Physics professor John Hirsch writes:

"The outcome of the November election is likely to determine whether or not the US goes to war with Iran before President Bush leaves office." See

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/1016-32.htm

"Congress will not be asked in advance to authorize the Iran war. Congress has already declared, in passing H.R.6198, that Iran should be held accountable "for its threatening behavior" (which merely consists in Iran's refusal to give up its rights under the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty). The Iran war is likely to start with selected bombing of a few Iranian facilities."

That prediction is terrifying. And I live in Cape Town, where few nukes are likely to explode.

Vote Ralph Nader? Vote Democrat? Just please don't be a fool.

Voting the Republicans out means voting for a party that has the best chance of winning, and that means voting Democrat. Voting for a party that cannot win is like not voting at all in this case. In other contexts (such as when an evil party is not in power), voting for an otherwise losing party can send a message to other parties about their platforms for the future.

Sweet. I normally vote for Democrats, but I want to see a nuclear war in my lifetime, so I guess I'll vote for Republicans this time.


But seriously, I think these "scare tactics" in political matters is about as sane and effective as the scare tactics employed by anti-drug programs (which don't work, btw). I really don't think things are nearly so grim. "Evil party"? Get real...

Yeah, well, if not republicans then neo-conservatives at least are as near to evil as I can imagine on today's political scene... except perhaps for the police state administrations of Iran and N. Korea.

Scare tactics deserve summary dismissal if their arguments are implausible, but I think the arguments in the article that Rick referenced were unfortunately rather plausible - especially given the neocons' track record of arrogance and insensitifity in matters of foreign policy, and their almost incomprehensibly moronic penchant for war.

The problem is that it takes a very unique, and twisted, view on things to see them as "evil"- basically, you have to already be on the far left politically. [Personally, I think the very notion of "evil" is an outmoded religious concept that needs to be eliminated from our mental toolboxes. But I'm just an old atheist, so...]. So you are certainly not changing anyone's opinion by using the word, and you could easily be hurting yourself. Any average, rational person would look at the republicans as just trying to do what they believe is right and best for the country- even if we think they are wrong, and have ended up doing harm.





Sorry, but the argument is crap. At the end it tries to claim that Bush and his people will use nuclear bombs against Iran because they want to be remembered in a good light- this is laughable, IMO. The rest is circumstantial at best, with many appeals to intuition and emotion. If this physicist does his physics they way he does his politics, then it is a sad day for science indeed.

Evil is unnecessary harm (my definition) and does not require belief in any non-existent supernatural. Examples of evil (by that definition) are all around us.

The war in Iraq is a perfect example, brought to us by the evil party. Other notable harms the Republicans have brought us (all unnecessarily) include:

1. Suspending habeas corpus for individuals designated by the President, setting human rights back 800 years to the time before the Magna Charta.

2. Staffing the environmental protection agency with polluting industry lobbyists.

3. Illegally spying on American citizens.

4. Numerous corruption scandals by Republicans Duke Cunningham, Tom Delay, Mark Foley and his Republican enablers, Jack Abramoff, etc.

5. Requiring schools receiving federal funds to give private student data to military recruiters.

6. Awarding billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to well-connected crony corporations such as Halliburton without accountability for waste and fraud.

7. Diverting military resources from Afghanistan, losing sight of Osama bin Laden, and turning early victory into a loss. The Taliban are back with a vengeance and now conrtol most of Afghanistan.

8. Violating the non-proliferation treaty by developing new types of nuclear weapons, leading to resurgence of interest of other countries in the development of nuclear weapons, as exemplified by the actual detonation of a plutonium device by North Korea.

9. Awarding subsidies, paid for by American taxpayers, to the oil industry during a time of record profits.

And on and on. I have been following politics closely since the 1960s, and the evil being done today is unprecedented. Richard Nixon was enlightened in comparison.

Iranians are, in large part, nice people (at least the ones I've met). It's unfortunate that their government is run by thugs.

I think it is safe to say that most Americans are generally nice people, also. Our brand of thugs are pretty meatheaded-to stay within an analogy-compared to most other crafty criminals (Hm. Does the term "criminals" even apply when they control the law?), having dooped millions of goodnatured, ignorant folks into believing they are chasing down Satan himself. Funny how obvious they are about all of their "craftiness."

Hehe ignorance is eternal nice of you to point out the real criminals in this world^^

Real isn't the word I would use, rather the most predominant and impactive.