Global

Nikita Khrushchev wrote in his incomparable memoirs that Soviet admirals, like admirals everywhere, loved battleships because they could get piped aboard in great style amid the respectful hurrahs of their crews. It's the same with the United Nations, now more than ever reduced to the servile function of after-sales service provider for the United States, on permanent call as the mop-up brigade.

It would be a great step forward if several big Third World countries were soon to quit the United Nations, declaring that it has no political function beyond ratifying the world's present distasteful political arrangements. The trouble is that national political elites in pretty much every member country -- now 191 in all -- yearn to live in high style for at least a few years, and in some case for decades, on the Upper East side of Manhattan and to cut a dash in the General Assembly. They have a deep material stake in continuing membership, even though in the case of small, poor countries the prodigious outlays on a U.N. delegation could be far better used in some decent domestic application, funding local crafts or orphanages back home.

Democracy in this country has been dying a slow death, since the 1960's.  I am not sure people are putting their heads in the sand.  Our political culture is one built on trust in our system.  If wrongdoers are put into government, we will remove them in the next elections.   (Or, in the case of California, engineer a coup).

Needless to say, it is a scary thought to think our Democratic process has been hijacked.  It is a scary thought to think that the American public does not see that "our liberties are being taken away to protect our freedom".  And, they are not questioning why the world is against us.   After all, we are a perfect country, since we go to church.

Dr. Fitrakis:

Just read your piece on voting fraud excerpted on the Smirking Chimp.

I don't doubt a word of it. But at this late date, as the next "stealable" election looms, what the hell do we do to at least try to stop it?! Articles like yours that provide no way out of the hell we've been plunged into do less good than harm, simply by increasing the sense of desperation in people already aware of the problem. If you warn me that my house is burning to the ground but have no flippin' idea how I might get out in time, have you really done me a favor? Is inculcating blind, inchoate rage/fear really useful to anybody?

Krugman plans to follow up his very recent column on hack box voting by providing real steps to take to help fight this evil in his next column. Here's hoping that you'll do the same.

As a ward director in the 1960 Nixon campaign, I was disgusted when John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson seemed to have stolen the election.  Nevertheless, on that day three years later I wept, watching the black-and-white TV along with my wife.  For three days we watched, doing little else.  

The event has even more depth for me now, as I see it in retrospect: the time when our national course took a sharp turn away from the one we had followed since the country's founding.  The worldly wise Europeans knew they had witnessed a coup d'etat.  How silly!  This is America!  The deed was done by a lone madman, captured and almost as promptly executed, saving us a trial.

Dear Dr. Fitrakis,

I have just read your recent article, "The Year Democracy Ended", Nov. 30, 2003. I couldn't agree with you more. I am appalled by the arrogance of this administration and their underhanded tactics. Living in Texas, it's difficult to find people who share the same concern about our cowardly "leader" and his band of criminals.

I have amassed over 96 pages of articles and commentaries plainly exposing the dealings and lies of this administration. My motive is to collect as much information as I can before the 2004 election and hopefully get the word out. Sadly, I find there are many people in this country that just don't care or don't want to hear the truth. It's as if they are satisfied to keep their heads in the sand in hopes that everything will turn out okay.

Dear Mr. Fitrakis,

    I support your proposition that democracy has ended in America.  I have proposed that America is now a Corporatocracy.  The Corporatocracy is composed of the political parties, all three branches of government, the military, the media, and the corporations (energy, military, ag, pharm, etc.).  Citizens no longer matter.  Individuals are unimportant.  Soldiers can be sacrificed.  The environment exists only to provide raw materials and to absorb the toxic wastes (everything from Depleted Uranium to chlorinated biphenyls and carbon dioxide) produced by the corporations.  In a bloodless coup that was bought with bribes and "pork" payoffs, the Corporatocracy has seized power.  They have consolidated power with Patriot Act v. 1.0 and v. 2.0.  Now they are acting to assure their continued dominance through touch-screen, papertrailless voting.  The Bush administration is the cat's paw, the lickspittle of the Corporatocracy.  Bush is not in power, Cheney is not in power, Ashcroft is not in power.

Environmental Groups Promise to Expose Truth Behind Bush's Pro-Logging Agenda and Stop Projects that Don't Protect Communities or Restore Forests

MISSOULA, MT - Today, at 8:40 am MST, President Bush signed into law the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HR 1904). Like the double-speak rhetoric offered by his "Clear Skies Initiative," which relaxes pollution standards for air quality, this legislation leaves homes and communities vulnerable to wildfire, severely limits public participation and does not ensure protections for ancient, old-growth forests or roadless wildlands.

"President Bush has ignored common sense home protection measures and limited citizen participation in order to increase commercial logging on 20 million acres of our National Forests, a stated goal of his administration since day one. You can rest assured that we will do everything in our power to stop projects that don't protect communities or restore our public forests," promised Matthew Koehler with the Native Forest Network in Missoula, Montana.

As we sit in the relative comfort and security of our homes, tens of thousands of young Americans are now fighting in Iraq.

So far, over 420 of our troops have returned home dead.

For those who have never seen a buddy get killed in action, keep in mind that those killed are more than mere numbers, but fathers, sons, wives and husbands.

Those who have been in battle are best able to know the hardships this small segment of our citizens are asked to endure.  

Perhaps a president who has seen active duty in war is best able to weigh the need for battle with the incalculable cost in human lives.

Your article missed the count of US soldiers war dead . The month of November was the deadiest month for US soldiers since Mr Bush's PNAC war began. It was not 60 US soldier deaths, but 81.

81 US soldiers died in the month of November in Iraq. A total of 107 Coalition soldiers died in the month of November

Published on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 by the Free Press (Columbus, Ohio) Was Bush's Turkey Breakfast in Iraq Aimed at Hillary? by Harvey Wasserman www.commondreams.org/views03/1202-14.htm
Try this site for most up-to-date casualties - lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

Dan Mullaley Dallas

The embedded corporate media is still crowing over the details of George W. Bush's Thanksgiving flight to Baghdad. The Shrub spinmeisters have branded it a "home run."

But the global image of the smirking Texan carrying that turkey on a tray will now join the "greatest hits" album headlined by Bush's "Mission Accomplished" shot on the USS Lincoln, since which more than 100 US soldiers have died.

The Fox media annointed to accompany Bush to Baghdad were barred from any uncontrolled interviews with American soldiers.

Historically, Bush was merely replaying Lyndon Johnson's tragic 1966 visit to Vietnam's Cam Ranh Bay, after which tens of thousands of American and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians died in nine years of ghastly slaughter.

Johnson swooped into the huge US with top secrecy and security. The saturation photo op was meant to boost Johnson's plummeting polls. Having won in 1964 as a peace candidate, LBJ's 1965 decision to escalate the war in Vietnam remains a catastrophic pivot point in US history.