Putin, Clinton, & Bush… Oh my! The current, dynastic period of American history

Observers Detail Flaws in Russian Election - NYTimes.com:

Mr. Putin, who has already served eight years as president and four years as prime minister, won a new six-year term on Sunday with an official tally of 63.75 percent of the vote. He has already suggested that he might run again in 2018, potentially extending his tenure as Russia’s pre-eminent leader to 24 years, on a par with Brezhnev and Stalin.

Before we get all shocked about Putin and say, "It could never happen here!" think about this:

A likely list of US Presidents in a future text book...

1989 - 2021 or 2025 (32-34 years):
-Bush
-Clinton
-Bush
-Obama (almost Clinton & prominently featuring Clinton family members and former Clinton officials in the cabinet/administration)
-(Clinton or Bush likely)

Hillary and Jeb have to be considered the initial front runners in 2016.

I am starting to think of our current period as the Dynastic Period in American history.

Of course, there have been a few more shenanigans in the Russian elections than the American elections.  2000 not withstanding, though, Americans are clearly choosing their leaders from these prominent families.

Recently, I read an article saying that Jeb may even jump in this year to save the GOP from their circular firing squad.  And I think there is little doubt that Hillary will take a shot at 2016.  It wouldn’t even be the most shocking event ever if she ends up being on the 2012 ticket as VP.

In 2008, one of the main reasons why I supported Obama in the primaries was that I felt having a 20 year stretch with only the last names Bush or Clinton residing in the White House was bad for America and bad for our democracy, even if we liked the people in office (or some of them).

Continuing this trend for another four to eight years?  Having the potential for the Presidency to be passed back and forth between two families, if Hillary was elected twice, for nearly thirty years?

That is dangerous, I believe, for any democracy. 

I suspect, though, that we may not be done with Presidents named Bush and Clinton. 

I would be very surprised not to see either Hillary or Jeb picking up a nomination in the future, and 2016 may even end up being Bush v. Clinton in the general.

And they are young enough that both may eventually end up in the White House.

Picture this:

Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Bush, Clinton

If everyone gets two terms, that would be 44 years of dynastic presidencies with one, minor exception.  Almost half a century.

Age may limit these far reaching possibilities. 

Hillary will be 81 in 2028 and 86 in 2033 (end of the latest possible second term in this scenario).

Jeb will be 76 in 2028 and 80 in 2033.

In comparison, Ronald Reagan, our oldest president so far, was almost 70 when he was first inaugurated in 1981 and served until two weeks before his 78th birthday.  He lived to age 93, but was crippled by Alzheimer's for, at least, the last 10 years of his life.

This article drifts a little towards the unsteady conspiracy theories from time to time, but it also makes plenty of solid points.

The Jeb Scenario: Can You Say “President Bush” Again? | Snip.it:

The Bushes are nothing if not resilient. George W. Bush, he of so few qualifications but with his own distinctive Bush personality and formidable charisma, came out of the dust of his father’s re-election defeat in 1992, stronger than his father ever was politically. And though W. is now persona non grata to many, his brother would come back as a significantly different brand. He’s widely regarded as more capable, much more focused, much better at delivering points. He’s able to pull off a kind of sober, reasonable persona, more stable than a Santorum or a Gingrich or most of the other contenders. Rich but not entitled. A kind of Romney—without the Romney.

And yet….And yet he is still a Bush. That means a great deal, because, putting aside all the stylistic differences, this is a clan with a mission. It’s a mission they’ll never talk about, beyond vague statements about a sense within the family of Duty to Nation. No, the Bush clan is the ultimate representative of the game plan of the one percent of the one percent. What they stand for in private is much, much more troubling than most Americans know. What I learned in the five years I spent investigating them—as they were going out of power the last time—shook me to my core.

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Elizabeth Warren and Class Warfare

Thank You, Elizabeth Warren!: "Progressives take note: THAT is how it is done. THAT is how you fight back hard, and THAT is how you defeat Fox News talking points. And THAT is why Warren has actually moved AHEAD of the Republican incumbent in this race."

'via Blog this'

5 Things Our Kids Won't Have In School | Cracked.com

Recess, p.e. class, textbooks, summer breaks, Valedictorians and other honors, and failing grades. Some of these, for parents with kids in school these days, well... We've seen the writing on the wall. Others, like the end of summer breaks, I've been hearing about since I was in school twenty years ago and it doesn't seem any closer than it did twenty years ago.

