Thank you, America!

Today I want to thank the people of the USA for what they have done last night.

Yes, I thank you will all my heart. Obviously there are a lot more decent Americans than I thought for the past eight years.

It's early days yet, and we should not expect too much from Barack Obama. He's just a man and not the Messiah. He won't be able to perform miracles.
And the mess the criminal and corrupt Bush administration leaves behind is colossal.

But at least hope is restored today, to the USA and to the rest of the world.

Once again, thank you America! And congratulations to Barack Obama!

May the good luck of last night remain with you, and may you have the strength and wisdom to be a great leader.

John McCain conceeds

Guess who just won the election?

That one!

Barack Hussein Obama

President-elect

History in the making

The Americans elected Barack Obama!!!
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Today is D-Day in the USA

Yes, the day is finally here. Today is D-Day - Decision Day - in the USA, and by tomorrow we will know who's the next man to spend four years in the White House.

Hard to believe how time flies.

Back in January, when the whole spectacle of primaries and caucuses started and more than 30 politicians from the two large US parties put their hats into the ring, it was all very confusing, and even more so for someone like me, here in Ireland, where we don't have this kind of political circus.

When we elect our President - once every seven years - there is of course a modest campaign with all the candidates, and then the people vote. Our President is directly elected by the people, with no 'electoral college' in between, even though the office has very little political power and is more of a representative position, like it is in most other European countries as well.

But we take a lot of interest also in the US elections. After all, there are about 50 million Americans with Irish ancestry (that's one in six US citizens), and above that the USA are now the only 'super power' eft on the planet. So whatever they - and their President - do has a lot of consequences for everyone else in the world, regardless where they live.

I followed the developments in the USA with great interest, but as I said, my understanding of the process and procedures was limited. So I read a lot about it, in papers and on-line. And I did learn a lot from that.
However, there is only one blog I read that really impressed me. As it happens, it's written by another Irishman and called "Views from the Emerald Isle". (the URL is http://inishtrahoull.blogspot.com/)
This man seems to know his politics and has an amazing power of analysis and vision. He was the only one of all the journalists and bloggers whose articles I read who wrote back in January that the final contest would be between John McCain and Barack Obama.
While most of the Irish media - including RTÉ - were sure that Hillary Clinton would win the nomination of the Democratic Party and almost campaigned for her, this single blogger dismissed her and her chances back in January, and he explained his reasons in detail. I just read these articles again, and with hindsight they are even more impressive. I think this man should be on RTÉ or write for our major papers. They all got it wrong for a long time, but he was right from the very start.

But enough about the past. Today the Americans have to decide, and I hope they will make the right decision. Which - in my humble opinion - is Barack Obama. He's the only one who could bring back some decency and honour to the American nation that has been turned into the true "Empire of Evil" (the phrase used by Ronald Reagan for the Soviet Union many years ago) under the criminal and corrupt administration of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

John McCain was an honourable man eight years ago, when he ran against Bush in the primaries of the Republican Party. Had he won the nomination then, he would probably have won the election as well and - perhaps - been quite a good President. But a lot has happened since. In fact way too much has happened. And since McCain joined the Bush camp four years ago and sold his soul to Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove (the evil spin master behind Bush), he has become a differnt man and part of the evil machine that dragged America down into the gutter.

If one had needed more proof for that, his selection of Sarah Palin as 'running mate' said it all.
This right-wing woman, who could have made Adolf Hitler smile with pride and joy, is the personification of everything that is wrong with the USA today. Even the theoretical thought that she could be "one heartbeat away from the Presidency", which she would if the Americans elect the 72-year-old McCain, makes me shiver.

I have no vote in this election, and I would never want to live in the USA, no matter who is the President. But I can only urge the decent Americans - and yes, there still are some - to vote for the right man today, in their own interest and in the interest of the whole world.

Quite a lot of Americans visit this blog, so I hope they will read this and do the right thing. I will be sitting here and waiting in anticipation. My gut feeling tells me that Barack Obama is going to win the White House, and probably with a good majority. But as long as people like Karl Rove are around to muddle things up (as he did in 2000 and 2004), one can never be completely sure.

