By a Fluke of the Gods: Cox Defeats Harding

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-03-2002
Event Description: The Second Cuban Civil War begins today as leftist rebels attack a military installation at Niquero, Cuba. President Lanz declares to the National Assembly in Havana, “Police action is now required to restore order to Southern Cuba and to stop the spread of anarchy.” Immediately, President Webb issues his support of the Cuban government in their, “Strives to restore sanity to troubled areas of their nation.”

Event Date: 1-12-2002
Event Description: Governor Hillary Rodham (Democrat of Illinois) announces that she will not seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2002. This announcement assures that Senator Richard Durbin (Republican of Illinois) will be easily reelected in November. Governor Rodham, who is term limited, has been biding her time to leave office since she was defeated in the Democratic presidential primary in 2000, ad far as anyone knows, she is going into political oblivion.

Event Date: 1-20-2002
Event Description: President Webb signs the Basic Education First Act, introduced by Congressman Tom Osborne (Democrat of Nebraska), a former high school teacher and college football coach. This program encourages school districts to teach the importance of Phonics in reading and basic problem solving in mathematics. While districts are not forced to accept these standards, those who do are given more federal funding as an incentive to teach the basics in elementary to high school.

Event Date: 1-23-2002
Event Description: Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl blows wide open a scandal looming in Alaska for many months. “Senator Stevens, VECO and a home make over,” the article blares. Pearl reveals that Senator Theodore “Ted” Stevens (Democrat of Alaska) has been taking bribes of cash and home improvements from VECO Corporation, a major Alaskan oil company. Senator Stevens, up for reelection this November, declares that the story is, “A pack of lies taller then Mount McKinley,” but evidence will pile up against “Uncle Ted.” Several Democratic challengers will pop up over the next several weeks, with one, State Representative Sean Parnell, showing the greatest strength in toppling the corrupt giant.

Event Date: 2-08-2002
Event Description: The 2002 Winter Olympics open in Salt Lake City, Utah. Senator Mitt Romney, who had led the 2000 Millennial Celebrations, opens the convention with a speech celebrating the history of the city and the hope for peace in the new 21st Century. “Let us hope and pray that from these honored games the eyes of the world will see that the era of war, mistrust and terror are over,” Senator Romney tells the world. The address is very well received, with MSNBC’s Christopher Matthews opining, “Romney looked like a president.”

Event Date: 2-12-2002
Event Description: The Cuban Liberation Front robs the Cuban National Bank in the city of Las Tunas, a middle sized Cuban town with many wealthy entrepreneurs presiding there. This attack on a hub of capitalism in Cuba is reciprocated two days later by the Casino Worker’s Union in Havana being disintegrated by Presidential decree.

Event Date: 2-15-2002
Event Description: President Webb infuriates environmental groups by approving of three new Nuclear Power Plants in Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada. “We can’t allow a weapon of war to power our cities,” Senator Russ Feingold (Republican of Wisconsin) argued when the decision was debated in Congress, “Nuclear power is very dangerous and expensive, and thus should be met with caution.”

Event Date: 2-21-2002
Event Description: The Cuban city of Banes, which is harboring leftist rebels, is attacked by the Cuban air force, leveling the town square and killing more than 200 people. These types of attacks are what are turning world opinion against both President Pedro Diaz Lanz and American aid of the regime.

Event Date: 3-01-2002
Event Description: The Odyssey, the Mars rover sent to find a suitable place for a manned space vessel to land, returns pictures of a perfect area for landing on the Red Planet in 2005. “Today we have come one step closer to landing an American on another planet in God’s universe,” President Webb tells the American Aeronautics League Convention in Washington, D.C., “Soon American astronauts will see the planet Mars from up close.”

Event Date: 3-09-2002
Event Description: President Jackson welcomes former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez at the White House. Perez is a leading anti-Chavez figure in Venezuela as well as a close ally of President Jack Kemp, the last Democrat to hold the White House before President Webb. The two discuss a need for change in Venezuela, but little else. “The meeting was very cordial,” Press Secretary Tony Snow tells the press that day, “As well as one outlining the president’s positions on Central and South America, but little else.”

