Played SOTU BINGO tonight with my girl in our bed as we watched a VHS tape of the SOTU (State of the Union [Address]).
We put down all the various words we thought Bush would say. The only ones he didn't say were "tonight," "ownership society," "Republican," and "Democrat." Neither of us had a BINGO until he started talking about war, because we put down all stuff like "terror," "peace," "war," "North Korea," "Iran," etc.
Let me tell you, It is much better to watch a Bush speech on VHS, so that you can fast-forward through all of the stupid applause that comes every 15 words or so. I mean, can't these idiots wait until the fricking end of the speech to clap? Especially considering how hideous it is when fat Republicans clap, and their jowls vibrate like the scrotum on a steer that has just been zapped with a cattleprod -- empty, ball-less and flacid, yet jiggling with racous force.
I mean, let the man talk, for Chrissake. Clap later.
The applause is equally retarded considering that half the time, only half the people clapped. The camera made sure we knew this. Like if the Democrats clap or don't clap, it really matters. It's not like it's a damn vote, and it's not like anyone cares what the Democrats think anyway. They might as well clap so that they don't become fat like Republicans, since we now know that even
the most minor fidgeting can lose you 30 pounds per year (maybe more Republicans should fidget, or applaud at home along with their ilk that is present at the speech itself).
Just like there were 9/11 babies, there will probably be 1/30 babies amongst Republican families, who began gyrating like psychotic Jack-in-the-Boxes as soon as the Iraqi election was shown to be a success. Bush's narrow victory in November was enough to make them think to themselves, "All Democrats are now obsolete! All your base are belong to us!" Yet doubt still remained in their minds, obviously, since now with this success in Iraq, they seem to have found some proof for their faith. And now they are fervently declaring the Democrats as obsolete, rather than merely fervently suggesting it.
On the other hand, we all know that the war could not have occurred without the requisite votes of Democrats like John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, among others. So any rational individual cannot claim that Democrats are made to look bad by this good day for our goals in Iraq.
What about me?
I'm happy for Iraqis, at least, the ones who got to vote and didn't get blown up. I hope that this leads them towards things like running water, under-ground sewage systems, 24-hour electricity, and gas stations that you don't have to wait for 10 hours in line at. Along with no more occupying army, no more constant threat of terrorists attacking anywhere at any time.
However, I personally think that our own "democracy" (it's not really a democracy at all but a corporatocracy) in the USA is fundamentally flawed, as the last few elections have proved. Many ballots were discarded, many voting machines failed, many people waited in line longer than the Iraqis had to, especially in heavily left-leaning areas of Ohio, and Ralph Nader was forced off of the ballot in many states by very questionable means. We had a voter turnout of less than half of all Americans, which is absolutely pathetic.
And then there was the war: had it come to a popular referendum, or had the American people somehow been able to override the votes of their idiotic and misled representatives, I highly doubt there ever would have been a war in the first place -- at least not a terribly planned, horridly rushed one, that was more of the experimental "brainchild" of Rumsfeld than anything else.
Also, I honestly don't think that we need to be mucking around in a country that posed absolutely no threat to us, at great expense that is putting us in great debt, while here at home we don't even have a solid democracy and not everyone who can vote, does so. I feel that voting in major elections should be 100% mandatory, and that even homeless people with no address should be able to register to vote. I also feel that the voting age should be lowered to 14, since anyone who is 14 might be drafted within the term of a given president -- and at 14 they should know enough about the public school system to have a voice in changing it. If they are not literate enough -- well do you think that many adults are any more literate?
Look I simply don't buy the argument that either the Iraq or Afghanistan wars were necessary or the best way to go about things. I think that if you look back at history, when a country embarks on military campaigns in the way that we are doing, it ends up leading to a long, bloody war or series of wars. And if you read Bush's rhertoric, that's exactly what he wants, because he thinks it will spread "freedom" around the world and will "secure" us here at home so we'll be safe from "terror" and that this is "progress" for "America" (BINGO).
But I do not believe in the idea of a "just war." I believe we are only making our enemies more numerous and more resolved by our unrequested intervention. And while there may be short-term positive signs, like the recent election, I do not agree with nor condone the methods used to achieve them. It is entirely one thing for a nation to undergo revolution and come to democracy on their own, like we did, like France did, like the Greeks did. It is entirely another thing to have it imposed by a foreign nation (unless it is being restored, or if they attacked us first, like in WW II), and I do not think it wise of pundits to claim what is happening in Iraq is equivalent to the falling of the Berlin wall or the collapse of Communism in Russia.
For indeed, pundits may feel that the Iraqi elections are equivalent, but what matters is what Iraqis think, and what they are able to do, and when they are able to do it.
Someone might say to me, "If, in 10 years, Iraq is free, has a democratic government and a military of its own, and we are no longer there, then what will you say?" I will say you are smoking crack, because we will be there forever, just like we will be in Germany and Japan forever. But even worse, in Iraq, it is American and British companies who are now, and will be forever, controlling their oil.
What do you think, that the new Iraqi prime minister is going to demand that all our forces pull out and that Iraqi companies be able to control all that oil? Those trillions of barrells? LOL!!! Iraq is going to be a foreign-controlled corporatocracy, and while yes that is better than Saddam for the Iraqi people (and certainly for Bush's oil buddies), I don't like it very much.
JSG Signing Off
