Descend into the Maelstrom

The explosive combination of gunfire, bomb detonations and grenade blasts upon Mumbai’s civilian population, business travelers, and tourists over Thanksgiving weekend constituted what some are calling “India’s 9/11.” Adding to the pain, people were taken hostage during this terrifying period. Since there are more questions than answers right now, below is a preliminary breakdown of the key issues surrounding this horrific tragedy. As a citizen of New York City who witnessed 9/11, my heart reaches out to Mumbai and its people.

Who did it? As usual, the Indian national security apparatus got caught with its pants down. Just days after an internationally celebrated victory of the Indian Navy’s dramatic defeat of pirates on the high seas, an attack largely initiated through a daring amphibious landing from that same deep and muddy Arabian Sea is what clipped Delhi’s wings. As usual, the same trio of influences are being blamed: Muslims, Pakistan’s ISI Agency, and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Lashkar-e-Taiba. Once again, the country has done nothing proactive about it except to moan and complain. One of the terrorists appears to have survived and upon interrogation, and he seems to be a Pakistani national affiliated with L-e-T. From the photos of him he looks strikingly like a modern dude- wearing cargo khakis and a T-shirt. Reports show they all wore something similar. The latest is that 10 highly-trained militants accomplished this devastation and nearly shut down the city with their skilled use of various weapons and disciplined coordination. My guess is that there are a lot more such people out there in South Asia, preparing for the next mission as you read this.

What will be done by Indian government in response? Hopefully, something. Hopefully, not the wrong things. My opinions on this international security matter are very clear, as I have written about this exact issue two years ago here following the Mumbai train blasts which killed 200 people.

The globally popular Mumbai milieu movie Slumdog Millionaire provides insight into both how India must proceed, and how it must not proceed to eradicate terrorism on Indian soil. The opening sequence shows an 18-year old Muslim slum boy, Jamal being tortured by a Mumbai police Inspector and his minions. That scene was followed by a graphic depiction of the boy’s Muslim mother being burned to death by Hindu rioters in sectarian slum violence when he was a young child, while cops and gangsters alike sat and watched. If I were to guess, these happenings are not completely out of the ordinary in major Indian cities such as Mumbai or Bangalore or New Delhi. India must not blindly follow America’s bungled and ineffective anti-terrorism efforts such as Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, where draconian measures, morally questionable detention practices, and an invasion of the wrong country at the wrong time for the wrong reasons have only fueled anti-democratic and anti-American sentiments. Meanwhile Osama bin Laden and his deputies have largely not been caught, dead or alive. If the citizenry is frenzied for a war with Pakistan, a nuclear Hell could literally break loose, which is what L-e-T may be after: chaos, in the same way that the Joker sought it in the latest Batman film.

Slumdog also showed the direction Indian efforts could go in to improve the security situation. Tough-as-nails and street-smart men and women such as the main characters in this brilliant movie should be hired by the government to perform the dirty work of spycraft: infiltrating criminal terror elements both in India and abroad in order to bring them down. Any system, including a terrorist network, has vulnerabilities and can be brought to fail through aggressive law enforcement tactics. Give these people a decent paycheck, fundamental training and education, and the opportunity to get their families out of the slums they live in; therein will you find your ideal agents. I’m sure India’s agencies are doing this already, but the evidence shows they are doing a lousy job just as America did just prior to 9/11 and my guess is that these programs are severely under-funded.

On a related note, various government law enforcement and military agencies from the local, state, and national level need to better coordinate their efforts to deal with terrorism in all major cities- since numerous major cities and regions have now become the victims. Having a federal counter-terrorism NSG only on one base in the country did not serve Mumbai, the nation’s financial hub, well.

Finally, India needs to start putting its technological advantages to good use in protecting itself. India can boast the world’s finest computer professionals and mathematicians, some of the best engineering universities, and among the leading Information Technology (IT) firms globally. Yet India’s infrastructure in signal intelligence, which includes tracking of cellular networks, satellite imagery, and radar capacity must be drastically improved. Communications and Internet expertise needs to be put on the front lines. This attack could have been prevented, as mobile phone records and Naval signals are now showing. The government must aggressively launch a program of improving India’s IT security, using the private sector if necessary.

The NSG warriors, Mumbai cops, EMS, and Indian military were heroes. Let us give credit where credit is due; only one group of people from anywhere has come out looking remotely good in this pogrom, and that’s the commandos and other first responders who raided the buildings to flush out terrorists and save the lives of hostages and innocent bystanders in the immediate aftermath. It was nothing short of a heroic effort, with these men performing an extremely difficult mission, ill-equipped with little information and even less experience in urban warfare to draw upon. The Indian government should do more to make sure these teams are expanded, fully outfitted, and paid an excellent salary. That may help prevent the specter of moles and informants- which I am guessing helped the terrorists kill India’s anti-terrorism chief with inside information, which constitutes a political assassination.

Lessons for the Obama Administration. Unfortunately but fortunately, Western nations are sitting up and paying attention because this time Westerners were some of the victims, and reportedly they were specifically targeted.  It’s in vogue for the chattering class to call this Obama’s first “test” or “3 a.m. moment” which so many so-called pundits are saying. How is Co-President Obama, who will soon be leader of the free world, going to respond? If he and his team are any good, they will prevent India and Pakistan from the heated rhetoric that could lead to a war, which is what the Jihadists want. Bush has sent in an FBI team to help investigate, and Obama must support this. And should ask them for a detailed report on who was responsible for the attacks and how and where they planned it. Regardless of where the evidence leads. Preliminary reports show connections to U.S. soil, and that U.S. officials warned their Indian counterparts about a potential attack on Mumbai originating from the sea. It is high time the two countries worked more closely together on both the prevention of, and response to, these types of attacks from the same network of common enemies.

As the world’s only superpower, the United States must act to bring an end to this endless fountain of terrorism. It is time for Obama and Clinton and the entire foreign policy establishment to focus on a viable solution to both the Israel/Palestine conflict, and the Kashmir dispute, executing a plan for agreed-upon borders within the framework of two-state solutions. And we must get the hell out of Dodge when it comes to Iraq, leaving the government there to its devices. Yes, these goals are not easy; but the window of opportunity during which America is the world’s only superpower is rapidly closing. Now is the time to act.

The Source of Conflict. It should no longer surprise us why these young men did what they did. We’ve seen it half a dozen times within India itself in the last 2 years; we’ve also witnessed what happened in Madrid, Bali, and New York. The corrupt government elites in India and Pakistan can no longer afford to marginalize the poor masses in order to help their friends make and keep money. Meanwhile, the alienation of many Muslims across India cannot be ignored, when it comes to equal rights such as fair access to jobs and schools. Hindu terrorists must be shut down with equal zeal when they break the law. Finally and on a related note, the cult of Muslim victimhood must end, just like I pray that America’s black population will move forward from its own collective self-pity now that an African American will occupy the White House. Irrational policies designed to appease Muslims will simply continue to fan the flames of Hindu-Muslim strife. India must use this period, which saw the senseless killings of Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and Christians all in one fell swoop, the bodies next to each other and their blood mingling together in pools of red at restaurants and hospitals and shopping centers to realize THIS IS THE TIME TO FINALLY UNITE. To put aside sectarian, language, caste, North-South, and other small-minded differences to come together as one civilized people for a change, and defeat the forces of terror. I am heartened to see that Muslim leaders from different walks of life have vehemently denounced the attacks, because the terrorists do not speak for them. More of that is needed, in India and abroad.

