Gingrich: Vote For the Kook, I Mean Crook, I Mean Astronaut

This is awesomely awesome stuff and further proof that the American political system can only be defined as being from outer space. Newt Gingrich made a campaign speech in Florida in which he promised to establish a permanent moon base - for science tourism and advanced manufacturing - within 8 years.

Actually, it wouldn't surprise me if it could be done theoretically speaking. I mean, they got to the moon less than ten years after Kennedy's famous speech. And America does spend about a ba-zillion dollars on coming up with ways to kill people in every corner of the planet if they don't do what America says support democracy. If they took that ba-zillion dollars and instead put it towards building the coolest, bestest space hotel in the solar system that would save a lot of lives and create a lot of jobs. Just think of all the people you'd need to work in the hotel serving lunar drinks to Newt and his buddies or in the gift shop where advanced manufacturing products like lunar keychains that beep when you clap your hands will be sold.

Newt Gingrich promises moon base by the end of his second term | World news | guardian.co.uk:

'via Blog this'

Republican Contest: Battle Of The Scumbags

Where do they dig up these cretins? I mean, is it really possible that in the 21st century these guys can be the front runners of one of America's two mainstream parties to be the next president? Seriously?
On the bright side, I can't see how the Republicans can possibly win the White House with these evil, fanatical weasels running up against Obama.

Don't get me wrong, Obama is no shirk when it comes to evil himself. He ramped up the illegal war inside the borders of Pakistan (not to mention in Afghanistan et al), he continued the clampdown on civil liberties in the United States. He not only did nothing to help out the millions of Americans who were losing their homes and their jobs, he hired the jokers who were responsible for the 2008 economic meltdown as his advisors. And he handed out money to the richest of the rich to reward them for screwing up the global economy. But Obama doesn't come across as a crass, personally odious and heartless asshole. The Republican presidential hopefuls?

Well, first there's Rick Santorum who would urge his daughter, were she raped and impregnated, to not get an abortion. Why? Well gals you really ought to accept the "gift" that "God is giving to you." What's more odious than this is that millions of freaky deaky US conservatives will vote for him precisely because he is such a vile shitburger (to use the proper term of this type of human being). Happily, so many people know what kind of dude he is that if you google his name you are just as likely to come up with results that compare him to fecal matter (thank you, Dan Savage!) as to his actual personage.

Then there's the front runners, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. These two jokers are trying to out do each other in the "you're more of a corrupt and selfish fuck" contest. It really is hard to pick which one is the winner. Could it be Romney whose job as the head of a Bain Capital was to throw American workers onto the unemployment line. As reward for that despicable role Romney made millions, for which he paid little - if any taxes. His reluctantly released returns of the past two years showed him paying less than 15% taxes on $45 million in income - and those are for years when he knew he was going to run for president. He has refused to release the details of earlier returns when, it is speculated he probably paid even less, not thinking about his presidential career.

Gingrich is, of course, a long time crook who was so corrupt that even the Republicans turfed the dirt bag as head of their party back in '95 because of his, possibly illegal, activities while lecturing poor Americans - and implementing cutbacks. As Romney himself said during debates last night:

"The speaker was given an opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994 and at the end of four years he had to resign in disgrace," said Romney. "In the 15 years after he left the speakership, the speaker has been working as an influence peddler in Washington."

As Romney pointed out, Gingrich was not only paid millions by pharmaceutical companies while serving as a US Representative in Congress who opposed healthcare reforms - a position that benefited the people paying him big bucks. He also was paid $1.6 million by Fannie Mae - the semi-public US mortgage lender that had to be bailed out because of its role in the sub-prime debacle. Gingrich tried to claim that he was hired as a "historian" but nobody can possibly buy that he was paid $1.6 million - $25,000 per month for six years - to give lessons on the origins of the American suburb. It's so not surprising that Gingrich is receiving big time backing from the wife of Sheldon Adelson who is a major casino owner. I mean, does it get any more parasitic than owning a casino?

Certainly all these creeps deserve to be put in jail rather than in the highest political office in America. But the fact that their personal failings dominates the debate as it does, is not only a sign of how corrupt the presidential candidates (all of them multi-millionaires) all are. It is also a sign of the corruption of American politics. There is so little real difference between the candidates from both parties that you'd be hard pressed to slide a cigarette paper between them. Even where their rhetoric differs by degrees the policies that they implement are well nigh identical and the differences in their impact on the lives of ordinary Americans fades to statistical insignificance.

