xtcian

ok--i woke up in a fairly positive mood this am, and now i am caught in a paroxysm of terror. . . it never oCCUrred to me that the bozos-in-charge would be capable of such malevolence.

my vote is for your sliding into kook territory (no offense) and that you are merely exorcising some demons during the stressful times of these big meetings. which, i predict, will swing your way in a big way, and we will get TWO ian/tessa productions on which to feast our weary eyes!! HURRAY!

hang in there, ian---we are allllllllll voting in 2008---and we are staying tuned. . . :)

Honestly I think Bush just wants his term to be over, now. He had the ambition but not the ability to be president, and at this point it's like his last year at Yale, paying someone else to write his papers, and grinding out those last classes doing the absolute minimum.

At this point -- and everything could change still -- I see the race as Romney V Clinton with Clinton winning with a narrow margin. A Clinton/Obama ticket is probable, and Romney will probably choose Huckabee or Thompson as a running mate.

I don't anticipate any sort of palace coup. Keep in mind Bush and Cheney leave office to a rich reward from the masters they've served -- Oil Companies, Halliburton, Bechtel, Pfizer, etc.

I agree with Kent. I know a little something about JOB BURNOUT, and Bush and crew show all the tell-tale signs. I think that they all want OUT. . . Bush to his ranch, the others to big money jobs in the private sector. Don't fret. A new day is dawning!

No, you're not a kook. Very real possibility. They have laid all of the "legal" foundations for this to happen. The real question is: Will that be enough for Americans to get off their ass and revolt or will we all just shrug and turn on the TV to watch your new show.

kook territory.

elections will happen. someone new will be President.

another vote for kook territory...but i will admit i got a little nervous for a few minutes thinking about it. i see clinton v. romney with clinton winning. i see clinton picking joe biden for vp and romney going with thompson. but beware of bloomberg/hagel joining the fray....and then all bets are off.

kook territory for sure.

Clinton has so much less chance of getting elected that I am all but sure that the Dems will nominate her.

You have to win the middle 60% of the country. The outer 20's will always vote party line. If you can convince enough of the middle that you are the better alternative, then you will win. Otherwise you are like the Dems in NC trying to beat Helms with Harvey Gant. Just win the election. Worry about shaming the other side another time.

I predict that one of the last acts of the Bush administration will be to push through an amendment to the Constitution waiving the requirement that the President be born in the United States, thus clearing the way for the logical end to the world as we know it: President Arnold. He and Bush don't even get along very well, but what better way to fuck us one last time than to put a guy in charge who once played Conan the Barbarian?

Two questions.

1. Do you think this country is ready to elect a woman in the first place, much less one as polarizing as Hillary?

2. Do you think it's just a little hypocritical that many in our fine nation are shocked, SHOCKED at the allegations against Michael Vick, but don't even bat an eye at celebrities or sports icons who regularly go hunting?

Signed, sincerely curious and I'm not being snarky.

Kooky? Yes
Impossible? No
Likely? Nope

I think we're going to see a Democratic majority all around -- Senate, House, White House -- after the 2008 election.

I don't think this administration is, y'know, *above* doing something underhanded to retain power -- but I'm not sure they're capable enough to pull it off.

More importantly, I don't think holding on to power is in their best interest at this point. Look at the mess they've made and their terrible approval ratings. Are they going to be able to turn that around enough to get anything done?

I think their best move is to punt. The Democrats will find themselves backed up against their own end zone and will probably turn the ball back over to the Repubs after 4 painful years.

If this one pans out, the kook theories are kaput:

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003616196

Something tells me that, like a snake lying in wait for its prey, Vice is just sitting back and looking for his moment to strike.

Thanks for the heads-up JB. This will enable me to get my application to take the bar exam in Canada on file that much earlier.

Seems to me, this Administration doesn't have enough support from the top of the military to pull off a coup. They also don't have most state governments on their side, or Congress.

I believe the military would not support an attempt by the executive branch to remain in power beyond the Constitutionally mandated abdication date, nor would the states respond to a demand that their elections be cancelled. If some few wingnut states like Idaho did so, the only result would be that their electoral votes would become at risk of not being counted.

I do, however, expect them to do whatever they can to install another Republican sockpuppet to replace Bush, by any means necessary.

GFWD--good question on #1. I think the answer is no.

It seems to me that everything is in place for a hearty dictatorship in the event of an emergency. And an emergency is pretty easy to come by. Does anyone make the Executive this powerful, and then relinquish it to the other guys? It's time to impeach, or buckle up. Welcome to kook territory. The people are nice, but the language is a struggle.

I'm sure there will be an election - but the Arnold thing? I can see they trying for that; some people already are. That would definitely be my breaking point for revolt; I'm strongly against a foreign-born president.

you don't need to "elect" a republican. Should Hillary be elected - and clearly the Big Money is all on her - you'll find that the only difference is style. Her grammar and phonetics are much better than W's. However, just like W, she'll do what the Big Money wants her to do, and she'll be just as paranoid about anyone questioning her MO.

I have often wondered the same thing. What fast-one will King Shrub pull before his official ousting-out-of-office is to occur? He and his croonies (puppet-master Cheney, Cabinet members, etc) are very good at creating insta-bake emergencies that call for them taking away as many Constitutional Rights as they can, not to mention creating wars, destabilizing other countries, creating many new enemies for out country to deal with and stealing elections. Oh, I wasn't supposed to mention that.

Anyway, I hope, despite my doubts, that somehow we will get a non-Republican in office, whether it's a Democrat, Independent, Liberal, Green or what-have-you!

It's hard to get excited about elections when you don't know what you'll be voting on or who made it.