THE GREAT DEBATE THAT NEVER WAS.

Remember Dan Rather's interview of Saddam in Iraq months before Shock and Awe? Saddam suggested an American style debate with President Bush to be broadcast for all the world to see. The two leaders would have addressed the pressing issues of WMD, terrorist connections and the threat Iraq posed to its neighbors.

President Bush would not even consider the idea of such an encounter. Why? Wasn't truth on his side? Why not debate? Didn't Bush hold the high cards of morality, freedom and goodwill while Saddam was a leader in the Axis of Evil? Wouldn't that make a good witness to the world? Might peaceful solutions be the result?

Our president did not so much as recognize the debate challenge. He dismissed any idea of meeting or talking with a man who could debate Bush out of the building. But the interpreter would have had a bit of trouble with Bush's doublespeak.

What a debate that would have been! Perhaps, had there been a debate, Bush would have been deprived of the war. How bad is that? You recall that he said, "I want to beat Saddam because he tried to kill my daddy." President Bush was focused on what he wanted, not what we needed.

Churchill said, "Jaw, jaw, jaw is better than war, war, war."


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

THAT'S RIGHT. WE TOLD YOU SO.

A popular radio-talk personality in St. George, Utah entertained callers on the subject of Iraq today. He expresssed concern about the long duration and the casualties. But he admitted that he was for the war in the beginning. "We had to go in there." He sounded irked by those who now say "I told you so."

The truth is millions of people around the world did tell you so. The eventual civil war was predicted because Saddam, the tyrant, had kept the hostile factions apart.

Scott Ritter and the others on the UN inspection team, which left Iraq on President Clinton's orders, testified that 98% of the WMD had been destroyed by the inspectors. And a link between Saddam and bin Laden was impossible to find. The CIA learned that bin Laden had offered Saudi Arabia to lead a military overthrow of the Iraq government. He wanted 100,000 troops.

President Bush violated the Constitution by usurping Congress's duty to declare war, and he ignored the United Nation's Charter: No war on a member nation unless attacked.

The 10-year American blockade of food and medicine had already killed more than a million Iraqis. (A figure agreed upon by two Secretaries of State: Albright and Powell.) A very weak Iraq scared none of its neighbors, who refused to join the "coalition."

The media - the folks the warmongers love to blame - were totally complicit in the monstrous crimes of sanctions and Shock and Awe against Iraq. War is sell. We broke the Constitution, violated our UN agreement, and spilled innocent blood. Now we have redemption to pay. We told you so.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

Sometimes you don't have to know much about a subject to form an opinion. Here's all you need to know about these:

Wal-Mart - the company takes out secret life insurance policies on employees as an extra source of revenue. When an insured employee passes away, the store collects the beneficiary's payments - no relatives are informed.

Warren Buffet - this super rich man gives away most of his earnings, savings and investments.

Democracy in Iraq - the new constitution provides for an Islamic nation. Women can just forget it.

Target stores - the corporation donates 2% of its income to charity and community causes.

Banks - they don't have public restrooms.

Foreign lobbies - they contribute funds to members of U.S. Congress in virtual exchange for aid from Uncle Sam, and then use some of the money to continue to pay lobbyists. A wheel of fortune.

Federal Reserve System - never audited in 97-year history.

Israel - they bulldoze the homes of relatives of accused terrorists. More than 4,000 houses demolished so far.

Congresspersons - the honorable ones vote pay increases for themselves.

Central Intelligence Agency - made numerous successful and unsuccessful attempts to assassinate leaders of sovereign nations - in your name.

Cuba - they shoot their own people who try to flee the island.

Middle Class - most of them are actually poor, but they haven't found out yet.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

WINDS OF CHANGE

November 7 was a bleak day for the Grand Oil Party. Not only were a whole bunch of rascals thrown out, those left are cowering and begging for mercy. "We'll cooperate," Bushites say. Already, Rumsfeld has resigned.

Rush, Blah, Blah Radio personality and spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, pointed out the difference in the two major parties when they lose. Republicans just take it with a smile; Democrats cry foul, vote tampering and cheating.

Yesterday's voting belies the words of the late Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neil, who said, "All politics is local." Exit polling information indicates that voters generally voted against the war in Iraq and Republican corruption all across the nation. The election was not local, except in the specific districts where the voters' congressman was a crook. This proves that national politics can influence and dominate local politics.

At President Bush's press conference, he answered reporters' questions. He's looks like a man reaching for an inner tube. Bush knows he's a lame duck now, Congress is hostile, and his cronies are dropping away. Vice President Cheney has done no public consoling. He's out in a field, shooting ducks released from cages. We can't wait to hear from him about the shipwreck.

The Constitution is safer, the legislative branch is back in business, and some big wings have been clipped.

IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

LIBERATION DAY

My wife and I cut and ran to the polls early this morning. We were in shock and awe to discover that Iraq, Stay the Course is not on the ballot. So we voted for Democrats - the people who got us into WWI, WWII, Korea and Viet Nam. Ironic, because we're depending on them to extricate us from the Middle East.

The Republicans apparently pinned their hopes on Blah, Blah Radio. They had a huge task trying to convince voters to keep our troops in Iraq despite the civil war and the inherent dangers of occupation armies.

When a Republican said that leaving Iraq will make matters worse, a soldier who returned from Baghdad said, "We might as well leave, it can't get any worse."

The victors today will be mostly Democrats. This will mean bringing the liberators home soon, removal of a defense secretary, impeachment of a president, and a good dose of socialism.

The beaten Republicans would have brought a draft, war with Iran, and a good dose of fascism.

Not all roses, but it feels good to be on the winning side.

America isn't well, but it sure is better.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

THE WAR PARTY

Twentieth century Republicans called Democrats "The War Party." Senator Robert Taft repeatedly referred to the war in Korea as, "Truman's War." Senator Barry Goldwater called the war in Viet Nam, "Johnson's War." Neither president had asked Congress for a declaration of war.

The Goldwater campaign printed campaign advertisements with photos of wounded American soldiers lying on the battlefield. The message was that our wars were the result of international interventions and meddling in other nation's business. Vote Republican and get peace.

If Korea and Viet Nam were Democrat wars, then how about the two World Wars? Democrat President Wilson meddled, for sure. He won re-election in 1916 boasting that he had kept us out of war. A year later Wilson chose to go to war and whipped the nation into a fervor about it. Senators who opposed the war were censured by the U.S. Senate. These included the great Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette. Many people went to jail for resisting the war.

The situation leading to our entry into The Second World War was not much different. Democrat President Roosevelt was criticised by Republicans for violating our neutrality laws. FDR had ordered blockades on Japanese shipping in the South Pacific, sent American volunteers (paid) to fly warplanes in defense of China, and had U.S. destroyers chasing German submarines to protect British shipping in the North Atlantic. Our nation had taken sides and was active militarily months before Pearl Harbor.

Since the Democrat Presidents led us into the four big wars mentioned above, we have had the undeclared wars on Grenada, Panama, and twice against Iraq. Those were under Republican presidents, but you never heard of Reagan's War or Bush's War. And we should not forget Republican President Nixon's little wars on Cambodia and Laos.

We notice that this century's Republicans are at least as warlike as the Democrats. If turnabout is fair play, then Democrats can now scream "War Party" with adequate justification. We have an American administration that blockades a nation's food and medical supplies for 1o years, sends CIA agents to stir rebellion and make maps of bombing targets in another nation, and arbitrarily launches the brutal Shock & Awe. The Bush government is meddling, intervening and making war unconstitutionally.

The Republicans are The War Party. And like in WWI, you'll support it or else.


ITS ALL SO SIMPLE.

THANK HEAVEN FOR EXIT POLLS

An election is upon us, with those suspicious voting machines being both ubiquitous and suspect. When such a machine leaves no paper trail, you don't have to be paranoid to wonder what they've done to this sacred institution.

Progress? How is cause for doubt and suspicion progressive? You have to recall the Soviet Union's Joe Stalin who said, "It doesn't matter who votes so much as who counts the votes."

Exit polls have been conducted in the U.S. and Europe for a generation with excellent results. They have always predicted the actual, official winners. Wait. There is one exception, Ohio in 2004. The exit polls indicated more votes going to Al Gore than George Bush. But a funny thing happened on the way home from the polls. The voting machines in Ohio found a different winner. So the voters lied to the exit pollsters? We don't think so, do you?

Small wonder that Republican legislators in Florida and Ohio submitted bills to outlaw the practice of exit polling.

Exalt the Exit Poll. It and the jury system are about the most helpful safeguards we have against an insidious government trying to erase our liberties. Maybe we need a a law to mandate Exit Polls.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.

WHO'S STUCK IN IRAQ?

Blah, blah radio spent the day turning Senator John Kerry's remarks about "stuck in Iraq" into a reason to vote against Democrats in this congressional election. Commentators, pundits and politicians chimed in. In football, they call it "piling on."

Sean Hannity, Peter Wiseback, Rush Limbaugh, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Tony Snow, and anyone else who has something to gain, added fuel to the blaze. These are all smart people, that nobody can deny. They KNOW that bumbling, fumbling John was not referring to our troops in Iraq. He was aiming an insult at George W.

The critics must be cognizant of the sentence before the hot one. It referred to the president, not the troops. If you read the sentence you can have no doubt. Dumb-smart John said, "Bush is from the state of Texas, but now he lives in a state of denial." Then comes the controversial sentence.

Everyone is aware, if they care, that the troops were not the intended butt of a hurtful message. Those who took it that way, found it to their advantage to do so. They wanted to be upset.

Diversionary politics are devious enough, but demagogic tactics are reprehensible.


IT'S ALL SO SIMPLE.