Hanging Chads re-runs - A Jebb Bush 2016 saga

Jeb Bush is an American politician best known for serving as Florida's governor from 1998 to 2007, during the highly contested 2000 Presidential election.. 

He is a member of the Bush family dynasty, the son of 41st U.S. President George Bush and brother of 43rd U.S. President George W. Bush.

What's most memorable about Governor Bush when he was Florida's governor is the episode of the hanging chads.

In the 2000 USA Presidential election when Governor Bush's brother George was running for president against Vice President Al Gore, many Florida voters used punched card ballots where incompletely-punched holes resulted in partially punched chads: either a "hanging chad", where one or more corners were still attached, or a dimpled chad or pregnant chad, where all corners were still attached, but an indentation appeared to have been made. These votes were not counted by the tabulating machines.

As a result of this fiasco, vote counters were required to use magnifying glasses to determine if hanging chads were qualified votes.  In the end, it didn't even matter because the US Supreme Court called the election over and Al Gore lost to Governor Bush's brother, George W. Bush the 43rd President of the US.

I don't believe the hanging chad vote disaster was a coincidence or an anamoly in the 2000 election. My hunch is that some sort of contrived conundunrum was anticipated, whereby Governor Bush would pull off a win for his brother. It was political brotherly love.

Jebb Bush might be a good person, an intelligent politician and a devoted family man. Nevertheless, I don't trust what happened in the 2000 election, when he was Florida's governor and the brother of the future President, who defeated Vice President Gore. Jebb Bush was determined to win Florida for his brother, regardless of how he had to do it.  In fact, the US Supreme Court did it for him. The  court elected George Bush president, thereby getting Jebb off the hook for having to risk a complete recount of Florida's vote.  

It's been my opinion since, September 11, 2001 opened the War on Terror, that the Bush family is worried about consequences of the illegal Iraq War i.e. "Iraqi Freedom", the invasion of a soverign nation under the pretext of destroying Weapons of Mass Destruction, that did not exist. As a result, over 4,000 Americans and many more Iraqi civilians died in a war without justification. Meanwhile, the Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden found a hiding place in Pakistan, while Americans died in Iraq.  Jebb Bush and the family dynasty must also worry about being complicit in crimes against humanity, as the Senate report about torture of men suspected of terrorist activities has now been released.  

I just can't imagine how Governor Bush is motivated to run for election in 2016, with so much negative baggage in his portfolio.

Surely, as Jebb Bush's mother Barbara said, there must be other Republicans who are qualified to run for president?  Regardless if there are others or not, Jebb Bush should not put the nation through a daunting series of hanging chad re-runs, in what would surely become a very damaging and negative campaign.

My advice to Jebb Bush is to stay out of politics altogether.



 

ISIS exists because of the US led Iraq invasion under false pretenses

Pundits are second guessing America's resolve to destroy ISIS, but have short term memory loss about how the world wound up in this turmoil. 

This evil mess is the result of the failed invasion of Iraq.

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the US World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines flight 63 in Pennsylvania, the sympathy of the international community was our nation's to loose. And so, we invaded Iraq, a nation with no ties to the terrorists who assaulted us.  In fact, all the terrorists who flew the suicidal airplanes on September 11, 2001 had Saudi Arabian passports.  Nevertheless, under the banner of "Iraqi freedom!", America invaded Iraq. As a result, we're stuck with the consequences of engaging in a war we couldn't afford, didn't have to fight in the first place and was launched on the false premise of searching out weapons of mass destruction, that didn't exist. Meanwhile, terrorists continued to recruit and train fighters to defeat and kill all westerners, especially Americans. 

ISIS, an acronym that sort of means "Islamic State", isn't Islamic nor a state. Rather, it's an evil movement of sadistic extremists intent on murder for any reason.  ISIS or "IS" exists because Iraq has no government capable of defending it's own people against this evil terrorist group.  

Consequently, America is still trying desperately to fix the mistaken and wrong minded invasion of Iraq. Now, Secretary of State Kerry is seeking out Arab partners to control the growing ISIS threat.

BBCNews reports:

Egypt has a key role to play in countering Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, US Secretary of State John Kerry said on a visit to Cairo.

He met Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi and Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi as part of his campaign to form a broad coalition to tackle IS militants.

He has already enlisted the support of 10 Arab states so far but he has ruled out Iran joining the US-led coalition.

On Friday, the CIA said IS has as many as 30,000 fighters in Syria and Iraq.

IS controls large parts of both countries and its fighters have become notorious for their brutality, but in recent weeks they have been targeted by US air strikes.

On Wednesday, President Barack Obama unveiled plans for an expansion of the US campaign against IS.

Shia militias have joined forces with the Iraqi army and Kurdish fighters to try to fight back against IS

The 10 Arab countries to have signed up to the coalition are: Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Egypt is "on the frontline of the fight against terrorism, particularly when it comes to fighting extremist groups in Sinai," Mr Kerry said, after talks with Mr Arabi and President Sisi in the latest leg of his Middle East tour.

He acknowledged Egypt's reputation as "an intellectual and cultural capital of the Muslim world," saying it had a "critical role to play in publicly renouncing the ideology that IS disseminates".

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri, speaking at the same news conference, said that ties existed between IS and other militant groups operating in the region, who must also be dealt with.

He had earlier signalled a desire for the campaign against IS to be broadened to militants active in the Sinai who have expressed support for IS, says the BBC's Barbara Plett-Usher in Cairo.

Foreign fighters cross through the Sinai en route to Syria, with some offering expertise and training to local militants there, a senior state department official has said.

But US officials say they need to keep the focus on IS as the biggest danger because it crosses borders and would expand if not stopped, our correspondent adds.

Mr Kerry says military and intelligence experts will spend the coming days working out how each state will contribute.

But speaking in Turkey on Friday, he said it would be "inappropriate" for Iran to join the group because of its "engagement in Syria and elsewhere".

Thirteen years after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, our nation is still at war because our retaliation was wrong minded.

Our response was not succinct but, rather, too broad. Now, we're engaged in preventing even more evil, but without the resources

to target the enemies we've allowed to be home grown, as a result of our failed invasion of Iraq.