The Anth Zone

This evening I’m beginning to become worried for Hillary Clinton after hearing Bill Richardson has endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic Party’s Presidential Nomination. Bill Richardson’s endorsement of Barack Obama is extremely high profile. Richardson currently is the Governor of New Mexico, previously represented the United States at the United Nations and served in Bill Clinton’s cabinet.

He’s still a rising political star in American politics and has a promising career in government. I have always been fascinated with Bill Richardson’s commitment to his country. Now, I’m not angry with Governor Richardson for his endorsement or preference of Barack Obama over my choice to lead the United States as her President. However, Hillary still leads in super delegates…

I am disappointed with the Barack Obama Campaign when I learnt that they played notorious Jay-Z’s 99 Problems rap blaring when the candidate “triumphantly” took the stage after winning the Iowa Caucus. Like most wannabe Gangsters (Gangstas), Jay-Z doesn’t like women. The majority, if not all rappers encourage chauvinism amongst younger listeners. This song is offensive like most of Jay-Z’s work. The song 99 problems most popular lyric: “I got 99 problems, but a bitch ain’t one” was blared through the audience.

The “but a bitch ain’t one” implies Hillary Clinton. Obama has made a gross mistake in being the first to throw a campaign pie at a member of the same party. I can tell you one thing, Obama is no friend of mine.

Ron Paul has been doing better in the primaries then least expected. He has been able to manage his campaign relatively well that has drawn additional interest and support from the American youth that are attracted to Paul’s Libertarianism and super free market economies (*yawn* this stuff puts me to sleep). Ron Paul has more delegates compared to Republican top contender Rudy Giuliani who poured quite a lot of money into New Hampshire and Iowa to advertise his campaign (Paul has two delegates, Giuliani has zero) but the campaign isn’t over.

Ron Paul has been a major proponent in favour of government inaction (small government). I believe that there should be less government involvement in the daily lives of citizens, however, what’s the purpose of an organized democratic government if the government is extremely limited? How is a government supposed to operate if it cannot benefit the people as a whole?

Though, I am terribly not surprised about the recent report that Dr Paul had written racial and homophobic remarks in his political newsletter Ron Paul Political Report in the 1980’s and the 1990’s. Ron Paul has denied to CNN that he didn’t write these articles.

The New Republic newsletter was the whistleblower on Ron Paul’s true thoughts on these issues. The racial comments were posed against African-Americans. He also has likened black civil rights advocate Martin Luther King as a communist philanderer. He stated in his paper that order was restored because the blacks went to cash in their welfare cheques (June 1992). In the same edition he states, “The criminals who terrorize our cities — in riots and on every non-riot day — are not exclusively young black males, but they largely are. As children, they are trained to hate whites, to believe that white oppression is responsible for all black ills, to ‘fight the power,’ to steal and loot as much money from the white enemy as possible.” From an October 1992 edition of his paper he states, “Hip-hop thing to do among the urban youth who play unsuspecting whites like pianos.”

People in politics have stated that what they have said stuff in the past is irrelevant to modern times (Stephen Harper in particular). Ron Paul is the major proponent of the Libertarian movement in the United States and has actively campaigned for the dismantling of the IRS and several other governmental agencies. Ron Paul also believes that the United States should pull out of the United Nations which would prove disastrous to the international community surprisingly the United States does offer the world stability (and I’m not surprised).

I disagree with his “Libertarians are incapable of being a racist, because racism is a collectivist idea” sentiment. The Libertarians I have met have something borderline racist about them.

I am endorsing Hillary Clinton for President (I’ll write why at some point later on). Senator Hillary Clinton has won the first actual primary of the season. The pre-New Hampshire polls conducted before yesterday favoured Barack Obama who won the Iowa caucus last week. Hillary Clinton has been the leading front runner in the race to the Oval Office.

Barack Obama has been blitzing behind her at full throttle down midfield (sorry I just had to use the football metaphor). Obama is Hillary’s biggest contender in the primaries. She needs to revitalize her campaign strategies to deal with Barack’s support growing at an overwhelming rate. It doesn’t support her goals if the daytime talk show host Oprah Winfrey has given her public endorsement to Barack Obama.