The Role of Pakistan. As relations are warming between Pakistan and India, it is time for the two governments to continue to reconcile their differences, shake hands, and realize that L-e-T, Al-Qaeda, and similar outfits are the enemies of both states. Pakistan’s economy is currently in the dumpster, only being kept afloat by IMF loans. President Zardari’s hold on power is delicate, as has been the case for every single leader of Pakistan in its sordid history of coup d’etats and palace intrigues, where the same corrupt characters keep re-appearing in the drama. Now more than ever, Pakistan’s people must choose sides: between the Islamic fundamentalist and national security cabal that seeks and profits from war-mongering and bloodshed using the mask of religion to hide their crusade for power; or the forces of law, capitalism and democracy that are going to help Pakistan join the community of civilized nations. Pakistan must cooperate fully with the investigation, and if the evidence leads to its citizens being involved, the government must do all it can to arrest them and try these criminals. Military assault should be the last option to achieve justice when none other is available. Pakistan must shut down the terrorist training camps and madrassas and mosques that recruit terrorists. Finally, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban must be ended, even if foreign assistance is required. This is the best course for the citizens of Pakistan too; they are the biggest losers as the members of one of the world’s economic backwaters, where options to advance your life in any way are limited.

There are few white knights in the story of Mumbai. Leaders in India, Pakistan, the United States, and many other nations are to blame for failure to act on intelligence, for their bone-headed policies, and inexcusable failure to update the apparatus of national security for the 21st century. America has not yet updated its national security apparatus to reflect the fact that the Cold War is over. India and Pakistan continue to orient their armies and navies and nuclear arsenals toward obliterating one another.

India and Pakistan need to wake up and realize it’s not the other one that’s the problem, and it’s not the freezing mountain tops of their disputed border in Kashmir that’s the problem either. Let what happened in Mumbai, stay in Mumbai, never to happen again. It can be done.

2009 will turn out to be a transformational year for the nation and the rest of the world. Nobody doubts that the problems facing both are dire; the question of the day is, are they intractable problems? Are things utterly hopeless?

Ever the optimist, I think not. I believe in humanity’s, and particularly Americans’, ability to mobilize, although it takes a swift kick in the ass in the form of a crisis for this to happen. I am beginning to think that this is the way of human nature. I certainly know it’s been the case in my own personal life: I can only pack suitcases on the very day of a big trip; I can only finish assignments for school the night before the deadline. Sure, I’ve tried packing early or writing research papers early; the issue is that the quality and effort simply will not be there.

Unfortunately for us, we are the confluence of multiple crises, any or all of which could become intractable in a hurry. So although a crisis may have been what the doctor ordered, we will be tested on our ability to multi-task our way through. I predict we are going to stumble through limping, but the key point here is that we will make it through. The need of the hour more than anything is confidence; fortunately for us, President-Elect Barack Obama has that specific attribute in spades. Confidence in the economy, in our military, in democracy, in our leaders, and in each other is the only reason we will make it through the tough times.

Below is the first in a rundown of what I think are the biggest crises facing us, and what the new Obama administration must do to mitigate them.

Big Three Car Manufacturers on their Knees. It continues to upset me that GM, Ford, and Chrysler can produce inferior vehicles and expect the government to bail them out. Their cars are worse in every way: reliability, fuel economy, style, safety, and engineering. Like Michael Moore said recently, directed at the management of the Big 3: “Go to a Toyota showroom and just drive one around the block. Just one.” He’s right, of course. If executives in Detroit took an even cursory glance at what’s going on around the world, they would realize that they are getting their tailpipes bent over by foreigners not because of the credit crunch, but because other countries around the world are making better cars.

I’m of mixed opinion on how to proceed. On the one hand, I know that if the government pays up $25 billion to the Big 3, it will be like pissing in the wind, throwing good money after bad, as I so often witness government doing at all levels. The guys in charge are not going to stop making junk cars. Their sales are not going to improve against the Hondas, Volkswagens, Toyotas, and Tatas of the world in the future. American manufacturers have gotten lazy and depended on the government protecting them through tariffs and subsidies and bailouts in the past. Why not expect more handouts? Wouldn’t another one just come along down the assembly line from Uncle Sam anyway? That’s what I’d do if I were one of them, and then I’d ride my corporate jet back to Detroit, too: because I’d be living in an artificial bubble of reality with my $25 million paycheck. On the other hand, I am concerned about the potential bankruptcies because of the ripple effects it will have on the economy.

If plants shut down and 30,000 people at a blow are laid off, we will survive. We’re watching the investment banks do that right now. However, what concerns me is that each of those jobs represents multiples of that number of livelihoods in terms of support services: the suppliers who provide the tires and brakes and engines and headlights; the bars and restaurants where auto workers go after work for a beer and a burger; the shopping malls and movie theaters; and the dealerships and auto repair garages who need a steady stream of new car sales to keep their shops running. This so-called ripple effect will be felt from Taiwan to Texas. Unless.

Unless the core principles of international trade are to be believed: separation of specialties between countries is a good thing. Let Japan and Korea and Germany make cars. We’ll buy them, and sell back Britney Spears songs and Google software- focused on things we are good at doing, like pop music and hi-tech entrepreneurship. And everyone will buy champagne from France to celebrate in the meantime. International trade tells us this is the optimum use of resources for everyone globally in the long run. Mr. Obama and Congress: let the Big 3 fall on their bankrupt asses unless they can innovate themselves out of it like 99% of businesses in America and around the world are expected to do. Just because they’re gigantic should not make us throw out the economics textbooks. Let the assets and employees get re-purposed toward making things we really need, like light rail systems, monorails, bridge reconstruction, hybrid car batteries, etc. I’m all for spending that money, Washington.

New York City is amazing to behold. Since the 1600’s it has served as the biggest gateway into America from every other part of the world. This is borne out in the most delicious way, when it comes to food. Below I have outlined just a few of my favorite New York dishes in what I expect will be the first in a series of food criticisms. Keep in mind, I do not praise other people’s food lightly, because I consider myself an excellent cook, and 99% of the dishes I have ever eaten at an NYC restaurant, I feel that I can make better for myself in the comfort of my own kitchen. Yes I’m cocky, but it’s also a bit of a curse: my shrimp ceviche crushes anything that’s commercially available, my eggplant parmigiana is far superior to anything you could find in Little Italy or the five boroughs surrounding it, and don’t even get me started on any sort of Indian curry. To fully enjoy these things, I have to go through the long effort to make them myself. Don’t feel bad for me or anything.

