Monkey McChimpy: One Year Left

As I write this, it is now 365 days, 1 hour and 35 minutes until the day that the most gigantic lying and murdering asshole in U.S. history will no longer be President of the United States. This beast we have occupying the White House has shed any traces of humanity long, long ago. The people of the U.S.; the legislative branch, the House and Senate that supposedly act as a "check" on the crimes committed by the executive branch; the Supreme Court in enabling this criminal administration in their war crimes and crimes against our rights to privacy, speech and assembly; the go-along-to-get-along corporate media acting as this administration's stenographers -- all these have done essentially nothing to overthrow this stinking pile of shit we call George W. Bush. No impeachment. No investigations of those at the top. Nothing. And so, in this season of presidential primaries, campaigns, and faux debates, all arbitrated meaninglessly by corporate media masturbation, what is there to be hopeful for? The entire Republican Party and a critical mass of the Democratic Party does not want to end the American Empire Project known as the Iraq Occupation, nor even discuss it rationally. Climate change as an issue has merited, in these so-called debates, only about five questions out of thousands put to the Democratic candidates -- NOT the Republican candidates -- for discussion. Not one single Republican was asked anything meaningful about the most critical issue in history facing us. Not a one. This set of events brings a few critical choices. The Republican Party MUST be broken or we will slowly but surely become a police state and a country perpetually at war. Every single time they are allowed to have majority status since 1995, whether it be in the executive branch (100% majority rule), legislative branch or in the courts they have proven themselves to be bullies. They block, threaten to filibuster, drown out with majority rule and otherwise strong-arm the opposition so that they can get what they want, no questions asked, no meaningful debate held. There are no intellectual arguments left for them to exist. They have proven themselves unfit to govern. Corruption and incompetence are the rule with them, and they do not give a flying fuck.

We are one year away from something. Whether that will be any meaningful change depends on on a lot of things. Certainly whoever the Republican nominee is, and let's face it, it is going to be John McCain, will want to stay in Iraq indefinitely, which means that a Republican in the White House will, to the degree that he has an environmentally friendly agenda, only undermine it: resources and money will instead go to the military, defense spending, the Iraq Occupation and perhaps a war with Iran. McCain -- and we have to assume the worst on this -- wants to do some things to end abortions, which means his party will force him to sputter more pablum about the rights of the unborn and the "sanctity of life." Possibly he will succeed in overturning Roe vs. Wade by nominating and confirming a Supreme Court justice that will want to do that. Well, encouraging us to have more babies and then not caring for the ones that aren't wanted is a sure way to increase crime, and not very conducive to conserving what resources we have left to live on a healthy planet. You see, then, how all of these issues would - would, if people just, for once, think about who they push that lever for! - conspire to undermine an ostensibly "moderate" but in reality politically expedient and cowardly President McCain.

There is the distinct possibility of a Clinton Democratic candidacy going up against McCain in November. I still hold out for Edwards, but at this point it is worth discussing possible scenarios given our fucked-up electoral system and how stacked it is against those who would be good, sensible candidates wishing for honest, intelligent, rational discourse by Our Dear Corporate Media on What Really Matters. My second choice, I should state clearly, is Barack Obama, a man who, like Edwards, would be a transformational candidate and likely president, willing to tackle issues of race, civil rights and climate change in an honest, intelligent, straightforward manner (let's face it, civil rights is indeed an issue once again). And, I think he would beat the pants off McCain. All that said, we still need to consider Clinton as the nominee this fall. I would support her one hundred percent, but I have many doubts and fears about her viability against a McCain. Her record in the Senate on Iraq was uninspiring at best, pro-Bush at worst and always calculating for a run for president. She's smart as cookies and sharp as a whip, even more so than Bill I think, but she leaves me fearing that she will not differ from a John Kerry in style and forcibleness. She has to come out fighting and not stop until all the polls have closed on November 4th. She must go on the offensive like Kerry never could, and be willing to respond immediately and with full force to Swift-Boat-like attacks that are sure to come her way like a flood, not only from McCain's campaign but from outside 527 groups. She will need to attack McCain on his record, his lies about being a straight-talker, and on his voting in the Senate time and again for whatever Bush wanted, and for not fighting for the things he disagreed with Bush on, namely torture. McCain allowed a bill to be passed in the Senate and signed by Bush that allows torture, and Clinton needs to remind people of that, over and over and over again. She needs to stress her youth over his old age, her sensibleness over his macho and warmongering posturing. She has to stress the sense of history in her becoming the first female president, all the while making herself look fresh while making him look like an old, pasty white guy. Her husband did a marvelous job campaigning in 1992, was able to respond right away to GHW Bush's slurs and attacks, and was able to, as they say, capture people's imaginations like no other candidate since JFK. Obama has those same qualities -- I see it in front of my eyes. I don't know if Clinton does, and her negative ratings scare me. I don't want to see another Kerry meltdown. I'm in no mood to start thinking about having to move to Canada, which might become a reality given Republican meanness towards gays and the very real possibility of a police state that results from endless war. I hate all of these possibilities, yet what would Hillary Clinton have to fear, like John Kerry, if she lost? A cushy mansion in Westchester, a respectable career in the U.S. Senate, secret service protection for life...these things do not seem to me to be the best motivators not to lose. How do I know from having watched her how Hillary will govern, given her mixed record in the Senate? How tentative will she be on ending our disastrous occupation in Iraq? Words are nice, Hillary, but we need to see more fight in you.

Let's hope it is still a contest come March. I think Hillary Clinton needs to be challenged at least through April, like her husband was in 1992 and which made him a stronger candidate against a seemingly popular incumbent president. Unlike Bill Clinton in 1992, Hillary Clinton in 2008 has D.C. baggage that she needs to reconcile. The sooner, the better.