Hmmm, it’s accessible from here in Canada. I guess they have no regard for our hacking talents here. Or maybe the October Surprise will be an annexation of the Great White North, and Shrub wants Canadian voters to keep an open mind about the Republicans.

Posted by: Harrow | Oct 28 2004 16:27 utc | 3

b
i’m infinitel more worried about the absence of coverage of the missing exmplosives, the actual theft of votes in florida, their campaign in ohio etc etc
i wish i had jérôme’s nerves – i am not optimistic at all – i fear for the american i have found here – i fear for the people o america as well as all the countries where their boots arte marching in defiance of all human decency & against all international law
i feel from here – that it is like watching an accident in which you can do nothing but scream – i really am not being melodramatic – when i feel that this election will tell us clearly what kind of future we have & with bush – it will be a future marred with extreme violence – we know that today
what we are witnessing is unbelievably ugly – unfortunately i do not share ariel dorfmans careful optimism – though he know better than i – resistance in the first instance would be the defeat of bush – & if that does not pass – then the campaign who oppose him must be relentless at every level
there can be no doubt the administration of bush is a more dangerous one that nixon’s ever was – the threat to the world is being practiced daily – there can be no illussion about this group of criminals
just at the level of electoral ‘irregularities’ are of a kind that their criminal intent is clear – that the ideas behind it are clear – that the theft by one means or another are clear – that the democrats & those who oppose bush must not roll over this time, for their sakes as well as ours on this side of the world & especially those of the middle east who have felt the brutal effect of their tyranic excess
my father once sd (& he knew this intimately)- that fascists were vermin – to be extinguished – you do not enter into an argument with a fascist – you do not offer your best side to them, you do not try to change their ideas, you change the ideas of a fascist – only by force.
hopefully on nov 2 the people will express that force & even though some here suggest it is comparable to voting for johnson – the vote for kerry will mark a moment from where the world can turn back – i think though it will only be a quantitative change – it has the possibility of being a quantitative one
i don’t know why i am so scandalised by the absence of cover of the issue of votes on cnnbbcetc but their role as propogandists of the worst kind does fill me with a disgust that i cannot quite articulate
clearly, i am not feeliong so well at the moment with my illness & all the effects of it but the situation in your country has externalised it in a way – i myself find difficult to explain – perhaps it is the contact here – with people, with individuals – certainly not a choir & i feel your fears very strongly & i think they are just fears
again i am reminded of jérôme who is in infinitely more difficult situation – has the room for optimism – i sense it – i wish i had it
i am also not joyous about the ill health of yassir arafat – i think he is a leader of his people in much the same way that nelson mandela is – except nelson was ‘lucky’ enough not to be besmirched by changes of strategy & form. i have never accepted the demonisation of arafat – he is a vigorous leader – who has not been as attentive to the requirements of that leadership – as he might have been. but he is clearly not the monster he has always portrayed as being & i think that is even truer of the generation of bhargouti – who have watched the errors of their movement & can change to tactics & strategies – that are worthy of their cause. bhargouti is in jail – the other elements of the leadership are being murdered by the israelis so the death or otherwise of arafat will leave a hole that the enemies of palestine will be quick to take advantage of – & that too leads me to darker thoughts than i want to articulate
it is time for the american people to give the rest of the world a breath of their optimism not through brutality but through a real engagement
still steel

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 28 2004 17:39 utc | 5

@ remembereringgiap: I’m sorry you’re feeling bad. This is for you.

Posted by: beq | Oct 28 2004 18:40 utc | 7

I’ve said this before on some threads here, that John Kerry IS the quentessential candidate in this race, if only because in his past he has shown not only the ability to see the difference between truth and lies, but has managed to put himself on the line in defence of the truth without regard to himself personally. And I also think that any greatness that is to be found in his presidency ( and he will win ) will be seen proportionally to his ability to right the ship of state, and to expose and repair the rot that has taken place within the American government. Of course this will be very difficult, but there is some subliminal desire amongst the population toward a reunification, that the wedge of divulsion has been drivin too deep — and this will be of assistance to him in this task as it will also be seen as contributing to his election. And the growing intensification we now feel as the election approaches , can in a novel if not arcane way be intrepreted as the rising tide of Anti – Apathy amongst the people.
@remembereringgiap
please, incoherence is my department, your posts are often the better part of my day, and so wishing you better health on the way

