Bill Sykes' - In Retrospect XI.
(June 2008)

Bill Sykes looks back in retrospect at material which has been published in previous editions of "View from America", in an attempt to determine whether the subject matter written then is still applicable in today’s world.

The ins and outs of electing an American President.
As this is a subject that most people outside of this country do not have a clue what is going on, (and really in most cases do not give a tupenny damn), I’m going to try to provide a much abbreviated assessment of what I consider to be the salient features of a very complex subject - The election of an American President.
Who better than the American public to create such a long winded, complex, and costly method, of what should be a simple procedure in a two-party system of electing a candidate from each party, Republican and Democrat, to be   selected and placed upon the ballot for the legal voters of this country to elect as their choice, (?), to be the President of the United States of America. The candidate who has the greatest number of votes is then declared the winner.
I would suggest that the American public should consider changing their procedure to a procedure something similar to the British system where the party in power, Conservative or Labour, selects from within their own party the person that they consider to be the their best choice for Prime Minister, without all the fuss, bother, cost or months of TV propaganda that is prevalent in the United States of America.

Not that easy - why not? - Here’s a radical suggestion:
Forget the Caucuses, the Primaries, the Delegates and the Super Delegates, and forget all the other insignificant people like Ralph Nader who only put up for President as spoilers - yes a real two-party system where each party picks one candidate each from their own party to put up for the office of President. This would cut out all the months and months, of constant TV and other media propaganda which certainly would make the selection much more economic - much to the dismay of course of the three so say iInternational television news stations that would loose lots and lots of revenue.

OK. Tell me why my suggestion will not work? I’m sure that there are many amongst you who have zillions of reasons why it will not work so please be my guest but I beg of you to not quote the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence, as their words of wisdom which were perfectly applicable for the time period when they were written, but in today’s modern world they are outdated and the time has come for some radical changes to be made.
If you disagree with my suggestions, (and you have the inalienable right to do so), then for goodness sake please provide me with details of what you disagree with and the reasons why you disagree. Do not tell me that the American public have always chosen their President this way, as that is a complete fallacy - big business and big money are the main powers that choose the President of the United States and the real American people do not have a say in the matter except to vote for one of the two candidates that have been selected for them.
Think about it.

I’m going to make one more try at explaining the extraordinary, and somewhat immature, methods that the American voters have to put up with in the election of their President, and then I give up.
It’s still more than six months until Election Day, on the 4th of November 2008, and this is the first week in June of 2008. The Democrats have finally chosen, after months and months of daily, (nay hourly), bombardment by the three main American TV news stations, and other news sources, giving their estimate of which of the two candidates has won the right to represent the Democratic Party in the Presidential election.
Graphs, graphs, graphs, and still more graphs, most of which contradict each other as graphs are only as good as the people that are surveyed, the location that those people are from, their economic class, (working class, business class, management class, etc) and the standard of  their education.

The Republican Party decided some time ago that John McCain was to be their candidate. Why, I will never know.
It would appear that the dreaded old age syndrome of being forgetful appears to be affecting John McCain as a few times recently he has in his TV broadcasts provided incorrect information, and even after being corrected by Joe Lieberman he has repeated the incorrect information several times.  Joe Lieberman has frequently being seen alongside John McCain. Surely McCain is not thinking of considering offering Lieberman the position of running mate in order to get the Jewish vote?

The two democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama, fought a long, gruelling, reasonably fair, but extremely costly campaign for the honor of representing the Democratic Party in the November Presidential election. Barack Obama finally took the honors after a very close finish with Hillary Clinton.
The final voting tally, when taking into account all of the somewhat weird rules and regulations imposed by the Democratic Party, which include Caucuses, Primaries, (which were discussed in Article #10 of the February 2008 Edition of Bill Sykes’ - Looks Back in Retrospect X), and then there are the Delegates and Super Delegates who appear to be forever changing their votes.
I really don’t think that you want me to offer an explanation as to what Delegates and Super Delegates are.