She needs to seek out support from Hollywood because Americans love their celebrities and tend to follow their trends. If their celebrity candidate supports a candidate in any election most likely they’ll end up endorsing the candidate. Political pundits may disagree with me; however Obama was the first to play the celebrity card.

Obama must be pleased that Canadians can’t vote; Canadians favour Hillary Clinton by a 34-32 margin over Obama.

Don’t rule out a Republican White House

It is disturbing that there are plenty of Democrats that are underestimating the Republicans. They underestimated President Bush in ’04 when he won the Electoral College and the popular vote. Any Republican candidate is bound to use President Bush’s campaign formula – it’s workable.

But Anth what is President Bush’s campaign formula?

President Bush’s campaign formula gives off the image that he is the average American’s best pal. That he’ll go out on a limb and give them tax cuts. It’s that simple.

It’s been a popular trend of the blogosphere to lead an assault on President George W. Bush’s lack of intelligence since his accession into the United States’ highest office. Today’s episodes were hysterical nonetheless an embarrassment to the United States’ general populous. Let’s point out the comedy of errors George W. Bush performed at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Sydney, Australia today:

• President Bush thanked Australian Prime Minister for hosting the OPEC summit.
• The Comedian in Chief tried to ease himself out of embarrassing moment for America by correcting himself and then going onto say he hopes that Australia will invite him to the OPEC Summit.
• Then he thanked the Austrians for their tremendous support in Iraq nor were they present at the APEC summit since they aren’t an Asia-Pacific nation.

I am pretty sure most of my readers can pinpoint the errors that the ‘Comedian-in-Chief’ made in his speech. To make it lengthy, I’m going to explain to the not-so-brilliant Conservative or Republican supporter who clearly doesn’t grasp the reality that their renowned and ‘respected’ icon is a complete moron:

1. President Bush meant to say APEC.
2. Australia nor the United States of America are apart of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) therefore Australia cannot extend an invitation to the United States to attend their next get-together BBQ in Tehran.
3. The Austrians haven’t deployed any of their troops to Iraq nor have they expressed doing so. They see the illegality behind the war occurring there and mostly places blame on the United States for Iraqi shortcomings. The ‘Comedian-in-Chief’ of course meant the Australians who have active 638 troops currently deployed in the war torn state. They initially sent in 2,000 troops to assist in the invasion.

Clearly the dim wad has done it again.

The United States Congress has recently passed legislation 227 – 183 to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The Bush Administration’s White House surprisingly has a massive power-hold over Congress regardless of the new Democratic thin majority over its voting power.

I’m disappointed that Congress has given America’s worst President since who the hell knows how long, more power to look over people’s shoulders. The passed amendment allows the Bush Administration to expand the government’s transparent abilities to eavesdrop on ‘foreign suspects of terrorism’ whose communication ‘passes’ through the United States’ jurisdiction.

I do want to commend Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi for trying to push the vote back for voidance; unfortunately her tireless efforts went unheard. The United States seriously needs to clean up it’s act and take a step back from being the globe’s police force and worry about domestic policies that can make America a better place. A paradise that America’s founding father’s dreamt of.

I apologize for the inactivity on my blog since my last entry, now for something completely different . . .

The United States government is open to bilateral talks with both Iran and Syria if either country approaches them to discuss stabilizing or remedying the ongoing crises situated in Iraq during an Iraqi government led conference between Iran, Syria, the United States and permanent members of the United Nations Security Council in Baghdad this week.

The very thought of U.S. and Iranian Officials meeting together in person has drawn me in due my interests in the histories of Ancient and Modern Iran/Persia. While the probability of such a meeting is rather low and the rarity of such an event is once in a life time due to the frivolous relations between the two nations since the United States’ sovereignty was breached when revolutionaries of the Iran’s Islamic Revolution stormed and killed American dignitaries and U.S. Marines protecting the embassy. This event led to the demise of Pahlavi dynasty and the end of a pro-United States government of Iran.

