Ah. America. The land of the free.
Regardless of what you believe in about George W's claims that America is a true model of democracy, and a beacon of freedom in an unjust world (and if you'd like to see these claims put to the test, go read Peter Stringer's The President Of Good And Evil), I think that everyone would agree that the American style of government is pretty corrupt. Here in good ol' blighty, we've had our share of sleaze stories over the past two decades, mostly about reasonably small bribes (see Cash For Questions). When these are exposed, our political chums seem rather embarrassed, and are dragged through the tabloids like a cheating Beckham. In short, people seem to care. In contrast, this seems to be perfectly acceptable in the United States - no-one cares who is bankrolling Bush and Kerry (and to whom their governments will have an alliegance to once in office). They care about Personalities. They care about Haircuts. They care about whether Kerry sweats on stage. They care about Bush's faith. They care about people's war record from 30 years ago (**why!!??**). Why did John Kerry decide that it was important for the public to know that he liked to go out shooting ducks or whatever, and then go home to drink beer and watch the RedSox?
We live in a Fox News world, people.
But just in case anyone thinks that this is Kerry-bashing, my venom and dislike for the neo-Conservatives far exceeds my disgust of the incredibly expensive electoral dog and pony show. If you really want to know about George W's plans for the future of the world, take a look at New American Century. And then take a look at http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article1937.htm
If this doesn't make you deeply uncomfortable…
Regular viewers may recall a piece called Pale Imitation that I started recording for Alpaca Guessed a few months back. Fans of Alpaca Guessed (and there are several of these cropping up amongst the Prog Rock community, apparently) may have also recalled that the version of this track that appears on If Not Then Else is a 3 minute ambient edit, which misses out the bulk of the piece altogether! Whilst it is all jolly nice, it isn't quite what I had in mind…
… So, to sort things out, here is Palest Imitation, complete with grunge bass and ting.