Event Date: 3-10-2002
Event Description: In a clear sign that President Webb has allies in South America, Colombia elects a conservative, anti-socialist legislature today. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had tried to intervene on behalf on left-winged candidates, but his meddling turned off many voters to the socialist cause.

Event Date: 3-16-2002
Event Description: Attorney General Jim Gilmore begins the prosecution of the Cuban rebels who participated in the Kemp Kidnapping of September 11-13th, 2001. “They will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Attorney General Gilmore tells the press, “Justice will be served in the fullest.”

Event Date: 3-25-2002
Event Description: President Webb signs a revamped version of the Interstate Highway Act. Introduced by Senator Alphonse D’Amato (Democrat of New York), this bill begins both a renovation of America’s interstate roads as well as creating a Congressional committee to study the practicality of interstate rail transportation as an alternative to driving. “We need to take on our nation’s addiction to driving,” Senator D’Amato declares, “While I support the rights of Americans to drive and transport themselves the way they like, I also realize that there are possible alternatives.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-01-2002
Event Description: In Reicito, Venezuela, General Angel Vivas Perdomo meets with former President Carlos Andres Perez, fresh from his visit to the White House. The two men discuss a military coup against President Hugo Chavez. “The man is hated by the military,” General Perdomo assures President Perez, “While you are still supported by the ranks.” “Could we really purge our nation of that Red devil once and for all?” Perez asks the general. “Certainly,” the general responds, “I can assure you that Mr. Webb will not try to stop us.”

Event Date: 4-06-2002
Event Description Undersecretary of State Otto Reich meets with Venezuelan businessman Pedro Carmona at the Watergate Hotel. The two men discuss whether the Webb Administration will support a military coup against President Chavez. “We won’t give you weapons I’m sure,” Reich tells Carmona, “But we won’t oppose any move against Chavez. I can also assure you that we will recognize any pro-American government.” With this assurance, Carmona phones President Perez and General Perdomo and tells them, “This is going to be a cake walk.”

Event Date: 4-11-2002
Event Description: While speaking against American involvement in Cuba, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is shot three times by an army sniper. The bullets hit his neck, forehead and right-ear, killing the president instantly. Immediately, General Angel Perdomo takes the stage at the speech, declaring, “A new Venezuela has come!” The next twelve hours are a blur in Caracas, with former President Carlos Perez taking the oath of office to become President of Venezuela once again and the creation of a military state until the chaos can be sorted out. The new military junta is led by President Perez and General Perdomo, and is immediately recognized by Cuban President Pedro Lanz.

Event Date: 4-12-2002
Event Description: The world reacts in amazement, disdain and celebration over the assassination of Hugo Chavez and the installation of a junta in Venezuela. “Thanks are to the almighty!” Senator Jesse Helms celebrates, “The evil of socialism has been expunged from yet another nation. May glorious Americanism be spread the world over!” Senator Helms’ joyous response to the news is matched by Congressman Charles Rangel’s own skeptic view of the situation. “I would hope that President Webb and the Democrats had nothing to do with overthrowing a foreign power,” Congressman Rangel tells the New York Times, “But then again, this is the party of Bobby Kennedy.” President Webb immediately issues recognition of the new Venezuelan government, despite massive outcry against this move by leftists around the globe.

Event Date: 4-20-2002
Event Description: Former President Carlos Perez is sworn in as President of Venezuela once again, this time under a new constitution protecting the rights of free trade, capital enterprise as well as forming strong foreign ties to the United States. General Angel Perdomo is made Defense Minister and immediately begins working with Secretary of State Moynihan to form a mutual protection alliance with the United States.

Event Date: 4-21-2002
Event Description: Socialist President Lionel Jospin is reelected over Michèle Alliot-Marie, the leader of the Rally for the Republic Party. President Jospin, despite several confrontations with European neighbors, is respected by the French people for his refusal to join the European Union. The Rally for the Republic Party is seen as the pro-European Union Party by French voters, increasing appeal to President Jospin.

Event Date: 4-30-2002
Event Description: In a rushed election, Venezuelan voters approve of the new government and constitution in a referendum. Though many in the world community look at the lopsided 88-12% vote as crooked, President Webb endorses this victory as, “The mandate of the people for change.”