Keep in mind that the best food in New York isn’t available at the ultra-pricey $200 per head New York eateries, which never fail to serve you tiny and unfulfillingly bland portions of food prepared by the minions of the celebrity chef who is usually off drinking somewhere, milking his fame to pick up impressionable young girls at a nearby bar (”OMG I saw that guy on Food Network in July!”). Plus, you never go wrong with the following mantra: if your food is being prepared by illegal immigrants toiling at some hole in the wall, it is going to taste pretty damn good, by law. It’s either make good food or get kicked out of the country. And who wants to wear a suit to a night out for really good food? If you have to dress up with a jacket from the restaurant’s wardrobe, there’s a guarantee that the food can’t be all that much fun to eat.

Not so with the following all-star lineup of New York dishes:

If the Gods above were to sit down to a meal, they would order this as their appetizer. As long as they weren’t vegetarians. The pork chop on shrimp toast at the top-notch Vietnamese pho house, Pho Bang right on Mott Street near where Chinatown hugs Little Italy serves up this unbelievable dish, a complex orchestra of flavors, in groups of 8 for less than a dollar each. The premise is simple: take a small, well-marinated piece of grilled pork chop, in the signature sweet and spicy flavor that the Vietnamese do so well (Lord, they know what to do with a pig!), place that on a broad rice noodle, and then place that atop an inch-and-a-half wide shrimp chip. Sprinkle it with tiny pieces of dried garlic and onion and crushed peanuts. Serve with fresh mint, fresh lettuce, two types of hot sauce, fish sauce laced with carrot and shallots, and hoisin sauce. Voila- the Gods are ready to eat! It’s a bit interactive- you take the lettuce, wrap it around the pork/noodle/toast, throw a leaf or two of mint on there, and flavor it to taste with the thick sauces; then dip the whole thing in the watery fish sauce. For that minimum of crispy, crunchy, tingly, and soft effort the tastiest appetizer in New York ensues. Side note: the grandest irony is that I don’t go there for the pho, which is a typical breakfast noodle soup with different beef parts that boil for many hours, with bean sprouts and other goodies thrown in with the cow intestines, stomach, and tongue. All my Asian friends swear by it- I just don’t like the concept. Luckily there are other good entrees to eat- but you come running for the flavor burst from the pork chop on shrimp chip. And you leave each time wondering how you paid so little for such good food.

It is appropriate that 69th Street in Queens serves up a mean 6-inch lamb or chicken kabab (sorry, that joke was just a little out of line). Go to Sunshine at Northern Boulevard, a friendly little Pakistani hole in the wall that makes ridiculous kebabs for less than a few bucks each, and you can chase it with fresh naan bread from the clay tandoor oven and some rice. Be sure to bring your Urdu translation book. Squeeze that lemon wedge on there- you’ll be glad you did- and take advantage of the raw onion slices and yogurt raita too, and make yourself a nice sandwich. Just don’t go on a date afterward. While kebab houses are a dime a dozen in this town, I’ve found this place to be consistently the best among many I’ve tried, during my workaday lunch breaks with my Pakistani colleague who has been to them all.

The question of which steak is the best in New York has caused families to break apart, about 6,000 divorces and nearly started another international war. I’ve been lucky to feast on some of the best cuts of meat at the unanimously high-rated steakhouses: Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn, Christo’s in Queens for the Greek touch, and the Strip House on 12th Street where it was chased down by a ridiculously delicious red wine made by the folks at Rothschild. However those of you who know about my Brazil trip will probably have been told repeatedly that the steak they eat down there is at least several notches above any of those, but it’s worth noting that the expensive Churrascaria Plataformas in Midtown or Tribeca do not even come close to matching up to the real McCoy. I would stake my claim, and even raise the stakes by declaring the best steak value in New York City is the lowly skirt steak with chimichurri sauce available at the South American joint, Boca Chica on 1st and 1st for less than $20. This cute little spot will cook it for you medium-rare, as it should be, and slice it up on a large combo plate with rice, a rich black bean stew, a cabbage and red radish salad with just the right amount of dressing, and the famed South American chimichurri sauce, a green and sour chunky salsa with a predominantly parsley kick. Pour it all over the place. Try and surmise how the massive plate is scraped clean in 4.23 minutes, on average.

I hope you enjoyed my food blog. Yes it’s true I was obsessed by the politics for a bit too long, and none of you below the age of 37 read any of it anyway. Speaking of politics, I should give a shout out to my friend, Nick Pai, a foodie and chef in his own right, who introduced me to both Pho Bang and Boca Chica. We may be polar opposites when it comes to politics, but we have sat down together at the tables of deliciousness on many an occasion. How’s that for reaching across the aisle?

Buon Appetit for now—-

That’s right. My last and final thoughts on the U.S. election, until it’s finally over. I’m officially retiring from writing about the 2008 election- as I’ve spent too many thousands of hours reading and writing about it, and written dozens of articles on this blog and several other forums when any sane human being would have chosen to do something, anything else. I’ve been attacked from the left, attacked from the right, and everything in between for what I’ve said in conversations, emails, and in writing. Along the way I’ve gotten some positive feedback too, and I really appreciate that.

Let’s look ahead to what will happen in the near future, from election day to the near aftermath. This will prove to be a period fraught with extreme peril. Here are some things we all need to keep in mind moving forward:

Don’t Gloat, Democrats. I of all people would love to gloat and say “I told you so!” being one of the few who was far ahead of most highly-paid pundits, who confidently predicted an Obama victory for more than two years, including when Obama was polling 20 points under the powerful Clinton machine, and when the general election was straining under xenophobic attacks, which I’m especially sensitive to. I also predicted large Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress come November 4th. Since the stolen election of 2000 I have bitterly endured 8 years of watching Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter and Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh cheer on as the Bush administration was ruining our country’s future while calling me and my ilk traitors against America. There are two ways for Dems to go after this victory: (1) attack and make fun of Republicans and conservatives, rubbing their noses in the sewers of their self-induced loss, and investigate every little thing they did in the last 8 years to satisfy the human desire for a vendetta. (2) Reach out across the aisle, shake the hands of your political opponents for a fair fight, and ask them to join you in rolling all our sleeves up together. The latter is the ONLY way to proceed, for several critical reasons. First, it is important in a two-party system to have a strong opposition. A failed Republican party isn’t good for America, whose continued success depends on checks and balances in Washington.  Secondly, our economy and foreign policy are in such a state of tatters that we will need all our talent, from both wings, to fly again in a civil manner.  Let’s finally end the god-forsaken culture war that has enveloped our nation like a Saddam poison cloud since the 1960’s. Liberals will have the upper hand and will be in a position to do so. Colin Powell is one of the few, whether Democrat or Republican, who understands this is the need of the hour, and he was so gracious as to reach across from his losing position. Fortunately for us, so does Obama. This isn’t about the right or the left winning; it’s about America winning. And for that to happen, the Republican party needs to stand for true principles once again, and come back to challenge us in 2010 with a new vision, not just a mysterious nostalgia for Sarah Palin’s “Real America” which no longer exists in a world of Good and Evil which never, ever existed. Governing is hard, and with it comes awesome responsibility; we should look forward to patriots from both sides working together again as one. We do not need to stoop to the nasty levels that the Republicans did in the early 2000’s while in charge of the White House and Congress.

