Hanging by a Moment

It is rare for me to hope that the part of humanity that is decent will touch people and make then turn against their initial urges and do the right thing.  What is troublesome to me is that I see the opportunity for the Mugabe Legacy to not be redeemed, but be less tarnished.

To hope that a cruel madman would voluntarily give up the power he has worked so hard, and slain so many to keep is absolutely foolish.  I can only assume that the pharmaceutical drugs that have been leached into our drinking water are to blame for this momentary lapse of my sanity.

I will attempt to preserve some sense of academic integrity, whatever that is, by saying that despite what he will do, this is a defining moment for Mugabe.  He is respected by many across Africa because of his fight against colonialism and to preserve the sovereignty of Independent African Countries.

He gained even more street cred with his obvious support for the Anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa.  His involvement is has a direct correlation with the current system/political parties being in power in South Africa, and is why they are so hesitant to criticize his regime.

Only Mugabe can know if he truly believed in these causes, or merely used them in order to gain the spotlight to raise his level of influence to ever reaching heights.  However just believing in something doesn’t make it work, kinda like Bush thinking that invading Islamic countries would not be protested by other Islamic countries.

The main fight between the Black Africans, and the White Africans was over equal opportunity.  In fact, one may look at this region in Africa and see possible outcomes that the United States could have faced.  Violence was advocated among some groups of African Americans in order to balance the violence that had been perpetrated against them.  Zimbabwe was not so lucky to have a Martin Luther King Jr. Figure in order to stem that tide of revenge.

Zimbabwe was known as the bread basket of Africa.  This was due to the enormous exports of products that came from the White African population that, through colonialism, tamed the land and became very wealthy.  With Mugabe’s rise to power, and using a distortion of democracy - it was voted that the land held by White Africans could be seized by their Black African Counterparts.

While Reverend Jeremiah Wright may see this as just retribution, the violence and corruption involved was the fundamental cause for the collapse of the Zimbabwean economy.  Mugabe gave these fertile lands to friends, family , and cronies who quickly allowed the land to fall into disrepair because of their ignorance of the trade of farming.

Inflation has risen on average 32% since, and 100,580% in 2008.  The average lifespan fell from 60 years to 35 years.  While Mugabe himself is 82.  He has fixed elections, intimidated and beaten opponents, executed rivals, and thrown Zimbabwe into vast pits of despair.

The one thing that he could not do is kill hope.  Much like other tyrants through history this elusive foe is difficult to kill.  Blades, bullets, torture, even executions seem to merely make hope weaker, but never fully die out.  So the people of Zimbabwe have allowed their hope to be voiced, that they turn the page of history and attempt to true reconciliation with their colonial past.

Mugabe’s moment is to step aside, and be remembered through propaganda as a man who loved his people and defended them against colonial aggression, and championed causes important to all Africans.  His presidential reign could be whitewashed as a man who lost his way, power is a tempting mistress and has many victims.   Mugabe could at this moment make this a chance to allow his legacy to be allowing democracy to be expressed in Zimbabwe.

The more likely scenario is that he will fix the election to allow himself to participate in a run off, and then allow himself to win a landslide victory, continuing the now all too tragic military coup upon his death in order to maintain the status quo - no matter how deadly that may be.

So the world stands with Zimbabwe wondering what the outcome will be - Hanging by a Moment

A Semi-Interesting Tuesday

So it comes to the American People the decision of who would compete for the office that will lead this once great nation for the next four years. Given their decisions to nominate and elect Bush twice, one can understand my great reservations that they will make a smart decision this time around.

So it has come to humble servants of the people such as myself to break through all the political slander, swift boat ads funded by underhanded false patriots who would much rather squander in their own self deluded filth, than enjoy a true intellectual debate.

The two Candidates for the Communist, I mean Democrat, Party are Barak Obama, and Hillary Clinton. Both would do superior jobs as an executive, especially when compared to their predecessor, Mr. Potato Head. What separates these two is a slight, but at the same time profound difference of tone.

Barak Obama has the tome of a man with a dream. These inspire us to reach for greatness because they believe that we can in fact achieve whatever goal if only we were to apply ourselves and the hard working tenacity that defines Americans. It is that innate sense of inspiration that made Reagan a cult figure for those who are to worship no god before God. (Although they are sure that God surely did not mean Reagan)

Obama faces a challenge that is the experience of George Bush. One may look at several number of wonderful history making events that this country has had to deal with from a man who was learning on the job. The world is much more complicated than American’s thought in 2000, and having a new kid on the block may not be so much better than a known commodity.