Event Date: 5-01-2002
Event Description: The socialist holiday of May Day is marked by left-wing terror in Venezuela and Cuba. “Chavistas”, as they are called by the new right-winged regime, take to the streets in protest against the Perez Administration. These protests evolve into a riot when three policemen are killed by a bomb hurled into a crowd near the town square. While no one is sure who threw the bomb, the military blames the leftist protesters and begins smashing heads together. In Cuba, the capital of Havana is racked by mortar fire from the Cuban Liberation Front. The National Library, the Hall of the Republic and the President’s Mansion are damaged by the attacks. In both nations the military quells the uprisings, but the incidents of May Day 2002 show the Webb Administration one thing: the revolution is not over in the Americas.

Event Date: 5-05-2002
Event Description: Senator Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts, defeating State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien by a 52-48% margin, far closer then the pundits expected. O’Brien was able to paint Romney as an opportunist who was seeking the Governor’s Mansion as a stepping stone for the White House, which led to the close result. The Democratic candidate, former State Senator Paul Celucci, is seen as a sacrificial lamb in a state which has not elected a Democratic governor since 1978.

Event Date: 5-14-2002
Event Description: Former Vice-President President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a 5-day visit with President Pedro Diaz Lanz. Baseball Commissioner and former Senator Fidel Castro travels with the former Vice-President. During the tour of the war torn island, the Cuban Liberation Front will try to intercept the convoy with the American dignitaries, but fail.

Event Date: 5-20-2002
Event Description: Former Senator Mike Gravel (Republican of Alaska) announces his candidacy for President of the United States. “Why is the United States messing around in the affairs of nations in the Americas?” Gravel asks supporters in his announcement address, “This is not what our founder’s wanted. We do not need more right-winged pet dictators, as we already have enough in the Middle East. We do not need them in our own hemisphere.”

Event Date: 6-06-2002
Event Description: President Webb signs an executive order ending all economic sanctions against Venezuela, which had been established in the year 2000. Immediately oil companies and banking firms begin opening up shop in the South American nation. “Free trade and capitalism is returning to our nation,” President Perez tells his people in a televised address, “Soon our struggling economy will once again be the pearl of South America.”

Event Date: 6-15-2002
Event Description: Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (Democrat of California) introduces the Small Business Liability Relief Act, which will pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law by President Webb. The bill provides funds for workman’s compensation and legal defense for small businesses that have belligerent workers who file lawsuits against them. While unions are outraged by the legal defense fund, small businessmen begin a strong shift to the Democratic Party.

Event Date: 6-24-2002
Event Description: In a surprise raid on the city of Santiago, Cuba, six of the top eight leaders of the Cuban Liberation Front are killed by the Cuban military. Despite this success, the leader of the CLF, José Ramón Machado Ventura, is still alive and continuing to find support for his revolution.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-01-2002
Event Description: A referendum by the African Union to disband is voted down. “For the first time in decades Africa is a continent with a glimmer of hope,” President Webb tells the African Union soon after this decision, “It is heartening to see that the nations of Africa see this hope as I do.”

Event Date: 7-08-2002
Event Description: France once again votes against joining the European Union, making it one of three mainland Europe nations which have not joined the ever growing EU. President Lionel Jospin has proven to be a strong bulwark against the pressures of the European community.

Event Date: 7-12-2002
Event Description: Governor Tom Vilsack (Republican of Iowa) becomes the second governor in the country to sign a form of statewide health care into effect. Much like Badger Care in Wisconsin, HawkCare in Iowa will insure all children from infancy to the age of twelve, giving needed early health check ups to thousands of poor Iowan families. Other states are expected to follow suit, including Illinois, which is governed by the archconservative Governor Hillary Rodham. “Just because I’m conservative doesn’t mean I’m heartless,” she tells the press as she begins pushing for an Illinois child health care bill.

Event Date: 7-14-2002
Event Description: President Lionel Jospin narrowly escapes an assassination while attending a Bastille Day celebration in Paris. On this most celebrated day for the left, right-wing assassin Maxime Brunerie fires three shots from a Parisian hotel, one of which wounds Minister of the Interior Paul Quiles. President Webb, sensing that the far-left worldwide may try to tie his White House to the assassination attempt, goes on world television that night and tells the world, “Tonight I stand with France and President Jospin as they stand against terror and madness. Bastille Day is a day that French citizens and Americans treasure as victory over such horrors, and that is why we condemn the cowardly acts in Paris today.”

