Reply #3: Thanks, I caught bits and pieces.

[mojowork_n]

There did seem to be a recurring theme... the October Surprise

Nixon, like addled old Moral Majority Poster-Boy, St. Ronnie (and like the Shrub, a
little later?) promised a "win-win" to foreign interests/special interests.

For the South Vietnamese, the deal was, "hold off now -- stall! -- stonewall LBJ's
peace talks" and the S. Vietnamese would get a better deal from Tricky Dick.
So another 45,000 Americans could get a chance to die for nothing, in that armed
follow-up to our brave Tonkin Gulf Resolution.

12 years later, same thing, the deal with the Iranians, whom we sold out at the first
opportunity. Saddam and the Iraqi's serving as our proxy beating stick. That beating
finally stopped when the USS Vincennes shot down a civilian Iranian airliner. (While it
was inside Iranian territorial waters, and after the airliner had identified itself to
the ship.) The Iranians sued for peace, it wasn't as if the U.S. displayed any shame or
remorse, or suddenly developed a conscience.

...I missed everything to do with the 2000 election, except of course that 100K
or so mostly African-American voters got purged from the rolls by Katherine Harris.

(Hey, is Michelle Bachmannn in any way the Vast Machine's attempt to reanimate the
political legacy of K. Harris? Like Katherine Harris 2.0?)