Please give yourself and the world another chance for peace and prosperity and vote for Barack Obama!

McCain's fake Plumber

A few days ago a previously unknown man approached Senator Barack Obama while he was out campaigning in Toledo, in the crucial 'swing' state of Ohio.

This man introduced himself as "Joe Wurzelbacher" (now this is some name to remember, coming second probably only to Arnold Schwarzenegger), told Obama that he was a local plumber and not happy with the proposed taxation policies of the Democratic candidate for the US presidency. Like any man who wants to win votes, the Illinois Senator listened for a while and argued with the man who had a shaven head and looked very 'Germanic' in a threatening kind of way.

While the conversation went on, "Joe the Plumber" - as he is apparently known to his friends - told Senator Obama that he was planning to buy the business for which he currently works, but if the Democrats would pass Obama's proposed changes to the tax system, he would not be able to do that.

As Barack Obama proposes to reduce the tax burden for the vast majority of US citizens - except the super-rich - this was a strange line of argument and no-one remembered much of it after a few minutes.

But then a strange succession of events began to make "Joe Wurzelbacher" a famous man in the USA, at least famous for fifteen minutes.
First he appeared in the campaign reports of Fox News, the most odious right-wing propaganda TV channel in the USA, which is owned by the Australian-born US citizen Rupert Murdoch, the billionaire media mogul and sleaze merchant who also owns many UK newspapers (including The Times, the Sun and the News of the World) and has the controlling stake in Sky TV.

And then - surprise, surprise - John McCain brought "Joe the Plumber" up towards the end of his third live TV debate with Barack Obama. How did he know about him? Or did he actually know him? That looked fishy even to the most gullible people, and soon some journalists were on their way to find out more about the Ohio plumber with the strange Austrian name. They soon found a lot about him, but - surprise, surprise - it does not in any way tally with the story he told about himself.

1. His name is not "Joe" but "Sam" - short for Samuel Wurzelbacher.
2. He is not a plumber. At least he does not have a licence, which all qualified plumbers in his area are required to have. So either he is no plumber at all, or not a qualified one.
3. The firm he says he is working for - and which he wanted to buy and take over - does not have a plumbing licence either. So either they are fly-by-night cowboy plumbers, working illegally, or not in that line of business at all.
4. According to his tax returns, Mr. Wurzelbacher earns about $ 40,000 per annum. On that basis he would not be in a financial position to buy his employer's business, which is currently valued at around $ 250,000.
5. And - again according to tax records - Mr. Wurzelbacher still has an unpaid tax bill of $ 1200 outstanding. So he is already in trouble with his taxes now, after nearly eight years under the Republican Bush administration.

So it appears that Mr. Wurzelbacher, whom John McCain publically hailed as "an ordinary Joe" and "the typical middle-class American", is either a fantasist, a liar, or a mix of both. He might also be working illegally, without qualifications, and be employed by an unlicenced company.

But there is another possibility. He could simply be a stooge, a Republican propagandist, who was deliberately planted into the meeting with Obama to stir up trouble. Why else was he - of all the people present - filmed and interviewed by the right-wing Fox News? And why was McCain so quick to use him as an example?
The whole affair looks to me very much like the handwriting of Karl Rove (real name Karl Röver and named after his grandfather, a senior official in Hitler's Nazi party) who was George W. Bush closest adviser and campaign manager. He organised several stunts like this during the 2004 presidential election campaign, especially in the 'swing' state Ohio, which Bush narrowly won eventually.
Officially Rove is now in the background, but he still controls the strings of the Republican party propaganda machine. And one of his closest associates - a man called Steve Schmidt - is John McCain's chief campaign manager. The links are obvious, and "Joe the Plumber" is as bogus as the whole hate and smear campaign Karl Rove, Steve Schmidt, Sarah Palin and John McCain are running against Barack Obama. Let's hope that the Americans as a whole are not as stpuid as the Republicans think they are...