather with a dash or Iraqi sand. Or, have a visible external lump on his head from the sole of a smelly, dirty shoe - not that he has no internal lumps on his head from constant knocking with the fists from all his superiors and father for mangling the English language - but such a violently caused lump is a shame that all Americans would feel.

While it represents accurately what many Iraqis feel about America and Bush in particular, shaming Americans is too much of an additional burden for the already economically punished citizens. They have been embarrassed enough by 8 years of bungling and cover ups, by the loss of their homes, jobs, and incomes, by the disposal of their very personal belongings to pawnshops to generate needed cash for required expenses to keep themselves afloat. Bush is still the President, a choice many regret after two terms, but any humiliation he gets in a foreign country is a humiliation for Americans. This secret trip should not have been made, and perhaops President Bush should simply be locked up somewhere until Barack Obama's inauguration - to prevent any more miscues and untoward incidents that would only add to his long list of inanities.

The shoe thrower has become a hero, hailed by Arabs and Iraqis who rallied in the streets asking for his release - invoking the freedom of expression provision in Iraq's American made constitution. He has risen from obscurity to become a symbol for Iraq's self governance and interference free political and economic life. A big difference a pair of shoes make - and it is not surprising if many Arabs and even Americans would want to be in al-Zeidi's shoes - or rather have the sole of their shoes caress the face of the outgoing President as a going away relief from all the anxieties brought by the policies and management he has employed. This would perhaps lay to rest their confused predicament, and put an end to their arduous soul searching for what went wrong - and find solace in the sole act of letting their shoes fly.

As to the Secret Service, well the incident on video cannot be kept secret, and their service to an outgoing President has lapsed into disservice. These assigned people need to be retrained for they may have been infected by the incompetence virus of Bush and company after 8 years of exposure.

Haaaarrrrrrwwwwwk...Twooooooooooph...Ting!

Debt Derails DigitalClock

At the time the digital debt clock was installed in 1989, the US national debt stood at just $2.7 trillion. Even then, the clock itself, invented by Seymour Durst, was a reminder to the fiscal planners of a growing concern. The prevailing confidence in the country's capability to surmount such debt was so high that spaces it allocated for the projected digits needed could not be surpassed. It was unimaginable. Today however, it is a fully grown creature that threatens the entire planet. The clock has been derailed because the size of the national debt exceeded the space allotted for all the digits to accurately record it. Durst's limited imagination miscalculated the insatiable appetite of the government to splurge on borrowed money.

President George Bush goes on national television to say that the crisis was "deeply unsettling" for Americans. That could be the understatement of the year. Why he excluded the rest of the globe is perhaps due to the limits of his imagination. Stock markets worldwide are going crazy, rising then dropping in a confused stupor. Traders and brokers are losing their minds, their shirts and their pants trading in an unpredictable and uncontrollable situation. Iceland has gone bankrupt, and trading had to be suspended in several bourses globally. Japan's biggest insurance firm Yamato Life is already dead. Burial announcements to follow.

Wall Street's value has gone down by 20% in the past 10 trading days. Yet President Bush says "we are a prosperous nation with immense resources and a wide range of tools at our disposal". Does anyone listen to him? Will anyone believe him? Perhaps his shadow will. Not even his body language suggests he believes it himself. The $700 billion bailout isn't working, confidence has not been restored, and the national debt could rise to $11 trillion due to the bailout. Perhaps the belief that America's resources are inexhaustible should be re-thought. The truth could be that all these immensity is just hype because if it's there, why has it not been harnessed? Sarah Palin suggests extracting the oil in Alaska will answer the energy problem - a gross miscalculation or outright imbecility - because even if it is all taken out, it would last only 18 months.

