No More Appeasement

Tuesday is the due date for our primary ballots here in Oregon. We do all of our elections by mail here. I (and most people I've talked to) received our ballots in the mailbox on Monday the 5th. They need to be in the mail by tomorrow to ensure delivery by the post office to the elections office by Tuesday. If your ballot is delivered late it won't get counted. There are also a number of drop boxes; elections workers will pick those up about 8:00 Tuesday evening. It's a convenient system that encourages greater turnout, and I'm surprised more states haven't adopted it, especially in light of all the fiascos in recent elections and concern over electronic voting machines.

So the big political news of the last couple of days is fearless leader's comments in Israel comparing willingness to talk to Hezbollah to Chamberlain's appeasement of Hitler. Democrats' reactions have ranged from fury to apoplexy; Republicans have unsurprisingly responded that "Hunh? We weren't actually talking about Obama, and anyway, it's true that Obama is just like Chamberlain, except maybe he's more like Hitler. After all, Hamas is endorsing him. He's a Muslim kind of a guy who goes to a Christian church, and whose pastor has said some really wacky things."

Now leaving aside the fact that righty preachers have issued a few proclamations that I find much more lunatic and frighting than anything coming from Rev. Wright, I have to admit that I may be one of the very few left-leaning people in the country who sees the truth in what Shrub said. Don't get me wrong: I have marked my ballot for Obama. But one of my concerns with him since last fall has been his stated position of co-operation with a group that has blatantly disregarded human rights, ignored the rule of law, willfully encouraged uncaring, powerful private operators to harm and even kill innocent bystanders, a group that has made unhinged and unrestrained militarism its central ideology. I have pondered giving my vote to Hillary over this issue. It just seems to me that 2008 ought to be about taking the US back from the Republicans, rather than listening to any more of their crap and co-operating with them. I agree with Bush: no more appeasement.