Using tablets and e-readers seems inevitable, but most of the other changes predicted by this writer do not, to me, feel like improvements.

The thing that is really killing us in our district is the budget cuts.  Already, the boys have nearly as many weeks with four school days as they do with five, and the district is having to cut five more days because of budget short falls.  We'll these dates will be announced when the district finished negotiating the timing with the teacher's union.

And these sorts of cuts are not recent.  At the end of the 2004-2005 school year, the Portland School District elementary school sent a survey around asking which staff member to lay off, the librarian, the p.p. teacher or the music teacher.  The school was already without a counselor.

At the end of the 2009-2010 school year, Gresham-Barlow S. D. was where Portland was five years earlier.

I don't think summer vacations are going away any time soon.  If anything, they are getting longer.  But it might be time to look at how all this down time is organized, though having all those long breaks would be murder on working, single parents.

Anyway, this article is not too deep, but it does have some entertaining food for thought...

5 Things Our Kids Won't Have In School | Cracked.com:

"You remember recess, right? It was that one time when you could ditch the desks and run around in a frenzied scramble like an extra-caffeinated Bosstone. Whether you spent your 20 minutes hurling dodge balls at dorks or cowering under the slides (to hide from the dodge balls), recess has been an institution for generations. And thank goodness for recess. At a time when kids are tripping over their guts and trailing their asses on the sidewalk behind them, a few minutes of physical activity can be just what the doctor ordered. Literally.

Going Away Because ...

Four little letters: NCLB.
For those of you who have been out of the school loop for the past decade, those letters stand for "No Child Left Behind," which has, for better or worse, done a serious number on American education. Here's why: In 2001, President Bush and Congress passed a law saying we had to get better at school, specifically reading, language arts, math and science. Fair enough."

And failing grades? I agree and disagree with the concept, much like the writer. As long as we are rewarding our kids for real work, not just being overprotective of their feelings or, even worse, creating a situation where it is possible to keep moving through the system without actually learning anything, which I've heard of happening too, because it is just too difficult to fail a kid or to hold them back for a year.

More from Cracked...

"Failure makes students feel bad. And nobody wants that, do they?

Which is why programs like Zeros Aren't Permitted (ZAP!) are getting implemented everywhere from California to Michigan. In a no-fail zone, students can get an A, B, C, D or H, which presumably stands for "Ha ha ha! You didn't think we would give you an F, did you??? Give us a hug, apple dumpling!"

Getty
"You kids write whatever the hell you want on these essays. Mr. Scotch and I don't judge."

Upon getting their H's, students have multiple opportunities to complete their work to the teacher's satisfaction; during study hall, after school or, in extreme cases, during Saturday school. We can mock the idea, but in some ways, it makes sense. After all, in the real world, you work until you get the task done. Quitting every time you failed at something would just get you fired.

Getty
"I totally messed up that appendectomy. Next time I'll make sure they don't want a sex change."

Plus, the goal of school isn't to sort the stupid from the smart, but to teach everybody as much as possible. For struggling students, zero after zero builds up into one great house of fail, and with no hope of recovery in sight. It should be about getting them caught up, not continuously reminding them of how stupid they are.

But as soon as we defend it, it gets ridiculous again: There are places where red ink has been banned when writing grades because it's too "confrontational" and "threatening." We don't want to embarrass anyone, so let's just say that the country in question rhymes with "England."

No pressure.

'via Blog this'

Presidential Medal of Freedom Awarded…

Retired General Tommy Franks, former CIA Director George Tenent and former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer were awarded the Medal of Freedom by Bush today.

Bush said Franks "led the forces that fought and won two wars in the defense of the world's security and helped liberate more than 50 million people from two of the worst tyrannies in the world."

Yes, I’ll never forget the tears of joy we, as a nation, shared when the troops came home victorious from Iraq and Afghanistan and freedom reigned in the two brightest Democracies in the Middle East.

Or, as Sidney Blumenthal just said on Air America, “What would they have got if they succeeded?”

The Medal of Freedom, established by President Truman in 1945 to recognize civilians for their efforts during World War II, was reinstated by President Kennedy in 1963 to honor distinguished service.

This sounds like a worthy crew to join this club.

Bush Awards Medal of Freedom to Three

Karl Rove: Bush's Goebbels?

I wanted to take a moment and explain why I mentioned Karl Rove in the headline yesterday. These sorts of dirty tricks are what Mr. Rove seems to be all about. In fact, when I searched Google on his name, the first sentence of the first article that came up was, “He's America's Joseph Goebbels.”

While I would like to stay away from the Bush Administration/NAZI comparisons, when one of the most influential people in the White House started their political career by sabotaging the opening of a campaign office of a Democratic candidate there is definite cause for concern.

In 1970 when he was a protege of Donald Segretti (a convicted Watergate conspirator), Rove snuck into the campaign office of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon and stole some letterhead. He printed fliers on the letterhead promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing" and distributed the fliers at rock concerts and homeless shelters. Admitting to the incident much later, Rove said, "I was nineteen and I got involved in a political prank."

It’s The Simpsons “Boys will be Boys” defense. From there he went on to such heights as the 1986 bugging incident in the Texas govenors race.

[J]ust before a crucial debate in the election for governor of Texas, Karl Rove announced that his office had been bugged by the Democrats. There was no proof, and it was later alleged he had bugged his own phone for the media coverage that the incident generated, but there was no proof of that, either, and no charges were ever filed.



This is a man that defines the concept of the ends justifying the means, and to him, the ends are the political success of his canidate. Now that his canidate is going into the 5th year of his presidancy, it would seem that there would no longer be a role for this Senior Advisor to the President. But the Bush Administration sees their leadership role from the perspective of being in a permanent campaign. Having to constantly defend their record, this makes sense. Unfortunarely, “Rove, running a permanent campaign, doesn't grasp his limitations, and at the very least this means a greater risk to American lives.”

What this means to me is that when a CIA agent who does not tow the party line is suddenly investigated on “allegations that he had sex with a female informer and stole money used to pay informers,” I start getting really nervous. As I said yesterday, an anonymous plaintif in a wrongful termination lawsuit against the CIA has more credibility than the Bush Administration does with me at this point. Much of my confidence in the Administration is eroded by the high profile of Rove in the White House.

And when Bush starts talking about spending political capital, I start wondering what Rove has in mind.

Rove’s tactics get really scary if the Administration dares use such measures when it comes to foreign policy. Especially when we are at war.

Today, I noticed this nice headline, “White House mum on El Baradei eavesdropping report.” It seems that there are allegations that “the United States has monitored telephone calls between El Baradei and Iranian diplomats, seeking ammunition to oust him.”

There is a big difference between bugging your own office in a gubernatorial race and using similar tactics to take out the head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency. These are the sorts of actions that, if they are happening often enough and severely enough, tend to get Coalitions of the Willing riled up for a military intervention.

If the www.counterpunch.org essay is correct that Rove’s mentor was a Watergate conspirator who went to jail for distributing illegal campaign material, could we see Karl taking a long look at his shower options in the future? I would guess not. I doubt that we’ll see a Republican Congress take on the president. I doubt that any investigation would carry enough weight to make the GOP turn against the Administration. For Clinton, it took lying about receiving oral sex to get an impeachment trial rolling. However, for a Chief Executive of their own party, Bush would probably need to be caught red handed drowning Christian Orphans from Mississippi in the Lincoln Bedroom to even be investigated by the Republicans in Congress. Since it would be hard to take down Rove without taking down the President, he is probably safe.

For more information on this gentleman, who was once heard shouting "We will fuck him like he's never been fucked before," a man who even GWB calls a “turd blossom,” please explore the following articles. The above quotes came from them, though I cannot say that I have read each one in depth.

White House mum on El Baradei eavesdropping report

Exposing Karl Rove

The brains behind Bush

Karl Rove: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

And Rove Gets to Keep His Job… A Green Light For Abuse?

Your New [Confirmation Pending] AG...

This is the first that I have heard of this... Even some conservatives do not like him.

[Alberto] Gonzales is extremely close to Bush, but some conservative groups have expressed skepticism about his anti-abortion bonafides. 

When he was a Texas Supreme Court justice, he wasn't staunch enough, in the view of some conservatives, in upholding state laws requiring pregnant teenage girls to notify their parents before obtaining an abortion.



But even better is his stepson... The above quote came from this article.

Gonzales's stepson quit job at Hustler to be "prudent."

Here's to raising the tone in D.C.