Undecided Voters. Seriously, who are you and what’s wrong with you? There is an 8% float of people who don’t seem to know who to vote for 10 days before the election. Are you kidding me? We couldn’t possibly have a starker contrast between the two candidates and their philosophies. Never in our lifetimes has there been a larger gap between two presidential candidates who made it out of the primaries alive. This election represents the future vs. the past, belligerent global hegemony vs. international cooperation, objective rationality vs. hot-blooded “gut” decisions, and yes, the first serious black candidate vs. the old-boy white Washington network. It is a clash between the last gasp of the idealistic conservative Reagan revolution, and the birth of a new center-left system of governance that we haven’t seen before. Any undecided voter who exists out there simply boggles the mind. Make up your mind already!

Voter Fraud. Nobody has epitomized the cynicism and fear about the validity of our electoral system as clearly as my cousin, who sent me an email that is quite chilling. In it he wrote, “…in my gut I wonder how it could not be that he (Obama) wins. But yet on every conscious level, I feel deep doubt about whether he will win– mainly because of the election shenanigans that we’ve already started hearing about.” Many are indeed scared that the cheating Republicans will steal the election from the jaws of victory yet again in November. Meanwhile, Republicans will be talking for the next four years about how Obama’s evil minions and a group called ACORN stole the election away from the “real Americans.” My hope is that a landslide victory will put these doubts to bed once and for all, negating all the mistrust and cynicism that has shaped our politics for too long.

That’s it. It’s adieu on the politics till the other side of November 4th. For at least a little while, I’ll go back to blogging silly humor stories about culture or bizarre ruminations on living in New York, which somehow always seem to become more interesting than politics anyway.

And if you’re American: VOTE!

I have long been a very strong believer in the separation of Church and State. The founders of America felt that the meddling of religious authority in the functioning of government, as was prevalent in Europe during the late 1700’s, was not the way to go. In fact, many colonialists arrived on America’s shores to escape that very confluence of factors. This is one of the pillars of America’s greatness, and what makes it an exceptional state.

I am also not wont to share my deepest religious beliefs with a public audience, as it could appear to make me the type of small-minded bigot that I often like to rant against because they are far too powerful in today’s America, and are helping bring about the nation’s fall. It also makes my arguments vulnerable to ridicule by those who disagree with my characterization of Hinduism, disagree with Hinduism itself, or think it’s new-age gibberish. However, I am a Hindu, and there are several reasons why it’s non-threatening for a Hindu to speak his mind about American politics as it relates to his religion and in particular, the 2008 election season. First of all, Hindus have zero political power in America so we are purely bystanders in today’s toxic political discourse. The most prominent Indian-American in politics, Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, in fact renounced his Hindu name and religious identity to pursue a radical evangelical Christian path, one that put him squarely in the middle of the culture wars and allowed him to achieve high office as a white knight of the GOP. Secondly, as an Indian-American I’m not white, I’m not black, and I cannot be considered an enemy in America’s “War on Terror” which largely focuses on Middle Eastern Islamic influences. Therefore my background does not bear on the politics of identity being played out on the forefront of this election. Finally, Hinduism is the world’s first organized religion, and at its most basic and pure form, is supposed to be all-encompassing and all-accepting. Hindus, if following the strongest traditions set forth by our ancestors, can believe anything at all and still be a Hindu, and that includes atheism. We can consider all peoples to be Hindus, which I in fact do. I have read this in numerous sources, but I am also aware that this concept is too large for many human minds to understand.

One caveat that I must present is that none of my religious belief systems will be backed up by evidence, because I do not have any, just as no human being I am aware of has presented any convincing evidence of any religious beliefs. This essay is simply an explanation of the forces that I feel are going on in the American political world. I descend from a long line of priests, and perhaps I can no longer escape my calling. Or something like that. LOL. If nothing else, I hope to entertain.

In October 2008, we are at the cusp of a truly transformational shift in the identity of America and of the world which America leads as its sole superpower. America has always been truly blessed among nations, and I am sure this is thanks to the concepts of Karma like I wrote about here and Dharma, or following the “right path” in life, which human conscience will direct us toward. If there is a Godly force out there, by whatever name, it has surely smiled down upon America over the last 230 years, as the state has been transformed from a colonial backwater into the most powerful civil society that has ever existed in the world, and since the end of the Cold War, the only unrivaled state in the long history of humankind. The Romans, the Greeks, the British, the Egyptians, and yes, the Indians have had their days of glory before, but in each case there were real rivals. America has no rivals, no peers, and could easily militarily defeat the rest of the world’s armies combined in either a nuclear or non-nuclear confrontation. In fact, our nuclear arsenal could wipe out all humanity on short order. If you believe in God, as I do, this immense power would not have been bestowed in the hands of so few, without some sort of cosmic permission, or approval.

But the concept that some people don’t understand is that it’s not just G.I. Joe that makes America great, but our leadership in culture, in education, and in innovation. And it’s our diversity, in a society which has continually attracted the world’s best talent here to advance themselves and their communities. America is easily the most tolerant nation in the world, assimilating people from every corner of the globe in diverse neighborhoods where everyone can be a proud American. Since the 1600’s this is what America has been about, and this is part of what makes this a blessed land.

However, this power has certainly been abused quite a bit throughout American history from the marginalization of Native American tribes onward, by members of all major political factions. Until recently the toxic Karma had been more than offset by the positive Dharma being followed by America and its leaders, acting as a force of good and a moral beacon in so many ways, and assisting America’s steady rise up to our current peak since 1991 as sole global power. But now the bad karma of the recent past is especially coming home to roost. I believe a country can have a collective karma, just like an individual can. And our balance sheet is spiraling down the toilet. Capitalism, a tenet of American society, is reeling under unbridled greed, and people around the world are getting legitimately nervous about the long-term effectiveness of a global free-market regime, which was supposed to make everything better for everybody. However the market correction going on is not an indictment of the system itself, so much as the corrupt power structure which existed to enrich the wealthiest of Americans at the expense of the rest of the citizenry.

