A Black Day

A Black Day

by Ronald Bleier

11.4.2004

November 2, 2004 will go down as the blackest day in U.S. history, the re-election of the very worst president by far in our history. The extent of the damage is too great to calculate immediately, but certain things are already clear.

1. The economy. The hallmark of the Bush administration is ruthless extremism and the most careless irresponsibility. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in their ongoing destruction of the world’s most important economy. The New York Times printed an op ed about a year ago arguing that the markets were banking on the Democrats coming in to rescue our economy from the trade and account deficits and the looming mountain of unfunded liabilities. Now that such a rescue has been made impossible, and the Bush administration evidently committed to further damage through additional tax cuts, the defunding of social security, and more, it’s only a question of time before we experience a dramatic financial collapse. It’s social Darwinism at its cruelest and most painful.

2. The Bush administration is led by those who believe that war is bracing, that war is the essence of humanity. Their war fighting mentality dovetails with neocon interest in making the Middle East safe for Israel. Thus we have the war on Iraq which will now be conducted in the most destructive possible manner. The Bush administration is committed to retaining the 14 U.S. military bases there and to keeping any potentially anti -Israel faction from attaining power in Iraq. In other words, they are determined to resist democracy there as well as here. We can expect increased pressure against Iran and Syria and military action against them by the U.S. and/or Israel, and the inevitable fallout from such policies.

3. We can expect a continuation and intensification of the war on civil liberties and the continued war against the democratic process at home. We can expect to see more of Ashcroft’s ruthless malevolence – now on steroids. We’ve waved good bye to an independent Congress and now we can look forward to an even more supine Supreme Court and federal and states judiciary.

4. There is noting to prevent their continued rape of the environment and their ongoing dismantlement of the New Deal and social justice agenda.

All this comes at a time when we are entering the age of peak oil and the onset of global warming, a moment in history that would require a firm, fair and judicious hand to bring us through a difficult transition. Instead we will have the most extreme, ruthless and irresponsible leadership to drive us into uncharted territory. It’s a real question how or if or in what state we will emerge four years from now. November 2nd has threatened the future of the U.S. and the world.

Election Fraud
See Democracy Now 11/3/04 (www.democracynow.org ) for Greg Palast’s theory that voter suppression in Ohio, including the trashing of tens of thousands of registration forms, etc., which he calls the non count of the vote was responsible for Bush’s victory in Ohio and his lead in New Mexico. But the non count of votes doesn’t account for the exit polling results which led Zogby to predict a Kerry victory by 313 to 213. The exit polling results showed Kerry winning Ohio by 4 points, and by 51-48 in Florida. Presumably the exit polling count voters, not non voters.

What is required is an analysis of the extent of touch screen and other unverifiable voting in Florida and Ohio to see if fraud could account for the disparity of results. I’m not aware of anyone interested or capable of conducting such an investigation.

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