Posted by: anna missed | Oct 28 2004 19:00 utc | 9

jérôme – the good dr hunter s thompson seems to agree witt your optimism, here –:
Published on Thursday, October 28, 2004 by the Independent/UK
Ugly, Tasteless, Terrifying and Wild… Count Me In!
He’s been America’s most unorthodox political commentator for more than 30 years. But for Dr Hunter S Thompson the Bush presidency is evil beyond belief – and judgment is nigh
by Hunter S. Thompson
 
The genetically vicious nature of presidential campaigns in America is too obvious to argue with, but some people call it fun, and I am one of them. Election day – especially when it’s a presidential election – is always a wild and terrifying time for politics junkies, and I am one of those, too. We look forward to major election days like sex addicts look forward to orgies. We are slaves to them.
Which is not a bad thing, all in all, for the winners. They are not the ones who bitch and whine about slavery when the votes are finally counted and the losers are forced to get down on their knees. No. The slaves who emerge victorious from these drastic public decisions go crazy with joy and plunge each other into deep tubs of chilled Cristal champagne with naked strangers who want to be close to a winner.
That is how it works in the victory business. You see it every time. The weak suck up to the strong, for fear of losing their jobs and money and all the fickle power they wielded only 24 hours ago. It is like suddenly losing your wife and your home in a vagrant poker game, then having to go on the road with whoremongers and beg for your dinner in public. Nobody wants to hire a loser. Right? They stink of doom and defeat.
“What is that horrible smell in the office, Tex? It’s making me sick.”
“That is the smell of a loser, senator. He came in to apply for a job, but we tossed him out immediately. Sgt Sloat took him down to the parking lot and taught him a lesson he will never forget.”
“Good work, Tex. And how are you coming with my new enemies list? I want them all locked up. They are scum.”
“We will punish them brutally. They are terrorist sympathizers, and most of them voted against you. I hate those bastards.”
“Thank you, Sloat. You are a faithful servant. Come over here and kneel down. I want to reward you.”
That is the nature of high-risk politics. Veni, vidi, vici, especially among Republicans. It’s like the ancient Bedouin saying: “As the camel falls to its knees, more knives are drawn.”
Presidential politics is a vicious business, even for rich white men, and anybody who gets into it should be prepared to grapple with the meanest of the mean. The White House has never been seized by timid warriors. There are no rules, and the roadside is littered with wreckage. That is why they call it the passing lane. Just ask any candidate who ever ran against George Bush – Al Gore, Ann Richards, John McCain – all of them ambushed and vanquished by lies and dirty tricks. And all of them still whining about it.
That is why George W Bush is President of the United States, and Al Gore is not. Bush simply wanted it more, and he was willing to demolish anything that got in his way, including the US Supreme Court. It is not by accident that the Bush White House (read: Dick Cheney & Halliburton Inc) controls all three branches of our federal government today. They are powerful thugs who would far rather die than lose the election in November.
The Republican establishment is haunted by painful memories of what happened to Old Man Bush in 1992. He peaked too early, and he had no response to “It’s the economy, stupid.” Which has always been the case. Every GOP administration since 1952 has let the Military-Industrial Complex loot the Treasury and plunge the nation into debt on the excuse of a wartime economic emergency. Richard Nixon comes quickly to mind, along with Ronald Reagan and his ridiculous “trickle-down” theory of US economic policy. If the rich get richer, the theory goes, before long their pots will overflow and somehow “trickle down” to the poor, who would rather eat scraps off the Bush family plates than eat nothing at all. Republicans have never approved of democracy, and they never will. It goes back to pre-industrial America, when only white male property owners could vote.
Things haven’t changed much where George W Bush comes from. Houston is a cruel, crazy town on a filthy river in East Texas with no zoning laws and a culture of sex, money and violence. It’s a shabby, sprawling metropolis ruled by brazen women, crooked cops and super-rich pansexual cowboys who live by the code of the West – which can mean just about anything you need it to mean, in a pinch.
Houston is also the unnatural home of two out of the last three presidents of the United States of America, for good or ill. The other one was a handsome, sex-crazed boy from next-door Arkansas, which has no laws against any deviant practice not specifically forbidden in the New Testament, including anal incest and public cunnilingus with farm animals.
Back in 1948, during his first race for the US Senate, Lyndon Johnson was running about 10 points behind, with only nine days to go. He was desperate. And it was just before noon on a Monday, they say, when he called his equally depressed campaign manager and told him to call a press conference for just before lunch on a slow news day and accuse his high-riding opponent, a pig farmer, of having routine carnal knowledge of his sows, despite the pleas of his wife and children.
His campaign manager was shocked. “We can’t say that, Lyndon,” he supposedly said. “You know that it isn’t true.”
“Of course it’s not!” Johnson barked. “But let’s make the bastard deny it!”
Johnson – a Democrat, like Bill Clinton – won that election by fewer than 100 votes, and after that he was home free. He went on to rule Texas and the US Senate for 20 years and to be the most powerful vice president in the history of the United States. Until now.
Armageddon came early for George Bush this year, and he was not ready for it. His long-awaited showdowns with John Kerry turned into a series of embarrassments that broke his nerve and demoralized his closest campaign advisers. They knew he would never recover, no matter how many votes they could steal for him in Florida, where the presidential debates were closely watched and widely celebrated by millions of Kerry supporters who suddenly had reason to feel like winners.
Kerry came into October as a five-point underdog with almost no chance of winning three out of three rigged confrontations with a treacherous little freak like George Bush. But the debates are over now, and the victor was John Kerry every time. He steamrollered Bush and left him for roadkill.
Did you see Bush on TV, trying to debate? Jesus, he talked like a donkey with no brains at all. The tide turned early, in Coral Gables, when Bush went belly up less than halfway through his first bout with Kerry, who hammered poor George into jelly. It was pitiful… I almost felt sorry for him, until I heard someone call him “Mister President”, and then I felt ashamed.