There are some scary statistics out there, such as the fact that the richest 1% of Americans have more wealth than the poorest 50%. The numbers are even more lopsided if comparing America’s wealth or energy consumption with the rest of the world. Forget unfair, which of course it is. This is simply unsustainable and doesn’t make any sense. There is no reason why some of this wealth should not be redistributed toward making sure everyone has health insurance, food, and shelter. It’s unconscionable, by the standards of any religious belief system. And yet every election cycle, we vote for public servants who continue to do their best to help themselves and the very wealthiest Americans, who earn the kind of closed-door access to the halls of power that ordinary citizens do not. We are sacrificing our morals, and if we continue to do so, the bad karma buildup could become irreversible, and our nation will head towards a frightening period of steady decline.

Worst of all is the violence that America forces onto other nations. We are at war with two nations in retaliation for 3,000 deaths on 9/11/01 carried out by a ragtag group of criminal bandits whom we have not brought to justice. We have instead created 2 million Iraqi refugees, and killed upwards of 100,000 civilians. Many thousands more have lost limbs or gotten tortured either by us or our surrogates in the Middle East. Not a single one had an iota of involvement in 9/11, nor had they done any harm to Americans. The pain of those human beings and their families, which the Western media largely ignores, will cause America a massive amount of suffering, which is beginning to play out. All of us who pay taxes in fact have a direct hand in the killing, torture, and pain we are inflicting in Afghanistan and Iraq. Let’s assume 5% of our federal taxes go to the military-industrial complex to fuel those wars, which in reality are to protect the Middle Eastern oil fields. That means every one of my paychecks is buying a bullet or a bomb that is penetrating someone’s skull right now. This is what I absolutely hate the most about being an American. This isn’t self-defense, it’s cowardice. And we will pay a terrible price as a country, both in terms of the suffering that will be visited upon America, but also by driving the rest of the world to compete with us due to the anger of foreign people about our belligerence.

There is a different sort of violence playing out: violence against Bhoomi, or Mother Earth, a concept that exists in all cultures. How can we continue to be an infection on the earth, ravaging it of its resources, and expect for Earth to keep giving back to us for our needs? It wouldn’t work that way with your friend or family member, and it won’t work that way with the environment. Those idiots at the Republican National Convention shouting “drill, baby, drill” have no idea how wrong they could possibly be. At a time when we should be doing everything possible to reduce our energy consumption and increase renewable energy sources, there still exist Americans who think of themselves as patriotic when they bring the country backward, while countries in Europe and elsewhere take the lead on true energy independence instead of us.

The Bush-Cheney administration was America’s terrible gift to itself. Its election by an ignorant population and corrupt governmental apparatus, highlighted by the theft of an election by Florida’s political machinery and the Supreme Court’s chicanery, represented some of the worst years in American history. I often questioned how if there was a Godly force, it could allow such a despicable cabal of human beings into power. It’s bad enough that Bush and Cheney have killed people without remorse, using poor young kids to pull the trigger for, and die for what they thought was a noble cause. But Bush and Cheney have also helped bring America to its knees, dragging down many who would seem not to deserve the fate that is befalling them. But I now understand that the forces of the universe have a plan, that the political gods deserve our patience. Today, I thank God for Bush despite all the damage he has done, because he has paved the way for what is about to happen.

No, Obama is not the One. The cosmic forces don’t believe in the One. But he is the right guy at the right time, and he certainly has the Zen-like temperament needed to take the helm of the mess we are in. And he could not have been in position to become president without the corruption, incompetence, and ignorance that have shaped America in the last 8 years. The energy that drives the supporters of Obama is divinely inspired, and they are going to carry him to the White House. In reality, this is why I have always been confident of an Obama victory since early 2007: because he is part of the plan of getting America on the right path again.  Funny how much I can sound like Sarah Palin, isn’t it?   I can’t even believe I’m saying this myself.

A rational person can disagree that Obama would be a good president. However, how can one argue against his emphasis on heading off global warming through focusing on alternative energy, making sure every American has healthcare, pulling out of our Iraq misadventure, and sitting down and talking to all of the other nations in the world, savory or unsavory? They are all unambiguously on the path of Dharma. They are all in line with the principles of any great religion: Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, etc. I find it shocking that the cheap marketing strategies of John McCain and Sarah Palin have actually caused a sliver of America’s citizens to rail against such necessary policies. And the danger is that these ignorant people who are so riled up right now, would not join the civil conversation that will be necessary to move forward in an extremely difficult time which Obama will be inheriting.

The guidance I would offer Obama, and all Americans moving forward is simple. Conduct all policy decisions using a moral compass. Use principle on every question, be it domestic or foreign-policy related. The world yearns for America to be not just the powerful but unthinking 19-year old with big guns who can beat anyone else up if they don’t listen, but the wiser veteran leader who understands that sometimes words are better than bombs, and the community of nations will follow a positive and moral example for themselves. We should not engage in wars for our narrow economic interests, nor out of fear of terrorists. Nobody “hates us for our freedom.” They hate us for the immoral acts we are committing around the world right now, as we speak. And there is a higher force out there who does not approve of it, either.

I’ll end with a couple of simple folk tales about frogs, which hold the lessons that adult Americans must learn. The first one was recited by Al Gore, in his film An Inconvenient Truth, and the second is from the Panchatantra, or children’s moral stories from India.

AL GORE: Well, there’s a classic experiment in science, Ted, about a frog that’s dropped in a pot of boiling water and jumps right out. When the same frog is put in a pot of lukewarm water that’s slowly brought to a boil it just sits there until it’s rescued. A frog’s nervous system needs a sudden jolt to get the connection. We’re like that frog! We’re getting the signals of ecological devastation around the world, but we’re still dead in the water.

* * * * * *

There was a frog who lived in a well, but had never left it in his life. He was quite content there. One day another frog who was traveling by hopped in.

“How are you friend?” asked the frog from the well.

“Good my friend. This is a nice well you have,” responded the visitor.

“Thanks. It’s the best one in the world.”

“How do you know that?” laughed the visitor. “I’ve seen many dozens of others that are nice in so many ways: more colorful, more lively, and larger than this little one. And you may need to leave soon, because a big storm is coming and this one is going to flood. Why don’t you join me?”

“No, mine’s the best well in the world. I’ve never left before, because this has everything a frog could possibly need in his life. I don’t believe you. And I’m never leaving. I live in the best well, and you’re a liar.”

Immediately, the visiting frog jumped out and left. He knew that the frog clinging to his well was an ignorant fool with no interest in learning about the rest of the world. There was no point in arguing with him.

Let me preface by saying that John McCain for many years has been someone I had a deep respect for, the Republican candidate for whom I rooted in the 2008 Republican primaries just a few short months ago to defeat his rivals such as Romney, Giuliani, et al. He was an American hero, and one of my political heroes. Admittedly I am pleased that Obama will crush him in November, but I do not relish watching Mr. McCain’s hard fall into ignominy in the fashion he has dug for himself.