For what it’s worth, please let me sum up how I think that the Presidential election potential vote will go.
I would suggest that the American Presidential voting system could be currently assessed as follows:
1) At least 20% of the American voters will not vote for John McCain, who apparently has got into the habit of changing his position and his rhetoric on a daily basis on very important issues that will not only affect the lives of the American people but will also affect the people of the world at large.
2) At least 20%, (mainly male chauvinists), would not vote for a "female" Presidential candidate.
3) At least 20%, (mainly racial bigots), would not vote for a "black" Presidential candidate.
4) And at least 20% will abstain from voting as they have always done.
So, if one tallies up the percentage totals, then it’s up to the "Independents" amongst us to see that John McCain does not become President, as that could possibly be a complete disaster in the making for not only the people of America but the people of the world in general.

Now we come to a situation that may have a direct bearing upon who becomes President, and why I think that the choice of a suitable running mate to become Vice President is so important, especially for the Democratic Party.
At this time I have no knowledge as to whom either Presidential candidate will choose as their running mate - but if I may, please let me give my input as to whom I think could perhaps be a good choice for Barack Obama, and why. I personally, would suggest that Hillary Clinton, would boost Barrack Obama’s chances of sealing the Presidential appointment as Hillary had a greater number of  the "popular vote" than Barack Obama during the election process, and as she recently promised to fully support Barack Obama in his Presidential bid then many of the people who voted for Hillary, (less the one’s who obviously will not vote for a Black President), may transfer their voting allegiance to Barack Obama, especially if he invites Hillary to become Vice President, and more importantly if she accepts.
The situation could then become very favorable for a Barrack Obama Presidency as the total number of popular votes country wide, (when counting his own, plus a percentage of  Hillary’s, plus quite a number of the Independent votes, should be sufficient for him to be selected as the overall winner and gain the Presidency.
By the way the estimated "popular vote" totals for the Democratic candidates in the democratic selection process were: Barack Obama 17,869,542 - Hillary Clinton 18,046,007.
Of course another possible candidate for the Vice Presidential position could be John Edwards who was the Democratic Senator for North Carolina in 1998.

Many people, including myself, have had some doubts in the past, and maybe will also have in the future, about whether Obama’s Muslim upbringing could/would affect some of the decisions he makes if he gets into the White House.
But after reviewing his background and education, I figure that he has enough common sense and intelligence to weigh his decisions very carefully and very wisely. I do so that if Barack Obama does become President that my assumptions are correct.
There again, surely anything has to be better than the current political situation and the possibility of John McCain becoming President and continuing to support the Bush debacle that has caused this country so much grief, with a possible continuation by McCain of four more years of the Bush agenda but furthermore expanding upon it.

Now, let me get down to the real nitty gritty. Who am I going to vote for, or on the other hand who am I  not going to vote for? As if you really care.
As far as I’m concerned my vote will definitely not go for John McCain as in my opinion the people of the United States cannot afford, (literally speaking), another four years of the disastrous decisions made by the Republican Party under the Presidency of that petty dictator Bush, which in today’s world McCain apparently is determined to not only continue the Bush agenda if he were to become President, but to expand upon it.
In all fairness we have to take into account that the members of the Democratic Congress, (In the House of Representatives and the Senate), have accomplished very little in their short tenancy, but there again with a majority of one in the Senate, which has been negated a number of times by Senator Lieberman, who after leaving the Democratic Party declared himself to be an Independent and in generally has voted with the Republican Party.