Event Date: 7-26-2002
Event Description: President Webb tells telecommunication giant WorldCom that he will not issue a bail out for the failing company. “The government can not get in the business of bailing out failing private industries,” President Webb tells the press, “As soon as we do that then capitalism no longer exists in America.” WorldCom will file Chapter 11 bankruptcy before breaking up into smaller companies in January 2003.

Event Date: 8-02-2002
Event Description: Governor Christopher Cox is given a victory in California as Attorney General Dan Lungren wins the Democratic nomination for Governor of California, defeating businessman William “Bill” Simon among others. On the Republican side, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan defeats former Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis, State Controller Cruz Bustamante and Congressman Sam Farr to oppose Lungren in November. The race in California will be expensive and negative, leaving many Californians apathetic towards the race.

Event Date: 8-10-2002
Event Description: In its first show of real unity, the European Union begins disaster relief for those affected by the disastrous and destructive Central European Floods.

Event Date: 8-19-2002
Event Description: President Pedro Diaz Lanz is assassinated by a car bomber as his motorcade rides through Guantanamo, Cuba. The assassin, 22-year old Ciro Gutierrez, masqueraded as an American solider at Guantanamo Naval Base, giving him the time and equipment needed to perform this perfect attack, The blast which claimed the life of the Cuban president kills three American servicemen, leading to an outcry from Capitol hill against the, as Congressman Tom Tancredo puts it, “The cold blooded murder of our servicemen and American allies.” The new Cuban President, Infante Segrera, calls on the United States to, “Avenge our fallen leader and your fallen soldiers.”

Event Date: 8-21-2002
Event Description: Debate begins in the U.S. House of Representatives over issuing force against the Cuban Liberation Front. While many in Congress agree that something should be done to avenge the attacks, Congressman Chet Edwards (Republican of Texas) argues that military intervention may be the worse way to avenge the deaths. “A unilateral invasion of Cuba would kill far more men and women then the three heroes at Guantanamo Bay would have wanted,” Congressman Edwards argues, “All an invasion will achieve in doing is starting a costly quagmire on an island of no strategic interest to us and angering the world community while doing it. The U.S. military is not a tool for revenge, and should never be used unless all measures of peace have failed.” Congressman Edwards’ argument turns several minds against a strike against leftists in Cuba, but not nearly enough. The resolution passes by an overwhelming margin in the House of Representatives, with the Senate following suit three days later.

Event Date: 9-01-2002
Event Description: The first American forces, commanded by General Tommy Franks, land at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There mission is clear: Destroy the Cuban Liberation Front. On the world stage, protests are held in Germany, France and the United Kingdom against the intervention and even former President Reginald Jackson comments that the Webb Administration “Is embracing cowboy tactics in Cuba.”

Event Date: 9-04-2002
Event Description: American infantry attack CLF rebels outside of the city of Baracca, Cuba, which has an active worker’s rights community. The CLF commander, left-wing rebel for all causes Luis Posada Carriles, has his outnumbered force dig in trenches around the city, forcing some 2,500 American troops to fight from a far distance, allowing an orderly escape of Carriles and fifteen close associates. While the American press calls this a major victory due to the number of rebels killed and captured, a major player for the leftists is still free.

Event Date: 9-11-2002
Event Description: The one year anniversary of the Kemp Kidnappings is marked by American forces taking and then raising a CLF encampment outside of Moa, Cuba. Slowly, yet surely, the Cuban Liberation Army is moving north to more unfriendly territory nearer the capital city of Havana.

Event Date: 9-20-2002
Event Description: In the United States, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a perennial leftist favorite, introduces a motion to censure President James Webb for, “Unconstitutionally and immorally waging war against an ally.” This motion receives support from the World Worker’s Congress, the Green Party and other socialist and social-democratic organizations around the world, but not very much in the U.S. Congress. “The little elf from Ohio wants to show us he’s important again,” Speaker of the House J.D. Hayworth mockingly tells his Congressional comrades, “But once again, he fails. Perhaps he should stop being a Congressman and become a dentist?”