I don’t think Iran and the United States would reach an agreement on bringing a stable westernized democracy in Iraq especially under the unconditional support from the United States. The Ahmadinejad government and their predecessors have been quite critical of the United States’ foreign policy and their interventionist policies in the Middle East since September 11th. Stating this, I believe the unlikelihood of these two nations having direct contact in close quarters behind enclosed doors will not occur.

The Bush Administration on the other hand is plotting their next point of attack in the Middle East, Iran. The U.S. State Department has been quite crucial against the Iranian government for the development of nuclear energy due to the likeliness of the pursuit of nuclear armaments which would bring the region into grave calamity.

The State Department has also blurted out that Iran is a rogue state whom actively encourages and supports acts of terrorism, harbours fugitives suspected of these heinous acts and promotes the utter destruction of Israel’s sovereignty, providing arms and explosives to insurgency groups in Iraq & Afghanistan, and the persecution of those who follow the Jewish faith to list a few.

This conference will be interesting. If there is anything to write on it in the next couple of days, expect commentary from myself. I really don’t have much to say about the Syrians.

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth has caused a little bit of controversy. Okay, I’m a sucker for ‘controversial’ films starring former-Vice Presidents who discuss important issues, oh for example climate change. It all started when a seventh grade science teacher planned on showing the film to the student body at the Lakota Middle School in Seattle. It all started when the students’ parents started to complain about teacher featuring Gore’s film within the classroom because it was conflicting with their religious and political beliefs. M’kay . . . can you say intolerant?

I was watching a news programme based in Seattle and a father stated something like, “I’m a Christian. I think climate change is an important issue . . . it’s biblical, it is in the Book of Revelations . . . however, I don’t think its that BIG of an issue to teach our kids about it.”

So? Let’s protect our environment. I remember studying the Bible when I was younger and I remember that God wanted us to take care of the people and things around us. Well. The environment is around us, and if we don’t take care of it - we’ll be all in underwater cities. Well. the people who cannot afford to live in the Everest Apartment Complex . . . 

Climate change is an important issue that we should be telling and teaching our future generations about the issues. 

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A married same sex couple is filing for divorce in Rhode Island; they were married in Massachusetts� after the aforementioned states� Supreme Court ruled in favour of same-sex marriage because prohibiting same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. Same Sex Marriage�s (SSM) legality is in question since they have no laws in favour or against it. An Attorney representing one of the spouses stated:

“Now the ultimate question is whether the state will recognize or determine whether it has jurisdiction to handle an out-of-state divorce when we don’t have any case law that accepts or rejects same-sex marriage.�

I do not know much about Divorce Law in the United States; however, I believe there should be a federal jurisdictions that allows married couples to file for divorce in another state and the same should go for SSM and civil unions. Divorce Law in the United States needs to be more progressive to the demanding and changing society, it goes against the freedom of movement.

I also believe it is essential for the United States to pass the Equal Rights Amendment and being inclusive of sexual orientation. Prohibiting SSM at the federal level is unconstitutional.

1. The Dominion Institute of Canada is currently petitioning on their website for the Canadian Government to honour the last veteran from World War I (often referred to as The Great War; no war is great � they only create great pains and suffering for all factions involved) by providing a state funeral. I have signed the petition, however, I believe it should be up to the veteran to decide on the memorial services he wishes to receive like any Canadian. I wish for those who read this, to sign the petition if you haven�t already and also persuade your friends, families and bitter foes.
2. The Honourable (dishonourable, ahem!) Monte Solberg the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration reported midweek that the government is considering about taking away benefits to Canadians who hold dual citizenship and who have lived abroad for �too long�. I, as a Canadian who is eligible for dual citizenship am appalled by the Conservative Government�s plans to cut up that part of the constitution. A step towards deep integration into the United States?
3. I haven�t heard anything last week about Mr. Layton�s motion for a no confidence vote. He is the first Member of Parliament I have sent an email to asking if he has or if he still plans on trying to defeat the Harper Government.
4. Surprise, surprise � Norman �Asshole� Spector refuses to apologize to Ms. Belinda Stronach for his comments on her behalf on the Bill Good Show on CKNW.
5. The Democrats have regained both the Senate and the House of Representative�s on Election Day (Nov. 7th) with my favourite U.S. Senator; Hillary Clinton re-elected to serve another term. I hope she has ambitions for the White House in �08. There has been an ongoing investigation into Republican supporters providing the wrong address to polling stations for Democratic voters and the wrong times. There haven�t been any charges brought forward.
6. Donnie Rommel (Rumsfield) has resigned as Secretary of Defence. Good riddance too, w00t! I can say, unlike his friend Mr. Colin Powell who drove a pace car in a NASCAR race, he maybe sitting in a courtroom in the Peace Palace at The Hague being charged with his controversial role and happenings at Gitmo. Peter, am I still on notice?
7. King Ralph of Alberta is no sexist. He was trying to be funny; it just didn�t come out well as he hoped. It was clearly a sex joke. Not a demeaning joke about Ms. Stronach and women in general.

