Veepstakes

I don’t usually celebrate my birthday. Most times I just treat as another day to get things done or avoid people who want to see me act like an ass just because the numbers have changed on my personal records.

I share my birthday with Michael Jackson the King of Pop, do people still call him that? I also share it with John McCain; presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican Party who I understand for his birthday will announce the name of his running mate for Vice-President in the coming election. Even though most people think that it would be a long shot, some people have spoken about Dr. Condoleezza Rice as a possible running mate. She could bring in some of the Women’s vote and help dilute the Black vote that will surely go to Sen. Obama.

That day is also the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina where hundreds of lives were lost and where I remember many black people started to disapprove of the Secretary of State for not caring about her own people. She shopped for boots, dressed like she was doing a sequel for the Matrix and saw a Broadway show. Meanwhile people drowned. At least that was the criticism.

I thought at the time that people were being unfair to the woman. After all she was in charge of foreign policy not domestic affairs. In fact, I figured out that she had gotten the State Department job because as National Security Advisor, the attacks on the World Trade Center had occurred and that probably didn’t look too good on the resume. From what I understand, Miss Rice is actually one of the premier knowledge experts on the former Soviet Union and was in fact an advisor in the previous Bush administration.

So I am actually surprised that with all this expertise in hand, and I don’t know why I should be surprised, the Russians were either allowed or provoked into invading Georgia in the Caucasus region causing untold damage and death to civilians. I am also not sure why we have thrown away any chance of working with the Russians to halt or at least hinder the nuclear program that the Iranians may or may not be working on. I am left to wonder why we threaten to punish to the Russians with a cold war mentality of economic sanction and forced withdrawal from the G8 and that with this new missile pact with Poland, a NATO member, we seem to be heading for a reverse Cuban missile crisis with the Russians about to make their last stand. Should I start building the bomb shelter now like they did in the 50’s?

When Donald Rumsfeld was Defense Secretary, people said that he was responsible for the missteps taken in Iraq and that as soon as he left things would get better. It can be argued that they did. If Condie goes, will there actually be a foreign policy developed where the US is not only respected but will have a positive influence over friends and enemies alike? I don’t know, but if her next job is as Vice-President, and I know she says she not interested in it but in case she changes hers mind, I’m heading for Switzerland.