Hillary Clinton on the other hand is a woman with a plan. The devil is in the details, which is why one may always find Cheney to be found there. The tone of her campaign is to show us the path to tread to achieve greatness, because she has the ability to see things that the average American can’t. Hillary faces two great challenges. The first is that she is a woman, and an ambitious one at that. Americans may like to say women can reach for the star, just so long as she doesn’t conscience decisions along the way to make that goal a reality.

The second challenge is that with Clinton’s tone of having a plan insinuates that she has the answers. There is a reason why the science dweebs get shoved in lockers, because no one likes to feel they don’t have answers. That and it is a fun thing to do that builds one’s, not the one in the locker of course, self esteem. Being seen as smarter than everybody is intimidating, which is why Bush is such a likable guy, cause he can’t even intimidate his dog.

On the God’s Creationist but still piddle little boys, of course I mean Republican Party, they have a bit of a harder message to wade through. This is of course because Bush did not have a plan for what would happen once he stopped being President. One would think that can be seen as a theme, then then the Republican’s don’t like to think so much as be told what to do. (That is why subsidies for white farmers is necessary but subsidies for urban black people is unforgivable betrayal of our nation’s principles)

The three candidates are a POW, Mormon, and Environmentalist Evangelical. One would think given the historical stances of the Party, that the last two would be shot, rather than seen as legitimate choices. God has shown that science is false, and that global warming is merely the tool of Satan’s Scientists to keep aborting gay babies. (Although an interesting question would be if abortion is wrong, and gays should be killed, is aborting a gay baby a sin? I digress…)

McCain’s message is simple, he used to be a maverick that did not roll to the whims of the extremists of his party and is therefore a good guy. Although he looks to his competition and says I am the only truly not crazy guy left running for the nomination so I kinda have to get it. His challenge is that he became the lapdog of a man who used sleazy campaign tricks, meant to take advantage of racial discrimination, to be the nominee in 2000. Thus he is seen as a little tainted and somehow less noble than he used to be.

Romney’s message is more about the war in Iraq, wait the polls now says he cares about healthcare. Wait the new polls says that he cares about illegal immigration. Now is says that he is to make Hannah Montana tickets available for free. Abortion tolerable, Abortion very bad, Mormons are Christians too, somebody believe me! His big problem is that he is a poll (pole) driven Mormon who belongs to a party that thinks that flip flopping is a democratic tool to get elected, and that Mormons are a cult.

Huckabee is quite simply a well meaning idiot, whose message is that he wants to keep appearing on the Colbert Report. His challenges are that the writers strike is on and that Colbert has waged his own war against Conan O’brian.

That is who you get to decide will annoy us with terrible commercials until November, on A Semi-Interesting Tuesday.

Czar-Prising

Well the elections in Russia are over, and I can’t even feign surprise at the outcome. Not only am I not surprised that the Czar won, nor am I shocked at the way he did it.

What is shocking to me, and should be disturbing to the West is why he did it. Putin undermined the fledgling democracy in Russia when he had no reason to do so, he would have won regardless.

Let us take a brief, stereotypical, look at the kind of leadership that the Russians hail as great. Ivan the Terrible, also killed large swaths of people, expanding Russia into the Siberian wonderland, and destroyed entire populations on the mere possibility that they may betray him.

Carrying on the tradition of might makes right is or good friend Peter the Great, who despite having a better nickname than Ivan, did some of the same nasty stuff. The modern father of Russia, Peter did some very forcible stuff in order to modernize Russia and make it a world power.

Then of course is the self named “Man of Steel” Stalin himself. Who ruled with brutal authority where morality was never even an afterthought. Stalin’s quote, “The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic” gives us a unique look into his mindset.

Then of course we have Bush’s buddy Putin. Though he doesn’t have the body count, Putin gives what the Russian people typically crave: vodka. Seriously though, they desire a leader that does two things, makes decisions that makes Russia a strong global power, and gives them edible food at home.

How successful has this policy been for the Russian people? Lets put it this way, they had controlled the Balkans and most of the ‘Stans, and there was about a third of the violence that is going on now.

Putin fits this mold as a former KGB agent of making the hard decisions no matter the moral implications and only focusing on the National Interest. That happens to fit the mold of the Russian leaders to a t, combined with what the Russians call a personality, and he was golden.