Event Date: 9-24-2002
Event Description: In the increasingly negative race for U.S. Senate in the state of Minnesota, incumbent Senator James Oberstar (Republican of Minnesota), elected in 1996 after Senator Wellstone was made the running-mate of President Jackson, is attacked by his Democratic opponent, Congressman Gil Gutknecht, as “Che Oberstar” in a mailing. Senator Oberstar, who had voted against using force in Cuba in September, is portrayed in a military beret and in front of a red flag, just like infamous communist revolutionary Che Guevara. “This is a childish, stupid campaign stunt,” Senator Oberstar tells Congressman Gutknecht on a debate on Meet the Press, “And I think you should apologize for it.” “No,” Gutknecht responds, “You should apologize for not supporting our troops and letting terrorist attacks against them go unpunished.” It is these types of ad hominem assaults which keep Senator Oberstar narrowly ahead in all the polls.

Event Date: 9-30-2002
Event Description: The Cuban military massacres thirty unarmed union factory workers in Havana, leading to labor protests around the world. “It is time for President Webb to get out of bed with the thugs in the Cuban government cabal!” former Secretary of Commerce Ralph Nader declares at a Pro-Union Labor rally in Washington, D.C., “It is time for the united labor movement to oppose those who stand with Cuba’s right-winged regime.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-05-2002
Event Description: President Webb and Cuban President Emiliano Infante meet in Panama City, Florida. The two men discuss humanitarian reforms on the island nation, all of which President Infante agrees with. Infante, born a poor son of a fisherman, is not the cold hearted killer that men like Fulgencio Batista and Pedro Diaz Lanz were, but far more of family man and a progressive leader for the lawless and cruel Cuban nation. He aggress to order the military to end attacks on union ran factories, legalizes all forms of organized labor on the island and begins preparations for a new constitutional convention in Havana. These changes will prove to be sufficient in not only improving the world’s opinion of the Cuban government, but they also begin to turn more Cubans away from the CFL.

Event Date: 10-14-2002
Event Description: “A Song for My Sister” opens in theatres. This dramatic film tells the story of John Campbell Harrison, a fictional resident of the Town of Clear Lake, Minnesota. His life is marked by one tragedy, the death of his older sister Clara, portrayed by Ellen Page. As a 23-year old, Harrison, portrayed by Toby Maguire, is drafted to fight in the Russo-Chinese War and experiences head trauma when his swift boat is blown up by Chinese bombers. This head trauma causes Harrison to continually fail in civilian life due to the fact that it causes him to see his long dead sister, who sings the old Scottish ballad “Barbara Allen”, the song that she was murmuring as she died more than twenty years ago. This film is critically acclaimed, and brings up the issue of posttraumatic stress disorder’s affects on soldiers returning from the battlefields of the world.

Event Date: 10-26-2002
Event Description: Cuban Liberation Front leader José Ramón Machado Ventura is killed in a firefight with American Marines outside of the city of Las Turas. The fifteen hour firefight with Cuban revolutionaries leaves twenty-nine American soldiers dead, as well as an additional ten severely wounded. Despite these numbers, the figurehead of the Cuban Liberation Front is now dead, leaving the revolutionary body in disarray.

Event Date: 10-31-2002
Event Description: In a last ditch attempt to hurl back advancing American forces, the CLF’s last powerful leader, Luis Posada Carriles, begins a three day campaign of terrorism throughout central Cuba. This assault will be destructive, but it will also be contained and put down by joint Cuban and American troops.

Event Date: 11-05-2002
Event Description: With the economy finally working its way out of a nasty recession from 2000-2001 and American forces completing their task in Cuba, President Webb is awarded an unusual mandate: the incumbent party gains seats in Congressional midterm elections. The Democratic Party picks up four Senate seats, South Dakota, Missouri, New Jersey and Nevada, though Senator Oberstar is reelected in Minnesota by a 52-45% margin. Governor Norm Coleman, a Republican, is reelected by a 67-31% margin over State Senator Joe Gimsey, the Democratic sacrificial lamb. Governor Coleman is seen as a front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in 2004. In California, Mayor Richard Riordan defeats Attorney General Dan Lungren by a very narrow margin of less than 12,000-votes. Lungren, now a twice defeated candidate for governor, chooses to bow out of the race respectfully, telling his supporters, “The state has been left in capable hands with Mayor Riordan.” In Massachusetts, Senator Mitt Romney is elected governor by a 59-41% margin, cementing him as the leading Republican for the 2004 presidential nomination. Of note in a race for U.S. House, Congressman Chet Edwards, a rare Southern Republican, is defeated for reelection by Democratic State Representative Arlene Wohlgemuth. Congressman Edwards’ refusal to support force against Cuba turned out to be his undoing, but Edwards shows no sign of regret at his decision. “I did what I felt was right,” Edwards tells his supporters as he concedes the race, “I knew that you would want nothing less.”   

Event Date: 11-11-2002
Event Description: The Cuban Liberation Front is rendered devoid of leaders when U.S. marines capture Luis Posada Carriles in the small fishing town of San Carlos, Cuba. Carriles will be tried for treason in Havana, Cuba, and found guilty along with many other revolutionaries. This major victory ends most intensive fighting in Cuba, thus ending the Cuban Civil War.

Event Date: 11-20-2002
Event Description: General Tommy Franks meets with President Webb at the White House. The two men discuss withdrawal of U.S. forces from the island of Cuba, as the civil war seems to have come to an end. “We’ve accomplished our objective, Mr. President,” General Franks tells President Webb, “It is time for us to go.” The president agrees to begin withdrawal of the 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Cuba.

Event Date: 12-05-2002
Event Description: Senator John Kerry (Republican of Massachusetts), reelected last November with more than eighty percent of the vote, declares his candidacy for the 2004 Republican presidential nomination. “President Webb promised a humble foreign policy and balanced budgets,” Senator Kerry states in his announcement address from the Joseph Kennedy, Junior, Presidential Library in Boston, “However he gave us government deficits, foreign coups and invasions of our own allies. President Webb has been a miserable failure, and we need to admit this and look for a better man for the Oval Office. I hope to be that better man.” Kerry’s combative announcement appeals to partisan Republicans, but is looked upon as a bitter address by independents.

Event Date: 12-19-2002
Event Description: The first installments of American troops arrive home from Cuba. All will be home by March 2003, helping bolster President Webb’s popularity. The president’s popularity has led many prominent Republicans to already announce that they will not seek the White House in 2004. Former Vice-President Paul Wellstone, former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, Senator Evan Bayh (Republican of Indiana), Senator Mike DeWine (Republican of Ohio), Governor Judd Gregg (Republican of New Hampshire) and House Minority Leader Stenny Hoyer (Republican of Maryland) have all announced that they will not seek the White House in 2004. 

[PBrunsel]

I'm glad to see that a debate has begun over affairs in Latin America. 2002 was the crisis year, but there will still be some more changes in affairs in the Americas. Also, to Xahar, you are right, the events of the last two years have soured opinions in Latin America towards the United States.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-08-2003
Event Description: President Webb signs the Saxton Act, introduced by Congressman H. James Saxton (Democrat of New Jersey). This act, the first passed by the 108th Congress, requires the U.S. Congress to have to a 2/3rd majority before any tax increase can become law. This is a major victory for fiscal conservatives, as they have been fighting for this tax prevision since the 1990s.

Event Date: 1-15-2003
Event Description: Governor John Rowland (Republican of Connecticut) declares his candidacy for President of the United States. “It’s about time that the American people get some straight talk,” Governor Rowland says in his announcement address, “President James Webb has been a disaster, and the current Republicans seeking to unseat him can’t do it. I know I can, as I have beaten the odds before and I will do it again. I was told that I could never balance the budget as governor, and I did. I was told I could never pass welfare reform, and I did. I was told I could never be elected governor, and I did. Together, we can defeat the Webb White House and restore dignity to the Oval Office.” Governor Rowland is very popular with the national Republican establishment and the powerful Bush political family, making him a powerful player in the Republican Primaries.

Event Date: 1-21-2003
Event Description: In Caracas, Venezuela, leftist rebels begin a three month terror campaign to destabilize the Perez Administration. Minister of Defense Angel Perdomo begins a major crackdown on civil liberties in the nation’s capitol, leading to an outcry against the new government by humanitarian groups.