McCain endured the type of pain for his country in Vietnam that I cannot imagine or even wish to imagine. For many years he was a voice of reason in Congress and the Senate, speaking out his mind when he thought he was right, taking the high road at political risk, yelling out against his own party when it was wrong, and taking moderate positions on the country’s large problems. I looked forward to his race against Obama, because I took him at his word when he said it would be a civil race, a high-minded debate for our nation at a perilous time when bipartisanship is necessary more than at any time in generations, and I expected an intelligent fight between two inspiring individuals.

However during this general election he has done the opposite: he has proven that when the stakes are the highest, when the power of the presidency came to be within his grasp, he could turn into a truly disgusting human being. That is what John McCain is today.

Although he has left much of the dirty work to his campaign surrogates, most notably Sarah Palin, McCain has decided that his strategy would be one of tearing down Obama and those who support him, rather than engaging in civil discourse about our country’s future. Here are just some of the factors behind the ugly conclusion to an otherwise great American political career.

Sarah Palin. In a nutshell, Sarah Palin represents all that is wrong with Johnny-come-lately, and America. McCain says country first on the one hand, but on the other flubs his most important presidential campaign decision by choosing a completely unqualified running mate. One who has abused her power to pursue unethical ends in Alaska’s Troopergate. A gun-humping and dangerous radical who has no business coming within miles of the White House, let alone inches. An empty glass of a human being whose most notable achievement so far is trying to equate Obama with the terrorists who threaten our country. Not only is she ignorant and a liar, but she is proud of it and expects that these traits would endear her to the American people. She would get ahead at all costs by bringing others down, just as she did in Alaska. This choice was the beginning of the end for McCain. Thank God Americans see through this phony ice queen.

Backtracking on his previous positions. McCain sacrificed his moral standing to court the right wing. Everyone understands pivoting toward the center in a general election; even Obama is doing it. However, McCain has sold his soul and turned his back on some of his life’s work to get votes: his opposition to torture is now a shadow of what it use to be, his ethical conduct is an embarrassment, and his opinions on the insalubrious activities of the Christian Right have suddenly changed.

A Nasty Campaign. Although McCain made a token effort last week to contradict one of his supporters at a town hall who asked him if Americans should fear Obama because he is an Arab, he did so only when there was no other option. Of course Obama isn’t an Arab. But are we surprised that the majority of the audience booed him when he said Obama wasn’t supposed to be a human being to fear if elected? That fear had been instilled largely by the campaign, which has taken great pains to point Obama as a scary and foreign individual who “pals around with terrorists” because he has such “a low opinion of America.” McCain’s ads are pure visual vitriol. This is dirty, dirty pool.

An Incoherent Message. Are you for experience and maturity, the backbone of your early general election campaign, or are you against it? Obviously against it if you are willing to put the reins in Palin’s hands. Are you really against government spending or do you want to buy $300 billion worth of bad mortgages, turning the government into a giant mortgage lending corporation?  Are you for or against regulation- can you tell us honestly? Do you want to be a respectful human being, or act like Obama does not even deserve to stand on the same stage as you, as was made apparent in the last two debates? Do you really think that calling for the suspension of the democratic processes of a fair presidential campaign due to a market crash was a wise decision or a politically expedient one? McCain has not been a part of the solution to our economic woes, largely because he does not have the ability. And worst of all: was your brilliant military service to your country an honorable achievement that should speak for itself, or is it a political crutch you are going to use to try and claw back into the race by clubbing it against voters’ heads every day for the next three weaks?

My friends, I am saddened deeply by the fall of John McCain. Not because he is about to lose the race in a pathetic way, but because he chose to do so.

I’m not going to pretend to be an expert on economics, but I do know that the American economy, and by association world economy, are in the midst of a history-bending crash. To boot, we are knee-deep in a contentious and ugly election cycle for the presidency and also Congress. Put the two together, and America is suffering from all that is bad about America: paralysis in Washington, skullduggery on Wall Street, and an American citizenry on Main Street that has no idea what is going on. From bankers to economists to politicians, nobody saw this coming despite what some of them might be claiming now, and nobody has convincingly provided any answers about where this thing is heading.

With an absence of reliable information available from any quarter, we must resort to analyzing the factors at play in the last few whirlwind weeks of finger-pointing and hand-wringing. I have been unable to find a simple breakdown anywhere else. In my opinion, this complex web of individual tugs-o-war are now actively underway and will shape the outcome:

To Bail or Not to Bail. That would be the question. The $700 billion dollar question, to be exact. Many mainstream politicians, including Bush and the duo of potential successors, McCain, and Obama all seem to be for it with perhaps slight modifications. Its authors, including Bush appointees Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke claim that the economy would suffer an unmitigated slide without the bailout, and the infusion of cash would be good for all Americans despite the unprecedented outlay of taxpayer dollars. They argue a doomsday scenario if we don’t make bail. But- and here is the terrifying part- the opposing arguments are legion, and sound just as reasonable, depending on which smart economist you talk to. The slide, which depends largely on an unquantifiable concept known as “confidence,” may be uncontrollable even with a bailout- like a Band-aid on a broken leg. Plus, is it the government’s role to save failing companies in a free-market society- therefore socializing the dumb risks that Wall Street takes? Most business owners who do a lousy job are simply allowed to fail across the country and around the capitalist world. That’s part of the definition of capitalism, something we’ve committed to centuries ago, and ostensibly, one of the core democratic values we are trying to protect and spread by fighting to the death in Iraq and Afghanistan. Finally, what’s in it for the common folk who are getting foreclosed out of their homes, the real losers of the day? Why does Wall Street get a bailout while they don’t? This leads to the next tug-o-war.

Constituents vs. Corporate Patrons. We all know that corporations fund both major parties and their candidates. On the other hand, politicians are elected by the people, and must heed the angry phone calls and emails from constituents. Congressmen are being torn asunder by an epic battle between the two forces. I’m sure most corporate donors are begging their buddies in Congress to vote for the bailout, while the citizenry smells yet another corrupt attempt to redistribute their money to benefit companies that do not deserve it. This has caused the impasse we are at right now, epitomized by:

Republicans Vs. Republicans. President Bush has been neutered by his own wretched performance for eight years, and with his popularity at a dismal low, this is not a good time for him to have to attempt to ram through unbelievably contentious legislation, even with vigorous gambits by Secretary Paulson and the presidential candidates. The House Republicans did not bite on the bailout vote, despite McCain’s support, because of Bush’s support, and that’s partly why the bill failed this week. With the election just weeks away, some Congressmen undoubtedly calculated that their jobs may hinge on this monumental vote. A smaller group may be against the bill on principle, under the conservative umbrella of free markets, deregulation, lower spending. Which is also worth discussing:

Capitalism Vs. Socialism. The bailout high jinks are part of a wider debate in America: what kind of nation are we? America exists in a bipolar, piecemeal twilight zone somewhere between the small-government capitalist standard-bearer of the world, and a nanny state who meddles in everything. While we promote trade and the free movement of labor and capital, our government is also full of folks who provide insane industry subsidies and tariffs; run housing projects, Medicaid, and Social Security; all the while protecting you by spying on your emails and forcing tobacco firms to warn you that the profit-inducing product inside the box will kill you. At some point, something has to give. Are we going to admit to nanny socialism by passing this bill or aren’t we?

