Politics

Whenever one organizes a barbeque, the most common pests, the flies, arrive in great numbers to spoil the party. So it is for political conventions where hundreds of lobbyists congregate to peddle their influence. In  spite of new laws limiting their activities, such as the ridiculous no forks and knives allowed when courting politicians, lobbyists always find a way to circumvent the law and politicians enjoy the lavish receptions without feeling guilty.

How sweet! The ordinary citizen who tries to foil the law will soon find himself in jail or facing hefty fines. But when you are a senator or a representative, you can act with impunity as you pay back the enormous financial support your campaign receives from big lobbyists. Somebody said once that not a single member of Congress can escape the lobbyists’  pressure. Those who tried were quickly defeated in the next reelection or understood that they couldn’t work outside the corruption prevailing in Washington. And so we witness the Democratic pageant in Denver, wondering who promised what to whom.

Are Vice-Presidents really that important? Do we care who is chosen by Obama or McCain? Will Joe Biden actually make Obama more electable? The power of a VP depends entirely on the relationship he has with the President. Dick Cheney was Bush’s Sr. choice, not Junior’s. So his power on the presidency was so great that he singlehandedly convinced George W. to go to war.

On the other hand, a weak President will be easy prey not only for the VP, but also for Secretaries (Rumsfeld anyone?), and for former Presidents (George Bush Sr.). Bill Clinton knew what he wanted and his personal arrogance never accepted any VP’s influence, as Al Gore quickly discovered. Nixon couldn’t care less who his VP was, so much so that he chose a perfectly inept character called Spiro Agnew (the name tells you everything).

Now John McCain will never be “controlled” by a VP; the only reason he needs one is to succeeds him if anything happens to his health. Obama’s character, underneath the easy going image, has been tempered in steel solely because of his race. So Biden was chosen to convince the hesitant voters that Obama is no weird Muslim creation designed to destroy America. But that VP will have very little influence; much less than Michele Obama and possibly Colin Powell (at State again, this time to stay?).

As I predicted previously, Russia was only waiting to pounce on the first republic to use its military. The lesson, as Moscow called it, was so severe as to prevent any possibility of a repeat action by Georgia or any other ex-soviet province. By the way, Stalin was from Georgia and he is much admired by Putin.

Meanwhile, the United States went through the usual protests that had absolutely no effect on the Russians’ plan. They stopped when they felt they accomplished their objective, knowing full well that America wasn’t about to engage them militarily. The EU was impotent and divided, mainly because it depends so heavily on Russian gas and oil. But lest we forget, Georgia initiated the hostilities, killing a few Russian citizens in the process. Would we have acted differently?

When Georgia tried to regain possession of the runaway province of South Ossetia, the Russians quickly deployed an overwhelming force to take it back, leaving the terrified civilians in the middle of what promises to be the first of Moscow’s imperial adventure. If Georgia had hoped that their timing during  the Olympics would catch the Russians by surprise, they themselves were in for a nasty shock.

We are witnesses to Putin’s grandiose plan to reinstate the ex-Soviet empire, decimated by the loss of many geographical entities that took advantage of the confusion created by Gorbachev induced meltdown. This skirmish means little by itself, as Georgia is already pulling back and peace will be restored very soon. But it should be a warning for the next President of the United States that Russia will not hesitate to use force to implement its policies of expansion.

Both McCain’s and Obama’s  campaigns play the game of distortion in an obvious attempt to discredit the other. When the Arizona senator mentioned that Americans were not so much interested in how long we would stay in Iraq (100 to 10,000 years) as they were in American lives lost, Obama quickly accused him of extending the war for a century. When the Illinois senator stated that we would go after significant targets if the Pakistanis didn’t, McCain immediately accused him of being naive in recommending that we bomb Pakistan.

They both have forgotten a significant aspect of the Internet era called blogs. Whereby previous campaigns relied more on regular media, the explosion of bloggers and the significant influence they wield on public opinion means that candidates can no longer rely on ‘friendly’ press reports to cover up their gaffes. Obama seems more aware of the new wave as he has collected much more money from Internet contributors than McCain. But it would be wise for both to concentrate on issues instead of trying to slander their competitor.