I cannot see the Republican Party returning to power  at any time soon, as this country is in a terrible shambles with an unwinnable military fiasco in the two Middle Eastern wars, (with the loss of over 4,000 young American lives), a full economic recession, (which Bush has denied so strongly for so long - incidentally the Dow Jones is down nearly 400 points, as I write (5th June 2008), on the news that oil has skyrocketed another $9 a barrel to a current price of $139 per barrel of crude.
In a recent statement, even a Saudi Official said that oil prices are artificially elevated and are being manipulated, yet the American Senate blocked a bill in Congress which was aimed at instituting an oil company windfall profits tax.
The oil companies apparently challenged the bill by indicating that they would just add the tax onto the price of all their gasoline products, therefore depriving the consumers of any means of getting a reprieve from the artificially elevated price of gasoline products.
By the way Exxon/Mobile declared a profit from their companies’ last quarter earnings which was in excess of ten/twelve billion dollars. No wonder the oil companies do not want the government to institute a windfall profits tax.

Then there is the unintelligent and disastrous lack of foreign policy initiatives in which Bush, Cheney and other members of the Administration, such as Carl Roe, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, lied through their teeth to promote and initiate two unwinnable wars, one in Afghanistan and the other one in Iraq, which in my opinion the confrontation with Iraq has led to and has had a direct bearing upon the tremendous hike in the price of oil. Of course the monetary greed of certain stock market profiteers of this world to elevate the price of oil to unsustainable exorbitant price levels has led to a number of cases of price gouging. Shall I go on?

As I said previously the United States basic lifestyle is currently in a shambles, which without a shadow of a doubt is due to the irresponsible actions of our current President and his entourage, his Administration, and the Republican Party in general.
Of course once again I must state that I consider that a great deal of the blame must also be placed upon the Democratic Party who’s ineptitude in blindly accepting many of the Bush decisions as being gospel, and not recognizing them for what they were downright lies and subterfuge. The Democratic Party just sat back, obviously not wanting to be named as unpatriotic Americans in a war time situation, and went along with the Bush, Cheney, dictates without challenging them.

It would appear that many American citizens in their naivety also went along with the lies and subterfuge that was being fed to them on a daily basis with respect to the potential wars and like the members of Congress stayed on the sidelines in order not to be accused of being unpatriotic in times of war.  These two wars unfortunately have cost the lives of over 4,000 of our young people who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and these wars have resulted in the terrifically elevated price of a barrel of oil which is affecting not only the lives of the American people but the lives of the people of the world in general.
Surely there are many intelligent people out there in America who recognized that they were duped, especially with the reasons or lies given for the war in Iraq, and who now face the financial consequences of two unwinnable wars, and all the detrimental effects on their way of life which has been caused by these wars, I would therefore suggest that they also must recognize that a vote for McCain would exacerbate, (not alleviate), the unfortunate economic world price crunch situation that we now find our selves in.  

Mission “NOT” Accomplished.
Over five years ago on the First of May 2003, President George W Bush landed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, which was anchored in San Diego Harbor, and declared: "Mission Accomplished", in a speech in which he announced the end of major operations in the Iraqi war.
The jet landing by Bush upon the deck of the aircraft carrier, posing in a flight suit with the pilots and members of the crew, was denounced as a theatrical and expensive stunt seeing that the aircraft carrier was well within the range of Bush’s helicopter and a jet landing was just playing to the crowd.
How wrong could Bush be in declaring "Mission Accomplished", when one considers that over 4,000 of America’s young men and women have died in that same war that he virtually declared to be over, but is still continuing and has American young men and women fighting and dying to this very day.
Would you believe that John McCain used the same phrase in June and December of the same year, but later denounced the phrase on the First of May 2008?

Late breaking news:
A call to impeach President Bush. (10th of June, 2008)
Why has it taken so long - someone had to do it?
Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich defied his Democratic leadership on Monday the 9th of June 2008 by calling for the impeachment of President Bush for launching the Iraq war under lies and false pretences.
The Ohio Representative outlined his intention to propose more than two dozen charges against Bush on the floor of the House.
Rep. Kucinich accused Bush of executing a "calculated and wide-ranging strategy" to deceive the citizens and Congress into believing that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States.

My Comment:
A clever way of saying that Bush and his cohorts lied to the people and the Government of the United States in order to start a contrived war against Iraq and its people.
House Speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi, has repeatedly said that she opposes trying to remove the current President as she believes that the attempt would be divisive and most likely unsuccessful. Her words "divisive" Doesn’t she know that at least 65% of the American people want an end to this unwinnable war and our troops be brought home?

