2004 Elections
I'm with Frings here. Bush started two wars with countries who never attacked us, or threatened to attack us first. Bush gave reasons to go to war, which have all come to light as blatant, bald faced lies. Don't try and hand me that "faulty intelligence" crap either. They knew it was false, and ran with it anyway. Paul O'Neil, former Treasury Secretary under Bush II, wrote in his book that Bush was talking about going to war with Iraq his second day as president at their first cabinet meeting. Bush was consumed with finding an excuse to invade Iraq. What was he so hell bent about? Was he scared Saddam would rat out Bush I and all his cronies who had supplied Iraq with WMD's back in the 1980's? Bush and most of his administration should be tried as war criminals just based on the fact that the use of torture was authorized before the invasion took place. They got a damned legal opinion from the Justice Dept. ahead of time, which makes the administration's position binding. This is all in contradiction to US law and international treaties signed by the US. Torture is used by fascists and dictators like Saddam, and has been outlawed by most nations for decades. The Bushco admin. and its neocon handlers have shown their true hand - they are fascists and criminals. Problem is Kerry is planning on doing the same crap if he gets elected.
Smuda, about the only thing I'm with you on here is voting Libertarian. Damn straight.
Your comment: "The world economy has chosen oil. Do you hate the world economy?"
I have no clue what you're talking about. What was the intended meaning of your statement and follow on question?
The world economy has been built on fossil fuels over the last century or so. It wasn't a recent choice of "oh yeah, let's switch to oil" in the last 3 years. Peak Oil has arrived. Believe what you wanna believe. The truth of evidence will be "out there" over the next few years. Petroleum based energy will become increasingly scarce and expensive. Petroleum based economies will suffer massive downturns (US is the biggest importer and consumer of crude oil - we're gonna get hit harder than most). That probably has a lot to do with Bushco's foray into the Middle East. That's where the oil is, and the only semi-serious military deterrent was Iraq.
The world economy is perilously close to a systemic "seizure" that will make the 1930's look like a warm up match. I've posted about this in numerous other places so I'll spare you the diatribe. But combining Peak Oil with a historically huge debt bubble, a derivatives market approaching $300 Trillion and a host of other global and systemic imbalances, and you have the recipe for TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it).
As for the US's popularity being the same as when Chimpadent Bush first took office, you've got your head in a very dark place. Polls of non-US countries have consistently shown a declining popularity of the US. In fact, the US is probably the most hated and the most feared country on the planet right now. Surprising isn't it? You get an American president that starts acting like a genocidal, fascist lunatic and people suddenly begin to dislike, distrust and fear the USA. The citizenry aren't evil, but we put this guy in office with his whole neocon gang, and we're blindly supporting his crap. If I were in Europe, I'd be of the same opinion. In fact, Bush and those of the American citizenry who continue to support him, scare the ever loving crap out of me. I don't like 'em and I don't trust 'em, either.
Thanks for speaking up Frings, another voice of reason. I read uni's post earlier today, but I've been too busy to post anything until now.
Cary