<h3>The Year of Surrendering Quietly</h3>

Developing an Exit Strategy

"Every four years, liberals unhitch the cart and put it in front of the horse, arguing that the only way to a better tomorrow is to vote for the Democratic nominee. But unless the nominee and Congress are pushed forward by social currents too strong for them to ignore or defy, nothing will alter the default path chosen by the country’s supreme commanders and their respective parties. In the American Empire of today, that path is never towards the good. Our task is not to dither in distraction over the lesser of two evil prospects, which will only turn out to be a detour along the same highway."

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Preempted

"Many attest to a slack political tempo this campaign season. A simple refusal to vote at all on the presidential candidate could see the turnout drop below 50 per cent, as bleak a register of popular cynicism about the realities of the democratic mandate in the us today as the Venezuelan turnout was exhilarating. The next us president could even be denied a majority ‘mandate’ from the sliver of those voters going to the polls. By the same token, the shape of resistance in the coming years will not derive from a vote for Kerry, or even one for Nader, but from the harnessing of those vital, idealistic energies that always move through the American firmament, awaiting release."

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Alexander Cockburn | The Year of Surrendering Quietly

Note: The above graphics are taken from JR files and satanslaundromat, two thoughtful urban photoblogs showcasing a surfeit of compelling, often humorous, images. Employing David Weinberger's translation skills, might this shot not be entitled Canada? And with guerillas on the offensive in Afghanistan and Iraq, Israeli forces razing northern Gaza, and Americans throwing their weight behind George W. Bush, might a 'Canadian approach' to the U.S. presidential reelection in 2004 not be best?