Greetings, loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader has been rather quiet on political issues of late. This is more a factor of it being a slow time of the year for political issues than disinterest. Your Maximum Leader just hasn’t felt passionately enough about any political goings-on to feel he needed to comment on them at length.

He does plan on writing a political polemic over the weekend, it should be up for Monday.

Here are some quick thoughts on politics.

Your Maximum Leader applauds Teddy Kennedy for coming right out and saying what Democrats have, hithertofore, been too afraid to say. Namely that the US should cut and run in Iraq. While it is possible that the soon-to-be elected Iraqi national assembly will ask the US to leave, your Maximum Leader doesn’t think it will happen for another year or so. The sensible Iraqis, who don’t get lots of press, but are likely the largest portion of the Shia and Kurdish population, don’t seem to be in a great rush to see the US leave. The realize that they are in a precarious situation. Namely, surrounded by other states that would like to see Iraq disappear; and filled with insurgents from the whole muslim world. They need time to develop their own national security forces (army and police) and gain full control over the Sunni Triangle.

It doesn’t cease to amaze your Maximum Leader that people (around the world) are shocked that the US hasn’t been able to completely rebuild Iraq. Nevermind that Saddam fought a 10 years long war with Iran that started his nation dow the path of industrial and economic decline. Then came the invasion of Kuwait. Then the 12 years of embargo by most of the world. Then the US liberation. In three years, with an insurgency going, the US should have been able (so the masses think at any rate) to rebuild a country that was in decline for over 20 years? How unrealistic is that. What the US has done is given the Iraqis a chance to rebuild and reconstitute themselves. We’ve given them the possibility for a better future.

President Bush seems closer to making a Social Security Reform proposal. Now, your Maximum Leader hasn’t said it before, but he believes that Medicare, Medicaid, and the new Prescription Drug benefits are much greater problems than is Social Security. But that doesn’t mean that Social Security shouldn’t be addressed. Americans do not save enough, and they have come to rely on a wealth-transfer program to take them through their twilight years. Any reform of Social Security that promotes more indivdual savings and more individual responsibility for saving is a good plan in your Maximum Leader’s opinion. Indeed, your Maximum Leader has always been particularly pessimistic concerning his own future with Social Security. He’s assumed he would have little or no benefits in his twilight. This was a major motivating factor for forming the Mike World Order. You gotta have a plan. And everyone knows that Maximum Leaders don’t retire. They die suddenly from undisclosed causes after “having a bad head cold” for a few weeks. Then the state-run TV stations play the dirges and mournful remembrances for days; making you long for the funeral to end so you can get back to Jerry Springer, Oprah, and reality TV.

Condi Rice is now Secretary of State. Your Maximum Leader thought her confirmation hearings, and subsequent Senate floor debates, were disgraceful. But he says this as a conservative partisan. He completely understands why Boxer, Kerry, and others did what they did. And he doesn’t believe for a moment that the 13 Democrats who voted against Dr. Rice did anything but act according to their own consciences. But they were wrong. Condi Rice, your Maximum Leader believes will do very well in her new role. He also thinks that if she were a Democrat she would be lauded as a symbol of America. Look! A smart black woman is our number one diplomat. Look at her deal with the Saudis, the French. See how uncomfortable they are with the future! But because she is a Republican - she is a liar and in the pocket of the president and incabable of independent thought. Your Maximum Leader didn’t recall that the Democratic Senators wanted Warren Christopher or Madeline Albright to be independent of President Clinton. They didn’t want Christopher or Albright to lead a separate foreign policy from Foggy Bottom with no input from the White House. Humm… It must be that partisan stuff again. You know, parade the flag, waive the bloody shirt. It is all for appearances you know.

And in other non-political news… Another idiot is tattooing himself for cash. Listen, as far as your Maximum Leader is concerned, the only advertising on body parts your Maximum Leader wants to see are blog-ads on SondraK’s exquisite arse. (Which,by the way, never, EVER, fails to captivate your Maximum Leader. If there is a Platonic form of arse-ness - it may be manifest in SondraK’s arse.)

Carry on.