Despite the US being quagmired in South Asia, the economy still in the hands of the same folks who brayed the nation astray ( “no,no, no, America will never be involved in a GFC”), infrastructure disintegrating, schools strangled for funds many of the population dumbed-down to “rhetoric by slogan”……… during SOTU, Americans are going to be exhorted by their Commander-In-Chief to hang in there for the greatest little nation that ever had the courage to bestow god’s gift of Democracy upon a world of ingrates who happen to be born in locations rich in resources or are of hegemonic significance.

Talking heads will analyse every POTUS utterance with the same breathless anticipation the economic press once paid to each Greenspan sigh. Comparisons will be made with SOTUs past pitched by Mt. Rushmore shortlistees, Kennedy, Clinton, and Reagan. In the land of the diminished attention span, by the weekend very few voters will remember what all the hoopla was about. Unless there is a wardrobe malfunction or some lawmaker cuts a stentorian fart at an inappropriate moment.

When SOTU 2011 is over and done, when all the confetti swept up and when the last legislator has exited The Hill, two unwinnable wars will grind on, 30 million Americans will continue to be spied upon by their govt., the Silent Spring will continue to scream, Gitmo and Abu Grahib and the other non habeas corpus hell-holes will remain open for business, John Boehner will sport a more toned-down tan and a once-great nation will discover that mah-jong can be every bit as fascinating as poker.

Conventional Wisdom and assorted Solomons of Psephology like  Nate “NYT” Silver predict Dems will lose the Congress and hold The Senate by a whisker. Seems a fair call, but wouldn’t be surprised if the Dems get done in the Senate too. We’ve all had our two bob’s worth over the possible result and the reasons for it. In the next day, many of those quetions and points of conjecture will be answered.

Call it a hunch , but after the way Fontleroy Wentworth was rolled from the tory top spot by the Monky Prince with the OO’s nod, I don’t believe the man who conjured Godwin Grech is too fond of Rupert OR Anthony! Some commentators see Malcs as being in the Death Seat. I don’t. Without the pressures of opposition leadership perpetually upon him, I think Malcolm Turnbull, one of the greatest bullshit artists to ever grace the hallowed halls of our Capital, has the patience and smarts to fuck both Abbott and Rupert.

Windsor and Oakeshott stated the NBN was a major factor in them going with Gillard.

The stakes couldn’t be higher. The control of the NEW medium— and thus the message— is up for grabs. Staggeringly until quite recently, the new paradigm came as a surprise to Rupert’s arse. As we’ve been witnessing, the day of the msm locusts is at hand. Hyper-alert,”trained” paparazzi are poised to swarm the first whiff of centre-leftist blood. Bewildered backbenchers have been told to cancel all travel and holiday plans. Klutzes are being coccooned; motor-mouths, muzzled. Good old-fashioned Team Play is flavour of the month in Party rooms.
We should be so lucky already. Let us rejoice in this year of the Team Player!

Kinda makes a guy wanna rush out and join a power-breakfast worship group.

How would Leo Strauss or Niccy Machiavelli, Gould of The Hill or Plouffe & Axelrod read this one?
Shall this government of ours, Ticsters, proceed to term or is the rule of Ranga I of Oz rife for Abbortion?

The impact going forward (Newtonian Politics) of the above celebrity fringe dwellers was boosted with appearances by assorted shit-kickers of marginal relevance. Feel the surge, Ticsters. The “swing is on” but it’s “too close to call”. From coast to sea-girt coast across our sunburnt land, cliffs are being pre-emptively cordoned-off from potential hangers. And be consoled men and women of Australia that as we go forward, no child will be left behind.  Touching, really, the certainty and comfort of cliches.

Who knows why the MSM did it. In the mood for a little revenue-raisin’ and funnin’ I guess. Citizen Rupert of Delaware, dear old Auntie and Fair(and balanced)fax are generally so even-handed in matters of national importance that the savaging of Julia “I’m a Ranga” Prole came as a complete surprise to many seasoned election watchers and more than a few political junkies.

Hugh Mackay reckons the last four weeks have been a beat-up monumentale.
Can’t disagree. Hugh, who has a finely honed professional schnoz for these things, can’t perceive the whiff of imminent national change. Next Sunday morning Australians will awaken to the reality of a female Prime Minister who is an unmarried atheist and we, preferentially, will have elected her over a bigoted neo-neanderthal who will comfortably retain his seat of Warringah.

Leftist candidate Mauricio Funes has claimed victory in El Salvador’s presidential election, in a historic vote that ends the 20-year rule of right-wing party ARENA.

