la bomba shelter

The debate

I watched the entire debate and it freaked me out a little.  Are we a bunch of warmongering a-holes or what?  These guys only pay lip service at best to the idea of war as a last resort.  I know why this posturing is happening — the terms of the discussion are being defined by the right wing [as usual].  You know, “the Republicans want to kill terrorists and the Democrats want to send them to therapy.”  So Obama has to stand up there and talk about winning the Iraq war and executing our enemies.

Except Iraq isn’t really a war.  The war lasted three weeks.  It is an occupation, and it can be ended but it cannot really be won or lost.  In terms of winning hearts and minds of the people there — it isn’t happening.  The siege of Fallujah entailed a city the size of Anchorage basically being wiped off the map.  And there have been how many civilians killed?  600,000?  1,000,000 or more?  Can you imagine how we’d react if some other country came here and took us over like that?

It was interesting that both candidates tiptoed around the $700 billion “bailout” proposal.

McCain kept repeating over and over again that Obama “doesn’t understand” and “doesn’t get it”.  The same justification is being used to sell the bailout to the public.  They don’t approve of it [in resoundingly large majority] because they “don’t understand how the mortgage market works”. 

I’ll bet we understand it well, and will dispense with the economic philosophy in effect since 1980 as quickly and completely as we can.  Otherwise we’ll just perpetuate failure.

Looking forward to Biden-Palin next week!  Let ’em try to cancel again!  Ha!