Partisanship Vs. Bipartisanship. One of the highlights of the campaign season/ financial crisis cocktail has been McCain’s bizarre attempt to suspend his campaign and postpone the first presidential debate. Here comes this presidential candidate who admits to not being an economic expert, but believes he must drop the presidential campaign to come together with Obama to solve the crisis and rescue America. Except… he forgot to tell Obama about his Amazing Technicolor Bipartisan Plan. Obama for his part, raring for the debate that would likely help him push ahead of McCain in the polls, asked that he and McCain not inject too much partisan presidential politics into the crisis. But both did just that: McCain’s desperate ploy was strictly political. Obama and McCain then both proceeded to sidestep multiple questions from Lehrer about whether they supported the bill or not in the first debate. The most important question of the election cycle, and both of them refused to give a straight answer. Bipartisanship does not exist; it’s a cruel joke:

Republicans vs. Democrats. As the parties joust for position, it has been clear that the crisis, and the failure of the bailout to pass muster are both the fault of the other party, depending on which politician you ask. Democrats can blame Bush and the Republican Congress for sleeping at the wheel for much of the last eight years, and in fact many of them see the faltering economy as a boon to their chances to get re-elected in November. Democrats could also rightly claim that Republicans hijacked the bill. Meanwhile the Republicans are quick to blame Pelosi, Reid, Obama, or even Bill Clinton for all that taxing and spending. Anyone, anyone but themselves.

VP Gaffe Vs. VP Gaffe. Finally, we are approaching the long-awaited VP debate between Sarah Palin and Joe Biden, and all the campaigning before and after by these two on the economy. You could bill it as the All-America Alaska Ignoramus vs. Joey Foot-en-Mouth. Palin has no idea what a recession or a depression are, and has already predicted that we could be headed for a depression! That’s what pit bulls with lipstick are supposed to do: scare you (more so than a pit bull without lipstick would do), whether it’s about the Russians overtaking Alaska, Iranians terrorizing us and our allies, or another Great Depression. Have fear, and vote for Mommy. Meanwhile, Biden will give extremely eloquent and passionate remarks about how to solve the crisis, but he’s likely to draw on lessons from the wrong decade, using presidents from the wrong eras of history. At the very least, this should be highly entertaining, in a reality TV sort of way.

If any of this makes you feel better about this unquantifiable crisis we seem to be going through, I have failed.

Regardless of your political sentiments, all can agree that the nation is going through a rough stretch right now.

Back to back to back storms are hovering around and battering the Gulf coast and Atlantic seaboard- a taste of what’s to come under earth’s new climate change regime. America’s oldest Wall Street investment banks and largest mortgage lenders are going bankrupt or getting bought out with Uncle Sam’s help. A massive global insurance giant nearly folded. Most people are worse off than they were 8 years ago. Russia has asserted its newfound energy dominance over a hapless Georgia, openly daring the European Union or America to do anything to protect our allies in the former Soviet bloc. We are engaged in deadly battles in the Middle East as well as South Asia, fighting all kinds of nasty people, including minority elements of Sunnis, Shiites, and Pashtuns. The nation continues to fiend for oil from the OPEC cabal that controls it. 7 years after 9/11, the people who masterminded the largest murder in American history are still wanted, dead or alive, a standing embarrassment to our national security, intelligence, and law enforcement apparatuses. Less in the news, our neighbor to the South, Mexico, is turning into an uncontrollable cauldron of cowboy drug dealers who would make the Wild Bunch look like so many Swedish nannies on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, a country so lawless that today’s governors, mayors, and cops are tomorrow’s lunch.

In this environment, some people are additionally terrorized by the specter of an Obama loss on November 2nd. I remain extremely confident about an Obama victory, to a level probably unmatched except perhaps by Obama’s legendarily cocky team itself. That is, save a massive Obama gaffe or the revelation that he is having an affair. I wouldn’t bet on either. Here are the reasons why Obama will win.

Forget the National Polls. There is a lot of hand-wringing over the national polls, where the McCain-Palin ticket has made legitimate and dramatic strides among various demographics, especially white women and the Republican base. People seem to forget that national polls mean ZERO in an electoral college system. The only numbers that matter on election day are in the handful of swing states, which generally hovers around 16. Ohio, Florida, Nevada, Michigan, Pennyslvania, and some of the other usual suspects. The remainder of states are going to be in the tank for one candidate or the other, regardless of what either campaign likes to claim. So although McCain is either tied with or ahead of Obama in just about every national poll, they are meaningless. Don’t waste your time on them, and instead focus on the swing states polls if you must get a poll fix.

State Polls will also be off. If you do, remember that these state polls will not be accurate either. Polls do not call people like me, who own cell phones but not a land line at home. Which is a large percentage of likely voters between 18 and 30, who will swing for Obama overwhelmingly in this cycle, and in record numbers in the history of youth voting. Add this to the unprecedented 50-state voter registration drive being carried out by the Democrats, and we will see some unexpected results on November 2nd compared to previous polling.

Obama’s Ground Organization. What’s the difference between a small-town mayor and a community organizer? The community organizer knows how to get out the vote in urban areas across the nation with a vengeance. America’s favorite community organizer in particular will bring out a record number of Democrats, and specifically minorities and young people without land lines, on election day. Much of this will be the courtesy of the most powerful political tools ever created on the World Wide Web, which Obama gets and McCain still does not. At this time it is impossible to accurately quantify this effect. Of course, the Republicans will be working very hard to recruit new voters as well, but this effort will fall far short. There is simply less energy on their side this year.

Sense of Urgency. As the election gets closer, if the polls remain neck and neck, we will see one presidential candidate get flustered, angry, and desperate. The other one will remain cool. Could it possibly be because one of them is 47 and will have at least four more opportunities to run for president, while the other is getting his very last shot at age 72?

Being Black No Longer Matters. Martin Luther King, Jr. yearned for a day when a human could be judged by the content of his character rather than the color of his skin. I have been studying America very closely since I was a kid, and was more able to watch it change over time than most because I was constantly going abroad and returning. I’m also an American minority who can see America through an outsider’s lens. America has finally arrived there sooner than we could ever have dreamed just 4 years ago. 2008 represents the first time in history where race is finally marginalized enough that it will not affect a presidential race with a minority candidate. Of course, no polls will accurately reflect this fact, because people are not willing to admit that race was a factor in their vote. But any racial effect on white voters will easily be cancelled by McCain’s age factor, which 30% of voters take issue with. Let’s also be honest: most whites who would vote on race are Republicans anyway. And for good reasons or bad, 90% of blacks will vote for Obama.

