June 6, 2008
by Steve Osborn

As the primaries finally run down, I listen to all of the pundits and the speculation. One thing keeps coming to mind.  I find the thought of Hillary Clinton as vice president to Barack Obama to be about the same thing as Dick Cheney being vice president to Bush.

The enormous debt that Hillary Clinton owes to big oil, big business, the military-industrial complex and other wealthy donors, may well put her in the position of Dick Cheney, dictating to Obama what he must do, how he must do it, and when he must do it.

When you couple that with Clinton's comment about staying until the last ditch because you never know until the last primary what the results were going to be, using Robert Kennedy's assassination as an example, I would be very reluctant, were I Obama, to have her a heartbeat away from the presidency.  Especially if it was my heartbeat.

Yes, I think it would be a great idea if Clinton gang would retire to enjoy their ill-gotten gains and leave the rest of the world alone, including the United States.

Considering the enormous profits being made from the war for Big Oil, the Carlyle Group and others, and our obviously bought and paid for Legislative Branch, which cannot even obey the will of those they are supposed to represent by limiting the endless multi-billion giveaways to the Cheney/Bush gang, let alone put impeachment of these war criminals "on the table," I foresee no substantive change by an Obama victory. But electing any of the other gang is just begging for more Bush Lite.

I have long felt that, any time a reform minded candidate is elected, he or she is taken into a back room and told, "Listen, up kid. You do what you are told and we will give you some peanuts to throw to your constituents so they'll think you are representing them. You support what we want, vote the way we tell you, and you've got a long career with excellent benefits. Buck us and you are a one termer. Buck us really hard and...does the name Kennedy or King ring a bell? Think about it." And lo, another reformer goes down the tubes.

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The corruption in Washington, not to mention the rot that has spread downhill to the smallest town or business is probably not going to be overcome save by the same actions that got rid of the first King George to rule this nation.

We the People have got to wake up. We need national strikes, boycotts, mass demonstrations. If possible, non-violent civil disobedience. Let us resurrect the spirit of Ghandi to walk before us. He brought the British Empire to its knees in India with no bloodshed.

If We the People could paralyze the country, then our alleged representatives might have to pay attention. I have written mine, and any of the others that are reachable and asked one question.

"We the People want our Constitution and Bill of Rights back in the Halls of Government, intact and functioning. With them in place, there is nothing the United States cannot face, no problem we cannot solve. Please explain to me how shredding the Constitution and replacing it with the mis-named Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, the suspension of habeas corpus, the condoning of torture, the warrant-less spying on citizens, is improving my life or my security?"

Neither I, nor any of my many correspondents who have asked their alleged reps the same question have ever gotten any answer. Zero. Nada. Completely ignored. Sixty Minutes ran a story on the new electronic crowd control "Ray Gun" that stops any sort of demonstrating by bringing the moisture under the skin to a near boil causing unendurable pain. We have "free speech zones" far away from the press or the targets of protest. We have the compiling of hundreds of thousands of names on "terrorist watch lists" and "no fly lists." Those lists are reputed to be increasing by some twenty thousand citizens per month. If the government fears its citizens in such numbers, perhaps there is something wrong with the government, not the citizens.

Think about it, then do something!

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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.

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