Senator Barak Obama appeared today on “The View”. He exuded charm and confidence and his hosts were clearly awed with the exception of Mrs. Hasselbeck who disturbed the harmony by asking him about his relationship with Rev. Wright. He handled it like a skilled toreador by explaining that if we took the 10 most stupid comments of any person, and showed them every 10 minutes on television, people would fail to see the big picture. So he called his mentor’s comments as stupid, but however glib he may be regarding the pastor, he failed to add that some comments are not just some misspoken words that escaped his lips, shades of Hillary Clinton’s ‘under fire’ comments. The Reverend expressed his true feelings and never recanted. Neither did Obama fully explain how he could take that nonsense for 20 years without walking out of the church. None of the ladies, not even sharp tongued Whoopi pushed him on the issue and on his inconsistencies. They were there to sing his praises, violating thus every basic rule of journalism.

I was happy to see in the local news that DHS had compromised with the local university (UTB) regarding the border fence. The original  fence was going to cut the University campus in two parts; under the agreement, DHS will place an electronic fence instead of the steel one that was planned. This negotiation shows that DHS is not the implacable monster that everybody fears. It is possible to talk to them and I hope other landowners on the border with Mexico will take heart and fight to keep access to land that has been in their family for more than a century. I still see the fence as an aberration and so does Mexico. Not because they want to defend illegal aliens, but because they see this as an act unworthy of a friend and neighbor. Why don’t we build a fence on the northern border?

The aging senator for Alaska Ted Stevens was finally indicted for taking bribes. He was the “Bridge to Nowhere” instigator and has a lengthy history of cronyism and cuddling to gas and oil companies. There are two lessons to be learned from this: 1) Our Justice system proves that no one, not even a powerful senator, is above the law. 2) The senator, if guilty, is incredibly stupid or incredibly senile.

 If that’s true, we are in more trouble than we thought. After all, these are our representatives, they speak for us technically and legally. They make very important decisions that affect our lives positively or negatively. Again, the absence of term and age limits confirm that we have congressmen who simply continue in their positions to accumulate personal power and not to solve our nation’s major problems. Stevens is just the tip of the iceberg; corruption in Congress is  everywhere, except that the others are more skillful at hiding their bribes. We need to kick everybody out and replace them with newcomers in November. With luck, we might elect a couple of honest politicians (?).

I recently received the copy of a soldier’s letter who mentions that Senator Obama, on his visit to Afghanistan,  ignored the troops and took the visit as a mere photo op. He only shook hands with the local general and played some basketball for the reporters, according to the email. Whether it is true or not, let’s remember that politicians in general care ONLY about their career and not about soldiers and/or ordinary people.  It would be naive to think that Obama, or for that matter McCain, go to Iraq or any combat theater just to talk to the troops. They are on the treshold of realizing their maximum ambition and nothing must stand in their way. In any case, Obama projects a better image than his rival and he will without a doubt win the White House, barring a catastrophic event. So let’s hope that his ambition for power will translate into benefits for all of us. 

A disgruntled employee revealed the names of several prominent Americans who hid their fortune from the IRS by putting their money in offshore accounts and/or in Swiss bank accounts. UBS, the Swiss banking giant, runs the risk of losing their license to operate in the United States.

As a Swiss citizen I feel ashamed of my country’s shady bank dealings. This is not something recent; before WWII, millions of dollars of Jewish bank accounts were created by German (Jewish) citizens afraid that the state (Hitler) would seize their assets. Guess what! The same Swiss banks who were entrusted with these funds denied any payment to heirs after the war, under the pretext of bank secrecy. Yeah! Right! Those same bankers were on their knees 10 years ago under the threats of US courts to exclude them from the American market. They returned more than a billion dollars after “discovering” the names of the victims of the Holocaust in their accounts.

The whole thing makes me sick; both the rich Americans who refuse to pay taxes, but how they enjoy the benefits of said taxes, and the Swiss, who apparently have not learned their lesson. As usual, in money crimes, the guilty rarely see the inside of a jail. They return some of the loot and plead a lesser sentence in exchange. Wonderful justice!