“I don’t think she ever did have a Conservative bone in her body, well except for one, speaking of Peter MacKay.�

Pakistan�s President, General Pervez Musharraf said, �The intelligence director told me that (Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage) said, �Be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age.�

In an interview to be aired on CBS� 60 minutes television program this coming Sunday. General Musharraf stated that they received this dialogue from the U.S. Government Official following September 11, 2001.

Mr. Armitage denied that he had ever threatened the Pakistani intelligence director that the United States would bomb his country. He did happen and admit to say the following, �with us or against us.� Sound like a serious threat to you? Absolutely! I would take both as a serious threat against ones country�s sovereignty in playing chicken with bombs into the Stone Age. The Bush Administration has to be reminded that Pakistan has a nuclear arsenal too.

Pakistan has been one of the United States� closet allies in the Middle East in being supportive of their war on terrorism in the Afghanistan. In the wake of 9/11�s terrorists attack in New York City, Virginia and Pennsylvania, General Musharraf spoke against Islamic fundamentalism and harbouring terrorists.

Though, hearing President Bush�s remarks yesterday that he would send in forces if he received �good intelligence� on bin Laden�s position in Pakistan, which has angered the Pakistan Government and its citizenry.

President of Pakistan was quoted saying the following, “I think it was a very rude remark.� I agree the United States has no right to threaten a sovereign nation-state. Since the U.S. is the �last remaining� superpower in the world, they have the mentality to force people into submission towards the United States, or bomb them to bits, absolutely. After all, we have seen the current Administration�s foreign policy in place for over six years. To prove it:

Musharraf told “60 Minutes” that Armitage’s message was delivered with demands that he turn over Pakistan’s border posts and bases for the U.S. military to use in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Some demands were “ludicrous,” such as a demand he suppress domestic expression of support for terrorism against the United States.

Definitely America�s foreign policy on the Middle East. President Musharraf and President Bush will be meeting together in the White House later this week. Let�s hope, relations improve drastically � because I don�t like where this could be going. Americans, please vote Democrat in �08. We want a smart aleck in office, not some world class ape.

On Wednesday, President Bush was asked by Wolf Blitzer if he would send in the U.S. Military into Pakistan if he received �good intelligence� on bin Laden�s location. The American President replied with, �Absolutely.�

General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan�s President opposes any U.S. Military action on Pakistani soil. Do you think the Bush Administration will accept Pakistan�s sovereignty? I doubt it. Remember, the American President did send forces into Iraq on faulty intelligence reports because it stated that they had weapons of mass destruction?

The United States has been in Iraq for three years and they still haven�t found anything related to the cause of the war. Why? Don�t say most of the reports were blacked out, because the President has the highest intelligence clearance throughout the country.

To quote General Musharraf, �We wouldn�t allow that at all. We will do it ourselves.� I really do not think the United States� Government under Bush�s leadership would allow that to happen. They wouldn�t dismiss a single chance to allow the Pakistani�s to make him a tyrant, if �captured�.

Other topics discussed between the Leader of the Free World and Wolf Blitzer were: Border Security (fence across the U.S.-Mexican Border), The Pope’s Comments, Is there a Civil War in Iraq? And, they discussed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s regime.