Karl Rove, the President’s political wizard, felt even worse. There is angst in the heart of Texas today, and panic in the bowels of the White House. Rove has a nasty little problem, and its name is George Bush. The president failed miserably from the instant he got onstage with John Kerry. He looked weak and dumb. Kerry beat him like a gong in Coral Gables, then again in St Louis and Tempe. That is Rove’s problem. His candidate is a weak-minded frat boy who cracks under pressure in front of 60 million voters.
Bush signed his own death warrant in the opening round, when he finally had to speak without his teleprompter. It was a Cinderella story brought up to date in Florida that night – except this time, the false prince turned back into a frog.
Immediately after the first debate ended, I called Muhammad Ali at his home in Michigan, but whoever answered said the champ was laughing so hard that he couldn’t come to the phone. “The debate really cracked him up,” he chuckled. “The champ loves a good ass-whuppin’. He says Bush looked so scared to fight, he finally just quit and laid down.”
This year’s first presidential debate was such a disaster for George Bush that his handlers had to be crazy to let him get in the ring with John Kerry again. Yet Karl Rove let it happen, and we can only wonder why. But there is no doubt that the president has lost his nerve, and his career in the White House is finished. No mas.
Indeed. The numbers are weird today, and so is this dangerous election. The time has come to rumble, to inject a bit of fun into politics. That’s exactly what the debates did. John Kerry looked like a winner, and it energized his troops. Voting for Kerry is starting to look like serious fun for everyone except poor George, who now looks like a loser. That is fatal in a presidential election.
I look at elections with the cool and dispassionate gaze of a professional gambler, especially when I’m betting real money on the outcome. Contrary to most conventional wisdom, I see Kerry with five points as a recommended risk. Kerry will win this election, if it happens, by a bigger margin than Bush finally gouged out of Florida in 2000. That was about 46 per cent, plus five points for owning the US Supreme Court – which seemed to equal 51 per cent. Nobody really believed that, but George W Bush moved into the White House anyway.
It was the most brutal seizure of power since Hitler burned the Reichstag in 1933 and declared himself the new boss of Germany. Karl Rove is no stranger to Nazi strategy, if only because it worked for a while, and it was sure fun for Hitler. But not for long. He ran out of oil, the whole world hated him, and he liked to gobble pure crystal biphetamine and stay awake for eight days in a row with his maps and bombers and his dope-addled general staff.
They all loved the whiff. It is the perfect drug for war, as long as you are winning, and Hitler thought he was king of the hill forever. He had created a new master race, and every one of them worshipped him. They were fanatics. That was 66 years ago, and things are not much different today. We still love war.
George Bush certainly does. In four short years he has turned our country from a prosperous nation at peace into a desperately indebted nation at war. But so what? He is the President of the United States, and you’re not. Love it or leave it.
BULLETIN: KERRY WINS GONZO ENDORSEMENT; DR THOMPSON JOINS DEMOCRAT IN CALLING BUSH “THE SYPHILIS PRESIDENT”.
“Four more years of George Bush will be like four more years of syphilis,” the famed author said yesterday at a hastily called press conference near his home in Woody Creek, Colorado.
“Only a fool or a sucker would vote for a dangerous loser like Bush. He hates everything we stand for, and he knows we will vote against him in November.” Thompson, well known for the eerie accuracy of his political instincts, went on to denounce Ralph Nader as “a worthless Judas goat with no moral compass.”
“I endorsed John Kerry a long time ago,” he said, “and I will do everything in my power, short of roaming the streets with a meat hammer, to help him be the next president of the United States.”
Which is true. I said all those things, and I will say them again. Of course I will vote for John Kerry. I have known him for 30 years as a good man with a brave heart – which is more than even the President’s friends will tell you about George W Bush, who is also an old acquaintance from the white-knuckle days of yesteryear. He is hated all over the world, including large parts of Texas, and he is taking us all down with him. Bush is a natural-born loser with a filthy-rich daddy who pimped his son out to rich oil-mongers. He hates music, football and sex, and he is no fun at all.
I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, but I won’t make that mistake again. The joke is over for Nader. He was funny once, but now he belongs to the dead. Nader is a fool, as is anybody who votes for him in November – with the obvious exception of professional Republicans who have paid big money to turn him into a world-famous Judas goat. Nader is so desperate that he’s paying homeless people to gather signatures to get him on the ballot. In Pennsylvania, the petitions he submitted contained tens of thousands of phony signatures, including Fred Flintstone, Mickey Mouse and John Kerry. A judge dumped Ralph from the ballot there, calling it “the most deceitful and fraudulent exercise ever perpetrated upon this court”.
But they will keep his name on the ballot in the long-suffering Hurricane State, which is ruled by the President’s younger brother, Jeb, who also wants to be the next president of the United States. In 2000, when they sent Jim Baker to Florida, I knew it was all over. In that election, 97,488 people voted for Nader in Florida, and Gore lost the state by 537 votes. You don’t have to be from Texas to understand the moral of that story. It’s like being out-coached in the Super Bowl. Only losers play fair, and all winners have blood on their hands.
Back in June, when John Kerry was beginning to feel like a winner, we had a quick rendezvous on a rain-soaked runway in Aspen, Colorado, where he was scheduled to meet a harem of wealthy campaign contributors. I told him that Bush’s vicious goons in the White House are perfectly capable of assassinating Nader and blaming it on him. His staff laughed, but the Secret Service men didn’t. Kerry suggested I might make a good running mate, and we reminisced about trying to end the Vietnam War in 1972.
That was the year I first met him, at a riot on that elegant little street in front of the White House. He was yelling into a bullhorn and I was trying to throw a dead rat over a black-spike fence and on to the President’s lawn. We were angry and righteous in those days, and there were millions of us. We kicked two chief executives out because they were stupid warmongers. We conquered Lyndon Johnson and we stomped on Richard Nixon – which wise people said was impossible, but so what? It was fun. We were warriors then, and our tribe was strong like a river. That river is still running. All we have to do is get out and vote, while it’s still legal, and we will wash those crooked warmongers out of the White House.

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 28 2004 21:24 utc | 11

http://origin.georgewbush.com doesnt exist . from Europe with simpathy.

Posted by: curioso | Oct 28 2004 22:54 utc | 13

Everyone should read the Meyerson article conchita cites. anna missed is right: barring a massive theft (which is a big if, I concede), we will win. I myself am off tomorrow to Tallahassee (that’s in Florida, for you outlanders) and I am but one of many, many. My husband is already in Florida, in Tampa, and says the activity is tremendous around the Kerry campaign, and voting lines are long.
Rgiap, please give yourself some ease and save your fears for later, if they are needed and when you are strong. Here’s a toast to your health.

Posted by: liz | Oct 29 2004 2:12 utc | 15

@vbo I think the “trickle down” theory appeals to Americans precisely because (as I think has been mentioned before) all Americans fantasise that they will someday be rich (or already are). I forget the exact statistic but there is a mordantly funny poll result in which, of a representative sample of Americans, more than three quarters of them thought they were “above average in income”. America is in terminal denial about class. Simply to say the word is to label oneself a demonised “Red” and therefore a lunatic or subversive not worth listening to. America has the same problem with class, money, and power that Victorians had about nudity — they can’t even say the word. They have to put little frilly pantaloons on the furniture to hide its (titter) l-e-g-s, have to spell it in front of the children.
So, in a culture where no one can admit that they are stuck in a specific class and will stay there, failing a major lottery win, obviously no one can admit that there is a class above them whose table leavings they would be too proud to take. No, they have to pretend that they are the upper-middle class whose table leavings someone else ought to be grateful to take. And therefore the theory of living off of others’ table leavings, instead of being humiliating and insulting, is self-aggrandising and ego-tickling.
R. D. Laing left us too soon 🙂