• Leftist declares victory in El Salvador
• EL SALVADOR (casas de carton)
• United Fruit Historical Society – Chronology
• Operation PBSUCCESS

Holy Toledo, Batman! How is Uncle Sammy and his CIA gonna get all those Central and South American snakes back into the box and deal with the rest of the planet simultaneously!? The U.S. economy is singularly inclement with bailouts galore and China holding the purse strings. The Middle Eastern countries are hair-trigger toey and appear unreceptive to “God’s gift of Democracy”. The Ugly American empire is turning to caga before the eyes of the world and it’s not a good look.

Rome on the skids was never like this; hegemonic hiccoughs never so dyspeptic.

Remember, remember the eleventh of September
The CIA’s murderous plot
For families and friends of The Disappeared,
It will never be forgot.

The Good Shepherd Trailer

Footage of the US fighter/bombers destroying the presidential palace in Santiago, September 11, 1973.

• CIA Chile 1973

Democratically elected Salvador Allende and hundreds of his supporters were murdered on that day, thousands who resisted were later tortured and “disappeared”.  Pinochet’s fascist regime could not have maintained power after the coup without the the full co-operation of Holy Mother Church and her Secret Police, Opus Dei. 

Michelle_Bachelet supported Allende in his rise to the Presidency. She is a medical doctor, and a divorced mother of three.

The Kangaroo Connection …

On January 10, 1975, Michelle Bachelet and her mother were detained at their apartment by two DINA agents, who blindfolded them and drove them to Villa Grimaldi, a notorious secret detention center in Santiago, where they were separated and submitted to interrogation and torture. Some days later they were transferred to Cuatro Álamos (”Four Poplars”) detention centre, where they were held until the end of January. Later in 1975, due to sympathetic connections in the military, both were exiled to Australia, where Bachelet’s older brother Alberto had moved in 1969.

Meanwhile, Latin America swerves towards the left …

Latin America is swerving to the left, (former conquistadors Portugal and Spain have already done so) and a distinct backlash is already under way against the predominant trends of the last fifteen years: free market reforms, agreement with the U.S. on a number of issues and the consolidation of representative democracy. (movement of jah people).

• Venezuela (Chavez)
• Bolivia (Morales)
• Cuba (Castro)
• Brazil (Lula)
• Argentina (Kirchner)
• Uruguay (Vasquez)
• Chile (Bachelet)

Abstract

The multinational United Fruit Company has been considered the quintessential representative of American imperialism in Central America. Not only did the company enjoy enormous privileges in that region, but also counted on authoritarian governments in dealing with labor unrest. The literature assumes that United Fruit and the dictators were natural allies due to their opposition to organized unionism. This paper shows that this alliance could only survive as long as the multinational provided the dictators with economic stability for the country. However, when the multinational proved to be incapable of doing that, the dictators allied with the working class to confront the multinational and extract higher rents (or as in El Savador’s case, democratically elect a president, not necessarily a dictator who can tell the corporate exploiters to pay their fair share or vamoose).

http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/eclillbus/06-0115.htm

(thanks for your fire dog lake link at 925, ChrisB, after reading it, this thread self-collated)

Welcome to our first Politic 101 book discussion everyone! Let’s kick things off lightly with a couple of general observations about DHw/J.  Been reading the Australian edition which was published in 2007:

First, Team Obama convinced enough rednecks in Virginia to act on “This year we’re votin’ fer the nigraahhh.” to deliver VA’s 13 ECVs to BHO. This is a remarkable achievement as VA was the former Capital of the ante-bellum South. The prospect of a President Sambo Macaca was so far off former GOP VA Senator George Allen’s radar as short a time ago as the 2006 Mid-Terms, that Georgie Boy thought he could publicly slag a “darkie” at a deep woods rally and expect to get only votes and kudos from such a blatant act of bigorty. But bigotted George was too much for “decent” Virginians in 2006 and the voters shunned him like a political leper. And justly so! Two weeks before E-Day 2008 in neighbouring Ohio— which Obama also won;

“The Hardest Vote,” by George Packer (October 13, 2008) wrote:

Recently, people in Ohio have told me that voters there have started to shift toward Obama. Gabe Kramer, of the S.E.I.U., said that, after the first Presidential debate and amid the financial crisis, union members seemed to find Obama’s ideas and manner more persuasive than before. But even if Obama wins he will still have to overcome the deep skepticism of struggling Americans

Then came E-Day;

Table Source: New York Times

Secondly, Joe Bageant is writing about what he knows and loves; his people and his place and how his people and his patch have been systematically oppressed and degraded over the course of his lifetime. After thirty three years in the profession, many as a “big city” editor, Joe is an extraordinarily good writer with an ace raconteur’s turn with a story and a fine ear for dialogue:

From page 95 …

Nobody stands up for people like her (Nance) unless a few of them get crushed under a seam of coal, thereby providing the required emotional grist for the nightly news. Only right wing politicians appealing to their religious prejudices and ignorance on behalf of big money pay any attention to them. If you hang around real working class places very long,……you’ll see that decent working folks seldom talk politics or current events except during the final weeks of an electon and when prompted by lefty agaitators like me or grassroots neocon Republican operatives—people who understand that the four cornerstones of the American political psyche are:

1. emotion substituted for thought
2. fear
3. ignorance, and
4. propaganda

… to me the most profound sort of blindness in heartland America is born of innocent trust in our system

So when American/Virginian rednecks* are politically inattentive by design and they are force-fed Limbaugh and Fox as media staples, it is all the more remarkable that Obama swung 7.2% of voters, (most of them rednecks, I venture) to vote for him a few short months after HRC whupped him in the VA Dem primaries, and after the saturation coverage of Obi’s crack about rednecks “clinging to guns and religion” when they were “under stress”.

Anyway, there’s a great deal to discuss, mes amis, so it’s over to you.

*Bageant differentiates between rednecks and “white trash”. Rednecks will never take a “hand-out” from anyone whereas “white trash” will accept help from where ever it comes.

In the 2004 US Presidential Election G. W. Bush gained 286 Electoral College Votes (ECVs); John Kerry, 252. To become POTUS a Party’s Nominee must gain 270 ECVs. Each state has a number of electors equal to the number of its Senators and Representatives in the United States Congress which is proportional to the population as determined through a census taken every 10 years. CA for example has 55 ECVs, Nth Dakota, 3. Each State awards its ECVs on a winner take all basis of the popular vote except Maine and Nebraska which have minor idiosyncratic variations. To hardcore Bludgers, these things are “known knowns”.

State Governors have the executive power (which is an inordinate amount of clout) to determine how the popular vote is tallied in their States, eg, CO (Democratic Governor) now has all pencil and paper ballots, while FL (GOP Gov.) has widespread (ab)use of poorly scrutinised Diebold receiptless computer-touchscreen voting machines.

Diebold incidentally, make ATMs which produce receipts upon request but they just haven’t been able to employ that good ‘ol American know-how to manufacture a voting machine that would likewise supply a paper trail. Funny about that. Paper trails come in mighty handy in the event of disputed returns. As things stand, the word of the computer programmers is final. Verifiable democracy, it would seem, can take a hike! Diebold Corporation are major donors to the GOP, but that’s probably just a coincidence. Diebold computers tallied the vote in OHIO 2004 and the State was ruled by GOP Goveror, Bob Taft (ref. 20 Amazing Facts About Elections).

Had Kerry won OHIO’s 20 ECVs in 2004, he would have become POTUS.

Karl Rove has recently been subject to a surge of mentorial pride. Mr. Rove is former W.H. Deputy CoS and “architect” of President G.W. Bush’s electoral success. He presently is an artful dodger of Congressional subpoenas concerning the “letting go of” Federal Judges who, in Karl’s opinion, were not onside with his former master’s aims and objectives regarding the practicalities of maintaining the upper hand in matters of day to day rule.

Karl’s understudy, Steve “Schmuckens” Schmidt, has displayed prodigious talent already as a “draughtsman”. Mr.Schmidt has recently become prospective GOP Nominee John McCain’s chief campaign advisor. It would not be unreasonable to assume that Mr. Schmidt would be willing to employ all the wiles of his mentor in order to have Senator McCain “elected” POTUS.

Not unreasonably, with respect of the abovementioned developments, there are some amongst us who smell a rat and I am unabashedly one of those people. However, the political landscape has altered rather dramatically since 2004. Latest polling suggests that while the GOP is not likely to gain ANY States in Nov. 2008, Dems have excellent prospects in CO IN IA MT NM OH and VA (ref. electoral-vote.com). Of these States, all except Indiana have Democratic Governors, therefore the prospects of Schmidt & Co pulling an “OHIO 04” in those States are somewhat diminished (ref. Wikipedia: US Governors Map).

Despite the obvious fraud potential in Diebolds’ systems (ref. Lou Dobs on Dibold), the Democratic Leadership Council in its wisdom persisted in having the Dodgies from Diebold tally the N.H. primary which, contrary to all pre and exit polls, produced a stunning campaign-sustaining victory for “Beltway to her Bootstraps” HRC, and not the upstart Junior Senator from Illinois, BHO.

Just another coincidence, I guess.

There are many other methods of rorting US elections such as compulsory carrying of ID for voters in Indiana, and the methods addressed in the Wikipedia: 2004 US Presidential election controversy notes. In preparing this post I read literally scores of articles but had to stand in awe of the jounalistic and research skills of Maureen Farrell. For Bludgers interested in the subject, her work: “Another Rigged Election, The Elephant in the Booth”, is outstanding. Finally, despite the unfairness in our electoral system such as disproportionate Senate representation, our way of electing our representatives by the straightforward marking of paper ballots with a pencil seems to be comparatively tamper-proof.