My Comment:
Another case of weak leadership in the Democratic Party?
Rep. Kucinich, who has been an outspoken critic of the Iraqi war, has consistently voted against continued funding of the war  and has led anti-war efforts in Congress, and in April of 2007 he even offered a resolution to impeach Vice President Cheney which failed.

Late Breaking News:
(Monday the 16th of June 2008)
I've just listened to an inspired fire and brimstone speech on American Television from Michigan, in which Al Gore endorsed Barack Obama for the position of President of the United States.
It certainly got me thinking back to the Florida voting debacle in which a case of voting irregularities, finally went to the Supreme Court, which gave a decision that robbed Al Gore of the Presidency and gave George W. Bush four more years in the White House. 
I would suggest that the Supreme Court decision turned out to be a complete disaster for the people, of not only America, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but also many other nations of this world.
I suddenly started to wonder what kind of an America we would now be living in, if Al Gore had been successful in counteracting the voting robbery that occurred in the Florida voting process, and had won the election and deposed Bush as President. 
I would suggest that the world in general would be in a far better state than it is now.

Last Word:
Enough is enough - well at least I’ve tried to unravel some of the flotsam and jetsam that floats along the murky waters of electing an American President. I don’t expect that many people will read this newsletter but at least I can say that I have tried to give a fair opinion "Without Fear or Favor" of what I consider to be the current situation in the Presidential Election fiasco.  

The webmaster has his say with respect to the price of oil and the effect that it is having upon the UK economy.
In answer to your previous message I have to agree with you that the current economic and energy price rises are becoming something of a farce. I am under the impression that speculators on the oil market are keeping prices high and that this could continue for another x number of years! Dabbling in futures is costing the likes of you and me dearly. Fuel prices rise, commodity prices rise, everyday goods such as food and housing rise - it goes on and on. Unfortunately the spending power of your average Joe is not keeping pace with this inflation and, as a result, the populace is suffering from a tighter and tighter budget squeeze. Something has got to be done about this and I wish I knew a way to make my protest.

Here in the UK we are seeing fuel and energy prices rise, taxes on goods and services rise, local government taxes rise, food prices rise. It is unsustainable and the lot of Mr. and Mrs. Average is becoming harder and harder. On top of this, despite the extra revenue (and don't forget that Britain benefits from oil prices rising because of its North Sea oil production) Government services are slowly being eroded. We are facing refuse collection fortnightly instead of weekly, less investment in road and rail services, well I could go on and on but who listens? Not the damned politicians!
So is there a solution? Not while the countries of the world are working independently instead of agreeing a reasonable rate rise for oil and services. Perhaps a cap should be placed upon the price of oil?
Meanwhile the oil producing nations must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Kind Regards
Peter Piwowarski
Webmaster www.huddersfield1.co.uk

NOTE:
It is important for comparison purposes that the reader of Article #11, also reads the following previous editions of
"Newsletters from America" which can be found upon the www.huddersfield1.co.uk website.
In the L.H. column of the "Huddersfield One" home page you will see the notation "US Newsletter" and if you click on that it will take you to a complete list of all my previous newsletters.

1. April 2003 Edition: This edition includes articles concerning the lead up to the Bush War and gives an insight as to what is expected to follow.

2. Mid-April 2003 Edition:  This edition provides my ideas as to the postwar future of Iraq and its people.
    

Disclaimer:
Some of the information gathered for this news letter has been gleaned from American and International media sources, (Including the Internet), and as such is quoted as accurately as possible. I try to obtain confirmation on each subject from several outlets, so the text is a mixture of composite news items and my personal comments and therefore the reader must make his/her own judgment as to the reliability and degree of accuracy of the subjects discussed.

Eric (Bill) Sykes, (Southern California).
June 2008.

We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these articles. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk