The Dash Report: The Cosmos
Week in Review

MORGAN DASH

We're short a brother for this week's report. Gabriel has lit out for
parts unknown. He just couldn't take it anymore. Who can blame him? The Bushies ads against Kerry seem to be working in the battleground states. It's so depressing to realize that all you still have to do is gloss up some clichés, like "liberal," "raise your taxes," "flip-flop" and those sheep in voters' clothing will fall for it. I may soon follow him myself.

PHINEAS DASH
The short term news is not all bad. Kerry's positives are down and negatives up in those states, but not by that much. Nationally, Kerry still has a slight lead. The electoral vote outlook is also pretty good. And Kerry has been relatively inactive-he hasn't even begun to hammer away on his best issues.

THERON DASH
What's driving me crazy is Nader. There's no doubt that he's articulate on the issues, and that Dems could use some of his trenchant analysis and nerve. I heard him recently and it's not a big wonder to me why people listen-he can be very persuasive, even on his latest tack of saying he's actually helping Democrats defeat Bush. But the best you can say is that it's a very dangerous strategy. All the numbers in all the polls show that Nader is still the margin of victory for Bush. Without him, Kerry wins.

CHRISTOPHER DASH
No wonder he's getting such respect from Republicans and conservatives. That Tucker Carlson on CNN was just so transparent in his attempt to fawn over him and egg him on to criticizing Kerry.

THERON DASH
Nader is meeting with Kerry this month, and though I hoped for some sort of deal---like Nader at least would not put himself on the ballot in the battleground states---I'm in complete despair about it now. It looks like the 2000 election will be a recurring nightmare. Who's going to cheer me up?

MORGAN
Wish I could. I think what finally got to Gabriel was the sneaking
suspicion that even if Kerry gets elected, he's not going to be able
to do much. The rabid right and the self-entitled Bush Lite Elite have no conscience, they don't believe in elections or governing, they don't care about the country or its people, and they certainly
don't care about the world or the planet. They'll just keep phonying up hate and conflict, and seizing power by whatever means necessary.

PHINEAS
Well, if you're looking for reasons to despair, I'll tell you what's getting to me. All this controversy over 9-11 and Iraq may be political dynamite, though we don't yet know whose face it's going to explode in. But I suspect the Bushies have one truly terrible advantage: in the end they don't fear an apocalypse, they welcome it. The rabid religious right that buys those Rapture novels and lines up for the Mel Gibson S&M movie truly believe in this imminent final battle of good against evil, and that they will be saved-and only they will be saved, and given eternal happiness.

That's why the most conservative Christians are in a working alliance with the most right wing Jews in Israel to drive out the Palestinians, so their interpretation of the apocalyptic prophesies can be fulfilled to the letter, specifically the conditions for the Second Coming. Of course, those same Jews would then be damned if they didn't convert, but it's an unholy alliance that works for them now.

So the Bushies can play their power games so they'll be comfortably rich while they wait for Apocalypse, and they'll use constant warfare to keep politics on the level of adrenelin---which is also their strategy in advertising, and that's all advertising is, pushing the glandular buttons. But they don't worry about the cost of conflict, they don't worry that they're pushing billions of people and all existing lifeforms on the planet closer to the end of it all---because that's what they are waiting for. They want it. And judging from the barbarism in Iraq, they're well on the way. Only it's the battle between two sides with the same self-delusion that they are the Good, which of course makes them both Evil.

MORGAN
Thank you, Mr. Sunshine. No wonder I need to spend most of my
day immersed in science fiction. Give me a galaxy far far away.
Any other items to brighten up the day?

CHRISTOPHER
Well, Wired Magazine says that all the studies so far of the electronic voting systems that will be used in 2004 show that they are flawed and can be subverted and misused, some pretty easily. And there are no studies showing they will work. But election officials are sticking with them anyway.

THERON
So between Nader and well-placed computer viruses, we're moving right along to the apocalypse. I hope Gabriel has lots of room.

PHINEAS
Let's fight the good fight first. Then we can all retire to somewhere
with health care.
MORGAN
Now that's science fiction.