Posted by: DeAnander | Oct 29 2004 3:51 utc | 17

De Anander I know what you mean exactly…and I thought that would be the case in USA.
But this kind of “virus” is definitely spreading here in Australia as things are economically very good (so they say)… I am sure they are very VERY good, in fact excellent, for say 5 % (or more?) of stinky rich but what “drug they put in water” to make 95 % of those who are in huge, HUGE debts believe that they are in this 5% I wouldn’t know. It must be this real estate bubble affect…and previously IT market bubble etc. Problem is that those 95 %, who do think that they made huge money out of nothing in no time thanks to this great system, have no idea how easy those 5 % will strip them of their wealth…

Posted by: vbo | Oct 29 2004 4:28 utc | 19

Since I live in a safe state, I tuned in tonight to see if i should really swallow very hard & vote tomorrow for Forbes-Heinz///Kerry or skip it. I am thoroughly disgusted that we were browbeaten into it, rather than him being told that if he wanted our votes he would have to represent our interests. Facing a choice of voting Far Right or Furthest Right/Wrong is horrifying. But then I think of the Germans of yore & all of you Outlanders, RGiap, vbo… who can’t vote against Bu$hCo, and I’ll cast one in your names… toss one tiny pebble against the forces of Malevolence. (Gore Vidal today called it the most Trivial & Vicious Admin. in history.)

Posted by: jj | Oct 29 2004 4:51 utc | 21

@jj I think it is worth holding nose and voting for the “Talking Tree”. Not because he will fix everything and make it all better, kissy kissy, but because of this email from a Canadian friend I got earlier this week (and it kind of gives me a chill, this is a very calm and peaceable person writing to me, a level-headed fellow, not inclined to hand-waving or exaggeration or extremism of any kind).

Up here in the cool blue North, we keep saying that we don’t have a problem with Americans, just with the American administration. Well, I am beginning to think that is like saying we didn’t have a problem with the Germans, just with the Hitler administration. I listen to US stations on the radio and keep hearing normal sounding people saying that they are going to vote for Bush.

What I mean is, if the Americans get rid of Bush — even if Kerry is kind of a disappointment — at least that will be a way of showing the world community that we are not all ravening barbarians, backwoods Bible-thumping wannabe Christian Soldiers, Abu-Ghraib-style vicious/sadistic racists, and all the rest. But if Bush manages to get, or to manufacture from thin air, a “mandate” and retain the White House, then world opinion is likely to hold us all complicit in the regime’s crimes.

Posted by: DeAnander | Oct 29 2004 5:06 utc | 23

BTW, the crimes for which the world will hold us complicit continue to grow, and the stench of them also will grow as time passes: “Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children,” Roberts added. This is the “heroism” for which the US troops will be remembered: like all other brutal armies of occupation in history, murderers of women and children. Perhaps children in US schoolrooms should be made to observe a moment of silence every morning of every day of the week, to remember those dead children — and of course the other half a million dead Iraqi children, victims of the Siege…

Posted by: DeAnander | Oct 29 2004 5:15 utc | 25

@DeAnander That Lancet article sure is dynamite stuff there is a longer article on it in The Independent

Posted by: Debs in ’04 | Oct 29 2004 6:26 utc | 27

DeAnander – one statistic I have read recently is that 19% of Americans think they are in the top 1% (not sure if it was by earnings or by wealth, but the point is the same).
The Lancet report makes the main headline of Le Monde today.

Posted by: Jérôme | Oct 29 2004 15:12 utc | 29

blackie
thank you
really
seems like osama is being telecommandé direct from washington – perhaps from a guest room in the white house
if kerry can win – i hope there can be some settling of accounts with the mass media
that they seem not to care about the explosives, that they do not seem to care about the ‘missing’ votes, that they do no seem concerned by irregularities with this election unless it affects their favourite son, that fool bush
i hope jérome is still of optimistic mind
still steel

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 29 2004 21:50 utc | 31

Rgiap,
Yes the Dems are prone to roll over; it is in their very nature. But in spite of that there are some winning signs here.
True, the reptiles-in-charge cannot bear the threat of defeat. For them it is all-or-nothing. And so for the rest of us it must also be. We have no choice any more but still many of the happy strolling middle-roaders see-no-evil, hear-no-evil as long as it doesn’r interrupt the afternoon trip to Walmart.
Stay positive.

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