The BBC has some odd commentary on the US Presidential hopefuls:

Mr Gravel’s strong views clashed with what we all perceive to be the average American world view.

Mr Gravel said the front runners actually frightened him, so addicted were they to war and violence, a comment that would describe the attitude of many around the world to the US itself.

Interesting to hear a presidential candidate voicing that fear. It reminds us all that there is another America, which is not always on show.

This reminds me of the warnings you find now on peanuts jars: “may contain traces of peanuts”. It should be self evident that rational (e.g. real) Americans are still inside America, despite all the attempts to obscure them with violently dogmatic substitutes like those appointed by the Bush administration.

Craig recently pondered why a media giant would want to tightly control access to presidential debates.

I asked whether he thought the Amerian people had a right to this debate since it is our election. He said that “the American people have ample opportunity to view the debate on MCNBC and two North Carolina stations.�

Shameful. What makes NBC think it has the right to own the democratic discussion in this country?

It’s a rhetorical question, really, but firstly I think the answer has to do with how the current administration believes that the business of information makes “free” or “open” communication a harmful concept. They want the discussion owned and they trust large corporations, even foreign-owned, rather than citizens. Secondly, it is perhaps because they want to help “shape” the conversation and thus carefully influence the views available to their audience. For example, something tells me this sort of honest, open and frank American opinion found on Craigslist would never reach the air on NBC (Warning: May Contain Traces of America):

From an Angry Soldier
Date: 2007-04-10, 1:00PM PDT

I’m having the worst damn week of my whole damn life so I’m going to write this while I’m pissed off enough to do it right.

I am SICK of all this bullshit people are writing about the Iraq war. I am abso-fucking-lutely sick to death of it. What the fuck do most of you know about it? You watch it on TV and read the commentaries in the newspaper or Newsweek or whatever god damn yuppie news rag you subscribe to and think you’re all such fucking experts that you can scream at each other like five year old about whether you’re right or not. Let me tell you something: unless you’ve been there, you don’t know a god damn thing about it. It you haven’t been shot at in that fucking hell hole, SHUT THE FUCK UP!

How do I dare say this to you moronic war supporters who are “Supporting our Troops” and waving the flag and all that happy horse shit? I’ll tell you why. I’m a Marine and I served my tour in Iraq. My husband, also a Marine, served several. I left the service six months ago because I got pregnant while he was home on leave and three days ago I get a visit from two men in uniform who hand me a letter and tell me my husband died in that fucking festering sand-pit. He should have been home a month ago but they extended his tour and now he’s coming home in a box.

You fuckers and that god-damn lying sack of shit they call a president are the reason my husband will never see his baby and my kid will never meet his dad.

And you know what the most fucked up thing about this Iraq shit is? They don’t want us there. They’re not happy we came and they want us out NOW. We fucked up their lives even worse than they already were and they’re pissed off. We didn’t help them and we’re not helping them now. That’s what our soldiers are dying for.

Oh while I’m good and worked up, the government doesn’t even have the decency to help out the soldiers whos lives they ruined. If you really believe the military and the government had no idea the veterans’ hospitals were so fucked up, you are a god-damn retard. They don’t care about us. We’re disposable. We’re numbers on a page and they’d rather forget we exist so they don’t have to be reminded about the families and lives they ruined while they’re sipping their cocktails at another fund raiser dinner. If they were really concerned about supporting the troops, they’d bring them home so their families wouldn’t have to cry at a graveside and explain to their children why mommy or daddy isn’t coming home. Because you can’t explain it. We’re not fighting for our country, we’re not fighting for the good of Iraq’s people, we’re fighting for Bush’s personal agenda. Patriotism my ass. You know what? My dad served in Vietnam and NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

So I’m pissed. I’m beyond pissed. And I’m going to go to my husband funeral and recieve that flag and hang it up on the wall for my baby to see when he’s older. But I’m not going to tell him that his father died for the stupidty of the American government. I’m going to tell him that his father was a hero and the best man I ever met and that he loved his country enough to die for it, because that’s all true and nothing will be solved by telling my son that his father was sent to die by people who didn’t care about him at all.

Fuck you, war supporters, George W. Bush, and all the god damn mother fuckers who made the war possible. I hope you burn in hell.

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about.

Giuliani has made a rather strange and obvious mistake. The former Mayor of New York City Mayor blurted out the following nonsense at a campaign stop in New Hampshire:

If a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001… Never ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for (terrorists) to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!

Not only was the Republican administration on the defense waiting for attack in 2001, but their actions literally lowered the security of the country by ignoring warnings and only accepting information based on a slimy system of political allegiance and favoritism.

Giuliani really tried to drive home a similarly divisive view:

“I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense,� Giuliani continued. “We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.�

He added: “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.�

Actually, none of the measures after 9/11 have been proven effective or even necessary to protect the Americans from harm. Quite the contrary, a drop in intelligence capability after Bush and Cheney came to office opened the path for attacks. Simply putting the pre-Bush collaboration and intelligence communities back together after the attack (by virtue of unified effort due to disaster response) was sufficient to prevent another attack. In other words, had Bush not been in office, it is unlikely the attacks would have been successful.