The Book of the Shadows

Slowly, the most powerful and important democracy in history is turning from the power and influence of the people in general to the power and influence of a select few – from a real democracy into an oligarchy.

I have a simple view to share regarding the current government shutdown. I’ve resisted making comments on the matter for now because of the fact that, quite frankly, I didn’t expect that it would take so long for things to be put to an end. We have troops in Afghanistan, we’re trying to manage a very volatile Middle East situation right now, the economy has been struggling to return to normalcy… shutting down the government and threatening the debt ceiling is not something reasonable people do at a time like this.

The Republican Party is a party in need of friends. They don’t have many right now. They have a number of loyalists among their members and voters, and they have their opponents in the Democrats. They even have outright enemies all over the place. But they don’t have a whole lot of friends. Perhaps the long talked of revolution in the Republican Party is finally at hand.

Tuesday was election day. It wasn't big E, big D, Election Day, but it was still a day for some people to go out and vote. I'm not gonna get into the politics of who won and who lost. But I do have something of an idea that might make it a little more meaningful when we do have the little E and D election days.

You will not likely see me say much in praise of Iran. Given the present topic of this post, I will not get into the weeds on that issue either. Congratulations, however, are a matter of due course when someone has done something praiseworthy. Iran held national elections Friday. With no reports of widespread voter fraud, no brutal crackdowns on opposition, no reports of people being turned away from the polls, and very high voter turnout, it would seem that Iran's presidential election went off without the kind of violence and controversy that marred their last presidential elections in 2009. What's more, the lone moderate in the race was able to claim victory. It's too early to extrapolate this beyond simply that; a fair and proper election took place. Internal and/or external politics will reveal themselves in time. But for now, congratulations to the people or Iran on carrying out a "clean" election and on the election of your new president, Hasan Rowhan...