The G-7 Finance Ministers are to meet in Washington later to find a solution to the global crisis, because nothing is working, and those tried earlier are apparently failing. What tools the US has at its disposal only President Bush knows. How he knows it will work or whether it can be operable is unbelievable based on his established (in)credibility and brain capacity. Meanwhile, John McSame is in another time zone, addressing his audience as "my fellow prisoners". He is confused about which war he is facing or perhaps is at war with his memory. America and the world could be collapsing all around him but he would still be focused on Barack Obama's terrorist association, which is flimsy at best, a canard at worst.

The best news of the week is that according to Douglas Durst, son of the deceased inventor of the digital debt clock, the structure would be replaced early next year and will be made lengthier to accomodate 1 quadrillion dollars. At least, the US government can rack up $989 trillion more debts and it would still be recorded. That is, if there's any government left to be held accountable. Everyone could be talking Mandarin or Fookienese by then.

Haaaarrrwwwwwwk...Twooooooooph...Ting!

The Perilous Plight of Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico has a long standing relationship with the United States, a relationship that's comparable to a native American half brother that a family refuses to show to neighbors and friends. It denies his existence and refuses to acknowledge his calls for attention. But it provides support even if it uses the island as a testing ground for the Military's bombs. Thankfully, George Bush put an end to this practice in May 2003, after large scale protests. What Puerto Rico is now is an American creation, a Commonwealth that mirrors the face of American colonialism since the 19th century, where its proximity to the mainland is its most fortunate fate for it has forced benevolence out of its sovereign master.

The island is an "unincorporated territory" of the US, belonging to, but not part of, America. It is like a yard dog that lives within the property but not part of the household. It has a Commonwealth constitution and a bicameral legislature. A Governor is elected to head the executive branch, representing its Head of State, the President of the United States. Its Republican form of government is subject to US jurisdiction and sovereignty. Recently, its elected Governor, Anibal Acevedo Vila went into saber rattling, calling on the UN to back his people's right to self-determination; accusing President Bush of denying their democratic right to choose their own course - independence.

The UN panel voted to support the motion. After 110 years as a US owned island, and its first elected governor (sworn in January 2005) under the adopted constitution that was ratified 56 years ago, Vila's demand for independence is as surprising as hearing a mouse that roars. The Harvard educated Governor must have learned a few tricks in international politics. By turning his back on his own party's (Popular Democratic Party) position of support for the Commonwealth, he calls attention to an issue he may believe will get international support like Tibet, as well as secure the backing of the Nationalists (Puerto Rico Independence Party) who have resorted to violence in the past, including the attempted assassination of President Truman in 1950, and the shooting rampage at the US Congress that injured 5 lawmakers in 1954. Support from Venezuela and/or Cuba could also be one of his expectations.

This could merely be squid tactics meant to cover his tracks. Last March 27, the FBI charged him with 19 counts of campaign finance corruption and conspiracy to violate federal election laws. Several of his key cabinet members have previously been interviewed by the FBI or called to testify before a federal Grand Jury. Acevedo Vila has denied all the charges against him, perhaps for public consumption, and is now seeking to use the independence demand as a defense against what he is expected to accuse the US of : political harassment.

Governor Acevedo Vila must be desperate and feels cornered by the FBI's indictment. He is using the fate of the island's people to save himself while endangering its existence in the process. Federal funding would end, industries may relocate, tourism - one of its largest earners - could grind to a halt; all because of his greed. The Puerto Ricans may also lose their American citizenship granted since 1917 because of this gamble. Clearly, Governor Vila is acting like King Richard, demanding a horse in exchange for his Kingdom. By riding on the future of his people, he expects to escape the siege of the federal government.

The poor people of Puerto Rico will not find solace in independence, they are not prepared for it. A prevailing psyche of subordination to Uncle Sam as the great benefactor persists and a mindset of being closet brothers is widely accepted. For as long as this orientation remains, Puerto Ricans are doomed to being second class inhabitants of American owned territories. With leaders such as Governor Acevedo Vila, their future is in peril.

Haaarrrrrwwwk...Twooooooph...Ting!