Homeless Iraq Vets... This is Going to Get Ugly

Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters

Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that as of last July, nearly 28,000 veterans from Iraq sought health care from the VA. One out of every five was diagnosed with a mental disorder, according to the VA. An Army study in the New England Journal of Medicine in July showed that 17 percent of service members returning from Iraq met screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety disorder or PTSD.

I first started hearing about this a couple days ago and have been meaning to look into it. I don't know if it was that I was too busy or that I just can bring myself to look, but I found this link on the 3WA message board tonight, and this article is the first one I've actually read on this subject.

Unfortunately, I am not surprised by this. I am surprised that it does catch me so off guard.

Maybe I bought more of the Bush Campaign rhetoric than I realized. Or I was just hoping against all hope that they wouldn't fuck these kids over.

Many, Many, Many Things...

Okay, then...

I'll start with some words on the whole Rumsfeld "You go to war.." deal that I posted in response to another blog.

I totally agree that it is a crime that the soldiers feel that the government is not doing all that they can to protect them in the war. And I do believe that a large number of them feel that way... My proof, none. Just my gut. But I haven't seen numbers on either side of this issue.

However, it turns out that the soldier who asked the question about armor that is getting all of this attention was there guarding a reporter who prompted him to ask this question.

Is it still a valid question? Of course.

Were the audience's enthusiastic cheers when the question was asked legitimate? Sounded like it to me.

But I am afraid that the conservative elements in the media will use this as an excuse to invalidate the question itself. And that is sad. If there is no issue, then prove it. If there is, then something needs to be done. I am tired of everyone avoiding the debate of real issues because they do not like who asked the question, etc.

So, that is out of the way...

Next... There are two issues I've decided just to stay the hell away from... The Ukraine and the Terror Bill. These are very complicated things that are potentially world changing in their long term effects and I just don't feel that any brief babble I would post about them would be worth anything.

Then... The Bush Cabinet, V 2.0

Okay, this is an issue that I want to get into. I want to make snarky comments about Condi. I want to run through the old faces and the new names and turn in my two cents. But every time I am about to get started, another turnover occurs.

I read somewhere that the turnover in this cabinet was about par for the second term, but this is starting to seem a little weak to me. I haven't seen the current count, but I know that there was another this morning and it has reached the point where I have lost track.

Anyway, everyone needs to take a look at these people and if you don't like them, scream at your reps in Congress about it. Just because the President wants to give these people jobs doesn't mean that Congress has to give them jobs.

But, more on that later...

I have a list of issues I want to discuss. Unfortunately, it is not with me at the moment, so there is my excuse to move on for the moment.

Weapon of Mass Destruction in Fallujah

When I first heard about the discovery of this lab, I shuddered and figured that the Bush Administration would start crowing about how they were right all along about Iraq and WMD.

This morning, however, I woke up to CNN and realized that this lab supposedly belonged to the insurgents, not to the Ba'ath Party. Oh joy.

War in Iraq: Stopping terrorism and removing the threat of WMD. Or the opposite of that. I'll have to check my notes.

Let me see...
Saddam's regime: No WMD; no al-Quada connections.
U. S. occupied Iraq: Overflowing with terrorists who apparently are developing WMD capabilities.

"Mission accomplished."

Just a Quick Post...

I've been wanting to write something about the turnover of cabinet members for Bush II, but I haven't had the chance to do the proper research yet.

I just want to say that while most of the people leaving were expected to leave, the administration's nominations for their replacements is terrifying. Everything that I fear to see in a second term for these guys (and gals) is being set up by these nominations.

Condi: Replacing one of the only sane foreign policy voices in the government with one of the most insane voices. I am sure that Rice is a very smart person, but putting the author of "How to Mismanage the Hegemony: 2001-2004" in place as the face of American foreign policy is deeply disturbing.

Likewise the new AG. Ashcroft's departure was not unexpected, but now we have the author of the memo explaining why the Geneva Conventions do not apply to the United States as the Executive Branch's primary defender of civil rights in America. If you happen to be in a cell in Gitmo, just hang yourself now. You'll never see home again.

Anyone notice this guy's record in Texas? Or his peculiar strategy when briefing GWB on death row inmates?

I've heard a mumble, though, that the nominee for Secretary of Education is not actually evil. I am guessing that I just haven't done my research yet.

Seriously people, it is time to organize.