Cicero's Songs

The American Constitution is a practical document, not holy writ as so many Americans might have you believe. It has its fair share of holes- as was most recently shown in 2000 when despite a popular victory of over a million votes, Vice President Al Gore was defeated by George W Bush in highly controversial circumstances . However in its practical way is sets a regular round of elections, with the election date being the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The 2012 election is thus due on Tuesday 6th November. It is an election in many states for the Senate, and in all states for the House of Representatives, on the ballot are innumerable state offices, from to sheriff to comptroller, to district attorney. Of course this is a leap year, and as a result the top of the ballot is reserved for the election of the President and Vice President of the United States- the two most senior officials of the Republic. OK, so its an important election, and it is also a close one......

The death of Osama bin Laden, the leader of the fanatical death cult of Al Qaida, has sparked celebrations across the United States, and well it might. I do not usually feel elation at the death of a human being, but today is different. Sure Al Qaida continues in various guises in various places: a hydra headed conspiracy that only a couple of days ago sent a 12 year old boy to blow himself up. What did that kid need virgins for? He was one himself. I felt a powerful surge of loathing for the villains who put him up to such a crime and hoped that they would shortly face an unpleasant fate themselves. Ultimately it was Osama bin Laden who was the author of such wickedness. The charge sheet for such a monster is long indeed- and it does not stop with the murder of thousands of innocents on September 11th 2001. So although, of course, the war continues, and may even be redoubled; yet the death of bin Laden is of more than symbolic significance. Eventually the Al Qaida conspiracy will be o...

The list of lasts for George W. Bush is diminishing steadily and we are now down to four days before he leaves office. His final press conference was of a piece with his conduct in office- no regrets and no explanations. However in in his valedictory he continues to demonstrate just how unfit a President he has been. His comment on upholding the moral authority of the United States was surely designed to do no more than raise a cynical laugh: this was after all the President who presided over Abu Graib and Guantanamo, who prosecuted an illegal war and who- more than any single one of his predecessors- governed in a politicised and highly partisan manner. I notice Andrew Roberts has written that he believes that George W. Bush was a " Good President ". Frankly it seems to me that this is just another of journalistic contrariness: taking a position in order to make the story. The fact is that, at home just as much as abroad, the popularity of this President could not be lower. ...

The US election has as they say over there "gotten" nasty. While it may have been a joke to say that they only difference between a pitbill and a Hockey mom was the lipstick, I really don't understand why American pitbulls wear lipstick. The bare faced lies that Sarah Palin has been prepared to sell to the American public: that Barack Obama "pals around with terrorists" etc. either mark her out as a truly exceptionally stupid woman or they demonstrate a contempt for the American people that is, quite literally, an insult to their intelligence. It is now hardly a surprise that the McCain campaign is going down with all hands. In fact, and more accurately, it is the Republican party that is holed below the waterline. Sen. McCain has a record of distinguished service. However even he -and still less the witless Gov. Palin- can not overcome the legacy of the Bush administration and its record of reckless arrogance. The strutting mock-Texan George "W" Bush...

The great machinery of American democracy has seemed incredibly flawed in recent years. I have occasionally felt very close to Marcus Tullius Cicero: a man who wanted to defend the Roman Republic's tradition of liberty, but who was defeated by the corruption and decadence of the Republic's own institutions. Incidentally his 2101st birthday took place yesterday. I, like Patrick Henry in 1776, have felt that Western Liberalism stands upon a knife-edge: "I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!". I feared that the entrenched political elite in the United States has eliminated all but the already rich and powerful from the national political process. I feared that the Senators, that club of billionaires, no longer speaks for State or Union, but solely for the power of money. The final insult, it seemed to me, was the flawed election of George W. Bush, which seemed to ignore the form of democracy, let alone its spirit. With ...