Waiting For Goredot

The only thing more exhilarating than seeing Al Gore win the Nobel Peace Prize was watching the dead-end Republicans squirm and fester like petulant children who's football team just lost the big game. The whole thing was rigged. It was the referees. It was the fuzzy math. But as far as American Presidential candidates who have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the score is Democrats-3, Republicans-1. The Nobel Prize Committee can't be played, yet the mini-Goebbels cable talkers tried to make it sound like Oslo was rebuking King Chuckles. Who did the GOP shills think it would go to, President "Bring 'Em On?" Of course, Henry Kissinger has one, but then, so did Yasser Arafat. But not the old, cold warrior Ronnie Ray-gun, or "Line in the Sand," Bush the Elder. You actually have to be a peacemaker to be rewarded this prize.

Because I am now old and irritable and had just returned from an Endoscopy, I thought it would be amusing and help revive me from a Demerol haze if I watched the Gore coverage on Fox News. Can these Bushney zombie zealots not consider the fact that one of the world's most prestigious awards went to a deserving American who has devoted his entire public career, often in the face of ridicule, to raise awareness to the dangers of climate change? But, how do you get Luddites who don't accept evolution to believe global warming is anything else but God's will? Still, it might have been refreshing to see some grudging appreciation for the man's accomplishment from this obscenity against journalism that passes for a news network.

Instead, Fox went into full, live attack mode. We were treated to a panel with actor Jay Thomas, who spoke as if he had just been beaned by a Curt Schilling fastball, asking what the big deal was over a factually incorrect movie. Gore's left-wing show-biz friends put in the old Hollywood shuffle to the prize committee, just like they did at the Oscars. He was joined by a child-blond named Cheri Jacobuss, not a half-decade off an anchor desk at Eyewitless News somewhere, speaking venomous bile for the right as calmly as an original cast member of "Village of the Damned." She couldn't imagine what Gore's work, or this U.N. Committee he shared the award with, had anything to do with peace. She concluded her sour diatribe by saying, "No one can name the Nobel Peace Prize winners from year to year anyway."

I raised my hand and shouted, "I can." If not from every year, some real winners, like Oscar Arias Sanchez, President of Costa Rica who helped bring peace to Central America, or Mother Theresa, Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat. Nelson Mandela, Yitzhak Rabin, Le Duc Tho, or Martin Luther King, Jr. Mr. Gore joined a highly distinguished company today, show some goddamned respect. Do they have special Journalism schools with different rules to train the Jello-heads, or have we become numb to this ideological carjacking of the airwaves to promote discredited drivel from a frantic fringe of pseudo-philosophical fools? Later in the evening, Fox had different discussions about whether Mr. Gore is too fat to run for president, or if the Nobel committee only awards the prize to people who wreck the economy, like Jimmy Carter, awarded for his humanitarian work around the world.

After Gore's brief and eloquent statement in receiving the award, of the three cable news networks, only MSNBC continued with a discussion about the prize's effect on Gore's future. CNN and Fox immediately cut to breaking news about the terminally dead Anna Nicole Smith. The Fox "News" gang could have learned something from Al Gore today that they overlooked in 2000 as well, magnanimity in victory, and graciousness in defeat. I've made my support known for Al Gore in these posts before, (Clinton's Sin,12/5/05; Al Gore, "Soul Man," 1/30/07; and Gore/Obama, 7/8/07), so I need not repeat myself, other than my consistent belief that he is the best qualified candidate for President in 85 years. This year alone, he's captured the trifecta; the Oscar, The Emmy, and the Nobel Prize. Why not go for the cycle?

Gore said today that he would continue to bring the urgency of climate change to the people and governments of the world. Hey Al! You wanna' do something serious about reversing the damage of global warming? Run for President of the United States. You have the knowledge, the moral authority, and you are the only candidate who can stop Hillary Clinton. Perhaps it's also time to acknowledge that maybe it would have been wiser to vote for the smart guy who dedicated his life to public service, rather than the amiable novice who's personality you kind of liked but really didn't know. After almost seven years, who's been the better "steward" of the Lord's creation?

Hillary, Please!

At the risk of sounding too graphic, we're about to have Clinton rammed down our throats, but it's Hillary this time; so driven to wrap up the nomination that she's still willing to pander to the militaristic right. Her latest Senate vote giving Bushney a first step toward war with Iran may be the "close but no cigar" moment when liberals, feminists, and anti-war Democrats realize that Senator Clinton is using them. If Hillary's support for the Kyl-Lieberman amendment, opening the door for U.S. attacks on Iran, is her best judgment about resolving the Iraq war, then this nation deeply needs an agent of change. In this election, we really do need a "uniter and not a divider," and that includes the liar lying beside her. If she betrays the anti-war movement, the blue states could turn against her like the blue dress did for her advisor.

That's always been my problem with Hillary, too many advisers. Her entire Senate career seems one giant calibration in preparation for this presidential run. Though she has done some admirable things, her vote for the Iraq War lacked political courage, as does her ongoing attempt to justify it. But the co-sponsorship of an anti flag burning amendment to the Constitution was suck-up politics of the worst sort, and an insult to thoughtful people, especially in the Mid-South, who have followed her career since she was Arkansas' First Lady. She is so determined to become this century's new "Iron Lady," that she has torched her liberal values in favor of appealing to the electorate as the toughest, bare-knuckled, anti-terrorist who has never thrown an actual punch, this side of George Bush.

How else to explain this vote in favor of granting Bushney a toe-hold in Iran, despite her colleagues warnings, if not to show herself tough on security and somehow "supporting the troops?" Did the Senator learn nothing from her original vote, or has she forgotten the Tonkin Gulf Amendment giving LBJ power to unleash the military in Indochina? Since the current regime insists on following the Vietnam blueprint, they can be expected to use their new powers to initiate cross-border raids and secret bombings, guaranteed to take more civilian life regardless of the strategic targeting abilities. Mrs. Clinton is the only Democratic candidate voting in favor of the Lieberman sponsored nightmare, made doubly dubious by the secret and "Refuse to discuss it," bombings of Syrian facilities by Israel last month. Someone whispered to Hillary to be "Thatcheresque," and she has enabled Bush and Cheney to make more war.

Since Senator Clinton's ultimate goal is to be the first woman President, here's the sure fire way to de-rail her. Demand that Congressional Democrats join with John Conyers and Dennis Kucinich in immediately drawing up terms of impeachment for Dick Cheney for war-mongering and profiteering, as well as the many felonies committed while in office. Then, demand similar charges be filed against George Bush, including Abuse of Power and High Crimes and Misdemeanors. You could pick from the dozens that Chuckles doesn't even realize he has yet committed. After accepting Bush's resignation in order to "support the troops," the line of presidential succession goes to the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, who would immediately be sworn in by Justice John Roberts. President Pelosi, the first woman and Italian president, could then run as the incumbent and pop Hillary's bubble. Insert your own sexual reference here, but the Clintons back in the White House with Lincoln Bedroom sleepovers for preferred corporate donors? Hillary, please!