If I were an American citizen I can tell you where my vote would go: Revolution, Egypt style. It's long overdue, don't you think?

Will Obama Win The Election... In Canada?

Obama is wiping up the map with Hilary. In the last week the Democrat presidential hopeful swept 8 primaries and passed her with the largest number of committed delegates. The excitement around his campaign is astounding in a country that has made electoral abstention a national pastime. His figures for fundraising are out of this world, with well over 400,000 people contributing to his campaign since January 1.
“If the Obama campaign can maintain this fundraising pace -- online donations poured in at the rate of more than $500,000 an hour after his overwhelming victory in South Carolina -- it's likely that Obama will raise upwards of $30 million online this month.”
And people are coming out to see him speak in droves. At the University of Maryland on the weekend, some 17,000 people – heavily youth – came out to a boisterous rally.
Why’s everybody going crazy for Barack Obama?
Well, for one thing he voted against the war in Iraq. And for another, he still opposes the war on Iraq. He also manages to mention the 4 million Iraqi refugees displaced by the US war on that country.
He talks about universal healthcare in a country where 47 million people, including 9 million children have no insurance coverage. It’s true his solution leaves untouched the insurance corporations. But it’s something, and people are desperate.
On the economy he’s talking about tax cuts for middle and low-income earners while reversing tax cuts for the rich. And he’s moderately pro-union, wanting to make it easier for workers to organize into unions and illegal for employers to hire permanent scabs.
Better than a kick in the head, for sure, but it’s hardly radical stuff and he’s hardly a radical guy. In fact, he’s not very good on any number of issues, including Iran, against which he has refused to rule out a military strike though to be fair he has since backed off on that and talked up diplomacy. And he’s a whole-hog supporter of Israel in its war against the Palestinians (and Lebanon and…). But after eight years of Bush, it's like mana from heaven.
And there’s another element – he’s black. This is a nation built on the backs of African slaves. This is the nation of the KKK, segregation and the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This is the nation of Rodney King and the post-Katrina ethnic cleansing of New Orleans.
Does it matter to us up here in Canada?
If there’s an increase in anti-war rhetoric and a momentum behind Obama as the “anti-war candidate”, there is no way that this won’t hurt the Tories who are the Canadian branch of the Neo-Conservative Loony Society.
Harper has toed the Bush line more than Bush himself. He is a unilateralist war monger. He's done everything he could to scuttle Kyoto - and any meaningful climate action. The Tories have tried to undermine abortion rights and roll back gay marriage.
A wave of support for someone who's reputation is for progressive change - even if it outstrips his actual politics - will be a powerful counter-example of a continental shift and that will hurt Harper. It will also give confidence to the ever-opportunist Liberals that the way to victory is by campaigning on a progressive platform.
In any case, I think it may be too late for the Tories – because of the economy, because of the war, because of Obama. But I’m a notorious optimist.
In the here and now, if I were in the USA would I vote for Obama? Would I work on his campaign?
Wow, that’s tough. Here’s what I know: the Democrats are the second-wing of America’s two party capitalist dictatorship – not to put too fine a point on it. They are owned lock, stock and barrel by the corporations who contribute most of the party’s cash. They are the party of slavery, segregation, Vietnam, war in the Balkans, the bombing of Iraq and Sudan, the doubling of the prison population, etc etc. They are a vile corrupt machine.
But if they are drawing in masses upon masses of anti-war youth on the campuses and politicizing them, it would be foolish to turn down the opportunity and stand on the sidelines. Just telling people – “the Democrats won’t change anything” – isn’t sufficient. The only serious question that I can see in this is: is it possible to use the Obama campaign to deepen anti-war and anti-corporate organizing on the campuses and in the communities? Because regardless of Obama’s sincerity, there will be no change, including no phased withdrawal of troops, unless there’s mobilizing on the streets, campuses and communities. That’s a question that activists in the USA will have to ask and answer themselves.
What I do know is that if the Republicans are defeated by a young, black man known as an opponent of the war in Iraq, it will be electric. And I want to see it happen.