The News is Good News. Most of the bad news, whether it’s related to markets, American soldier deaths, or personal finance numbers will reflect badly on the Bush administration and its battered party which is largely to blame. The Republican party is on the wrong side of most Americans when it comes to nearly every crisis of the day, and Obama is effectively selling the party’s governing incompetence. Sarah Palin was a breath of fresh air for this group, exuding confidence and a break from the “old-boy” Republican network. However:

The Sarah Palin Stock will Fall. Again, pundits do not give the American electorate enough credit. The more that voters learn about Sarah Palin, the less a lot of her early supporters will back off from her. Do we want another Dick Cheney in power- a Vice President who governs in order to help her cronies, lies with a straight face, doesn’t believe in evolution or that global warming is man-made, believes that the Iraq War is a task from God, and would reinforce McCain’s itchy trigger finger? Who looked into banning books from a library, who has instructed government employees not to respond to a subpoena investigating her although she claims to have “nothing to hide?”

It’s Debatable. There will be unprecedented interest in the presidential debates this year; I predict that viewership records will easily be broken on live TV, followed by the second wave of viewings over the Internet. In my opinion, this is likely to be where most of the swing toward Obama will occur. Before our eyes, Obama has grown up from a bumbling lightweight in early 2007 who could not separate himself from talk of identity politics, to America’s most effective speaker, debater, and politician over the last 18 months. His raw intelligence will ooze. McCain meanwhile hasn’t really changed: he is still the same crabby, uninformed man who is trying to change his platform to “change” at the last minute, ditching “experience.” He is trying to play the game on Obama’s chessboard. However, to do so, one must actually have policies of change in mind, without alienating the right wing who still adores the Bush wing of the party. The Sarah gambit was supposed to help, but she must face Joe Biden. I like grandpa Joe’s chances in this one.

If you’re not as relaxed about all this as I am, there’s nothing more I can do for you. I suggest if you’re a big Obama fan, and you’re still worried, why not go ahead and donate to his campaign, make some calls, or knock on some doors to help out in the next 50 days to make yourself feel better? In the meanwhile, I’m going to start planning a massive victory party in New York City for November 3rd, and YOU my friend are invited. And: don’t forget to vote.

Sarah Palin’s selection by McCain to be his running mate says volumes about McCain and his leadership style.  It was the biggest decision of his presidential campaign, and he clearly decided to go for broke with a high-risk, high-reward bet.  It’s no coincidence that McCain has a gambling problem in his personal life.  The decision was reckless and cynical in numerous ways, and immediately makes apparent that John McCain is completely unfit to lead the nation.  It’s not exaggeration to say that McCain has placed the country that he loves so much in grave peril.  The Sarah Palin pick is strictly aimed at helping him win an election rather than help him govern.  Do you honestly think that a President McCain would ever call up Palin on the phone if Russia invades Ukraine? “Um, Sarah…this terrible thing happened…what’s your advice on how we should proceed…uh, no, we can’t challenge Russia to a hockey puck shoot-out to settle this one…“  She is unprepared to govern, and yet she might be called upon to do so if anything were to happen to McCain.

I’ve seen Palin speak three times: at the announcement of her selection on the day after the DNC; her nasty and untruthful speech at the RNC; and her sloppy first interview as running mate with Charlie Gibson of ABC News.  In all three cases I was impressed by her poise, her speaking skills, and her aw-shucks all-American demeanor.  I was equally flabbergasted by her ability to lie with a straight face, her complete ignorance of important issues, and her willingness to make vicious and false attacks against Obama and his record.

Palin has Zero (0) foreign policy credentials.  She did not know what the Bush Doctrine was.  She thinks that being in charge of an oil-producing state counts as national security experience.  She believes that the fact that you can see Russia across the Bering Strait from a remote Alaskan island qualifies her to understand the complexities of diplomacy with our newly belligerent ex-nemesis.  Bumbling McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds brought up her foreign policy resume of…being the head of the Alaska National Guard.   And true to her NRA ties, she believes it is OK for the United States to shoot first, and ask questions later if we think another nation may pose a threat to us.

None of this should come as a surprise from a woman who does not believe that global warming is caused by humans, does not believe in evolution, had no interest in traveling anywhere until politics forced her to, believes schools should only teach sexual abstinence but not the benefits of safe sex or contraception, that the Iraq War is a task from God, and who tried to have books banned from the library, and supports an Alaskan group that honestly thinks it has a chance of seceding from the Union.  Obviously, education and knowledge are not very high on Sarah Palin’s priority list.  How ironic that McCain’s hopes of winning now partly hinge on his advisers’ ability to help Palin cram for the final exam: 50 more days of campaigning till election day, including a debate with Joe Biden.  So far they have failed in their tutorial abilities, as Palin flunked through the pre-test by Gibson, largely attempting to evade all of the important questions.

Palin’s calls for reforming Washington are as laughable as her perfection of the art of saying absolutely nothing at all.  Case in point: her answer to Charlie’s question of what exactly she would change from Bush’s tenure while in Washington: “putting government on the side of the people”- which also happened to be her foreign policy plan.  Taking on the old boys in a state with a population of less than 700,000, while accepting millions of dollars of pork does not qualify anybody for the # 2 job on the planet on a reform ticket.  One has to understand the previous President’s major foreign policy doctrine before it can be reformed.  However, Sarah Palin herself does not bother me so much.  She may be a proud redneck who likes to shoot 40 moose at a time while perched high up on a helicopter for kicks, a cowardly pretense of “sport” where your opponent can’t even see you- quite a fair fight indeed, and quite telling about her personality and how she would fight in a political campaign.  But she is very much a part of the American fabric, the type of person that at times breaks through in the lower levels of local or state politics, but would never have the opportunity to cause danger on a national or international stage as the majority of voters realize what a radical this person is.  This has been largely neutralized thanks to tokenism: the fact that the unqualified party is a woman automatically gives her an edge with women voters, just as we must recognize that no male with Palin’s anemic resume would be offered the job.  I hope hockey moms across America get this.  My mom was a hockey mom too who bought this right defenseman the skates and helmet and pads that led to a city league championship, and she gets it.

Much more worrisome than anything else in the Sarah Palin circus is what the selection says about McCain’s decision-making.  He did not perform the most basic due diligence before making such a momentous decision.  She was clearly not vetted very well, so his campaign was caught  like moose in the headlights as many details of Palin’s personal and public life became public thanks to the media.  There is no need to go into all the troublesome details of Palin’s short career, as they have been widely publicized.  It will suffice to say that it was a rash decision and at 72, McCain will not change his style toward actual deliberation on important issues as opposed to trusting yet another wild whim on his craps-table view of the universe.

If Sarah Palin’s itchy trigger finger is ever placed on the nuclear button bestowed upon her by God one day, do not be surprised to see a world that has indeed changed- for the worse.  America deserves whoever it votes for in November.