Coffee Lounge

Like you, I don’t like talking politics, especially while drinking.
I’m an old man, 74, and have missed few elections in my time. Those were while I was in the army where it wasn’t all that convenient at the time. But this time I may well skip this and next year’s elections.

I voted for Obama in the last one. He promised change, agreeing with me on many issues. He hasn’t come through on a single one. I didn’t even consider the Republican candidate. He promised to keep on with these needless wars and even threatened a third with Iran.

For myself, I have every respect for Iran. It hasn’t threatened its neighbors for hundreds of years and has done it’s best to help in places like Lebanon and the Palestinians. Not to mention that a war with them would really, and I do mean really, annoy China, India, Russia, and numerous other countries that buy Iranian oil. We’re angry with them for two reasons. They threw out OUR dictator, and are a competitor to OPEC, where we have a deal with the Royal Family. Enough on that subject. I’m rambling.

Back to the election. On the next Presidential one, I don’t trust Obama and the next Republican candidate would still be a war-monger. I do respect Ron Paul. If I do vote, it will most likely be for him, though not expecting him to have any real chance. Basically, he wants to go back to a constitutional government, one for THE PEOPLE, of which I think I’m member. Right now, this is more a Plutocracy than a Republic. It was never designed to be a real Democracy and certainly isn’t one now.

I have no confidence at all that any candidate has my best interests in mind. None at all. Perhaps the biggest failing is that our politicians have no oversight and no responsibility for their actions. Over and over, since the Richard Nixon years, one of the first things a new President does is give amnesty to his predecessor and staff.

What do you really know about a candidate? Not much. The candidate’s speech writers and public relations department give out information they want you to hear. Conversely, they also give out information, true, false, or slanted, about their rivals. What you don’t know is what that candidate actually thinks or plans. With Georgie W., nobody knew he was planning wars. Later, that information came out. That he and other Neo-conservatives were planning for it since the 80‘s. The 9/11 attacks gave them that chance. Nobody know Roosevelt was planning for a war with Hitler, until later.

I’m not trying to argue differences between candidates and parties. For one thing, there are damned few of either. Ron Paul does seem to me the best choice. If I though he had a chance, I’d be rooting for him. But he has no chance, not with Rupert Murdock (an Australian) against him. The news media doesn’t take him seriously. Hell. Most of their sponsors are Republicans, buddies of Murdock, and like the money these wars generate. One with Iran would only make them richer.

As for studying politics, if I were you I’d spend a lot less time with FOX and more on the Internet. And I DO NOT mean blogs. I mean in checking foreign newspapers, especially those from neutral countries. They have real reporters, investigative reporters like we used to have. You’d get much more accurate and in-depth information on many subjects.

For instance, try an Israeli site and an Iranian one. A Turkish and a Russian one. For impartiality, try one from China and one from Formosa. Indian and Pakistani papers are rivals. They have no axes to grind with us and are impartial. And when and if you do, don’t stop at the front page. Check editorials and “letters to the editor”, also opinion sections. You can easily Google for good ones and choose your own. Oh, and UPI, AP, and Reuters are also helpful. All are on English Language web sites. American news sources are way down the list when it comes to real news. It was number 26 among industrial countries the last I heard. There’s an entire world out there and FOX doesn’t even tell you.

Here are a few of my favorites, if Writing.com lets me tell you:

http://www.reuters.com/
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page.html
http://english.people.com.cn/world.html
http://www.irdiplomacy.ir/?Lang=en
http://www.jpost.com/
http://www.azzaman.com/english/

Charlie