What is troubling is the lengths he went to in order to secure that electoral victory, by fooling with the process. Unfortunately, rampant insecurity is also a Russian leadership trait that can have disastrous results. For there comes a time when leaders lose the ability to function competently and do more harm than good. President Bush hit that barrier in early 2000.

What these two have in common besides misunderestimating the other is a dunce, is damaging making decisions that damage their respective countries in the short term, but set precedents in place that could cause untold damage in the future.

Not that we couldn’t see this coming, as they are both self entitled personalities that believe they have moral authority to do what they wish. It also helps that their political opposition is too afraid to challenge these bullies of in their respective playgrounds. Hopefully I am wrong, but that would be Czar-Prising.

Campaign Tribulations

It is amazing to me just how much safer the United States is when not in an election year cycle. I think back to a time when we were under emanate threat nearly every single day, or at least whenever Senator John Kerry would either gain ground in the polls or make critical statements of the Administration.

{ALERT HOMELAND SECURITY THREAT LEVEL YELLOW ATTACK PROBABILITY ELEVATED}

Then of course the election was over and through some, lets say unique counts in Ohio, and Florida, President Bush won the second term that his father never did, Kudos kid. Therefore the war in Iraq had produced its intended result, keeping the Republican Party in Power, no matter the consequences to the integrity of the country.

Then came the “Next Great Awakening” of the American people, except those who believe President Bush was hand picked by God, that the foreign policy of Bush II has been a failure, and despite blatant attempts by campaigns to stoke the racial insensitivities of the south, and by insensitivities I mean implying a black man was involved with a white woman, the Republican Party lost control of an ineffective and downgraded institution that had shirked its responsibilities as a check on Presidential Power. Editor’s note: the campaign ad cited above worked as the “Black” candidate ended up losing.

{ALERT HOMELAND SECURITY THREAT LEVEL ORANGE ATTACK PROBABILITY HIGH}

We now have the self-congratulatory Administration cooing that the United States has not had an attack, on US soil, by the vile terrorists because of the great leadership of Sainted Reagan High Priest President Bush. While in the same breath they tell you to pay no mind to the fact that it had been seven years between the attacks on the World Trade Center by terrorist organizations of the Islamic persuasion. Yet we are to believe that was more because of terrorist ineptitude and laziness, rather than the vigilance of the Clinton Administration.

We are now supposed to praise this Administration for the “actions” they have taken in regards to the British government capturing a terrorist ring, and earlier this week those who would have attacked an embassy in Azerbaijan. Except that we only have the Administration’s highly-esteemed credibility to saying they were even peripherally involved.

{CREDIBILITY ALERT HOMELAND SECURITY LEVEL RED ATTACK LEVEL SEVERE}

We can only wonder what kind of tricks to be played during this coming election. Especially when the Republican Party is facing a very tenuous situation. They do not have an ordained leader who has the Blessing of Ronald Reagan, peace be upon him. The candidate that is most staunch in the conservative philosophy is Senator john McCain, who lost to Bush in part because of phone polls asking, “Would you be more or less likely to vote for McCain if you knew he had an illegitimate child with a black woman.” These were performed by an organization that was Bush Affiliated. So unlike teh Republican Party to use race in order to obtain power.

Instead they seem to be deciding upon a Mayor of a Blue State that is Catholic, and a Governor of another Blue State that is Mormon. Both groups have been reviled by the Evangelical Protestants that believe everyone but them is either destroying America or gay, ironic in the sense that it seems to be it is they are the ones destroying America and turn out to be gay.

{ALERT HOMELAND SECURITY LEVEL FABULOUS SUPER NEON RED ATTACK LEVEL LIKE NOW}

And who do they have running against them? The wildly popular Senator Barak Obama, whose speech at the DNC electrified the audience and gave us a glimpse of the type of leadership that could have united our political differences rather than continuing to tear us apart. The other strong candidate is of course a Senator from New York, who also happens to be the wife of a President who did lead us to prosperity and understands the complexities that exist within the world. These examples in leadership is even more refreshing when one looks at the “example” of leadership Bush and Cheney give to us.

{ALERT HOMELAND SECURITY LEVEL super-FRAUD-ulistic ATTACK LEVEL }

So while the personalities of our candidates may not be as bold or alluring which is what I kept hearing during Bush II’s first campaign. “He is so personable while Gore is so boring” PEOPLE, this is for the Presidency of the United States, not a contest of who you want to have a beer with. We have seen what happens when we elect someone solely on the fact that we may like them, and well how bad can he screw up? Keeping the American people from making this mistake for a third consecutive Presidential Race is our true Campaign Tribulation.