Event Date: 2-08-2003
Event Description: Senator Russ Feingold (Republican of Wisconsin) introduces a resolution to the Senate which would discourage intervention in foreign civil wars. “The event in Cuba last year have led me to believe that this administration sees the armed forces as a tool to help unpopular regimes win domestic conflicts,” Senator Feingold tells his colleagues, “That is a dangerous position and one which should never be used again.” Senator Majority Leader Don Nichols (Democrat of Oklahoma) will refuse to allow this resolution to come up for a vote, calling it, “Pure parliamentary games.”

Event Date: 2-15-2003
Event Description: Timothy McVeigh releases his first non-fiction book, “A Future for Fascism.” This book, described as a libertarian manifesto by McVeigh, attacks the United States for, “Abandoning the principles of the Founding Fathers and becoming both a police state at home and aboard.” The CIA, FBI, public education, the standing army and lobbyists are blamed for, “Tilling the land for a fertile growth of American fascism.” The book is applauded by libertarian author Larry Elder as, “The most eye opening look at American government in fifty-years.”

Event Date: 2-26-2003
Event Description: In a bipartisan agreement, Senator Bill Frist (Democrat of Tennessee) and Congressman Charlie Bass (Republican of New Hampshire) introduce the Latin America Relief Act. This bill issues $500 million for economic development in the nations of Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Belize, Mexico and Costa Rica.

Event Date: 3-03-2003
Event Description: In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upholds their decision on abortion as set down by Planned Parenthood v. McWherter. This time around Planned Parenthood attempted to sue the state of Illinois for refusing a state abortion plan which would have allowed a young girl to abort her pregnancy, which was the cause of her death. “This is becoming a murder case,” Planned Parenthood attorney Gordon Powers tells the press, “A lack of proper birth control laws in the United States can be a cause of death amongst women too young to give child birth.” The conservative Supreme Court rules against this line of thinking, with Justice Robert Bork writing, “No state can be charged with murder.”

Event Date: 3-10-2003
Event Description: Governor Mitt Romney (Republican of Massachusetts) announces on Meet the Press that he will not seek the presidency in the year 2004. “I have just become governor,” Romney explains to Tim Russert, “Now is not the time to seek another office. I need to complete the job I’ve been hired for, after all, that’s what I did when I was in business and that’s what I want to do in my new executive position.” When pressed by Russert on who he supports for president in 2004, Romney responds, “I like Governor Coleman in Minnesota, I hope he runs.” This is a major slight to John Kerry, the second Republican to announce his candidacy for president, as he had served alongside Romney in the Senate six years.

Event Date: 3-12-2003
Event Description: Chinese President Hu Jintao fires his entire economic staff, calling them, “Amateur novices,” to U.S. News and World Report. The new Chinese corporate state has been nowhere as successful as the one in Japan, leading Jintao to blame is economic staff for failures in growing the economy. This abrupt action leads the world market to suffer, but it will rebound as soon as Jintao hires new advisors.

Event Date: 3-26-2003
Event Description: Secretary of State Daniel Patrick Moynihan dies at the age of 76 after complications suffered from an emergency appendectomy done last month. Despite the pain of the failed operation, Moynihan refused to quit his post until President Webb requested his retirement. Moynihan had served as a U.S. Senator from 1977-1981 and Secretary of State for Robert Kennedy and Jack Kemp, from 1981-1993, and in the same post for President Webb since 2001. “A faithful public servant has passed into eternity tonight,” President Webb tells the American people in a heartfelt address from the Oval Office, “Daniel Patrick Moynihan spent his life seeking peace in the world, and now enters the glory of Heaven to live forever with the Prince of Peace.”

Event Date: 3-28-2003
Event Description: Nicaragua, a nation whose economy was left out of economic aide in the Latin American Relief Act due to its socialist government, elects a new, pro-American government headed up by Arnoldo Alemán, who defeats former President Daniel Ortega by a 54-46% margin. Ortega claims that the election was stolen, but has no proof to back up this assertion. Over the next several months the U.S. Congress will formalize relations with Nicaragua and include them in the nations aided by the Latin American Relief Act.

Event Date: 3-29-2003
Event Description: Senator Olympia Snowe (Republican of Maine) declares her candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. “The time is now for the promise of President Reginald Jackson to be fully fulfilled,” Senator Snowe declares in her announcement address, “The promise of a full life through faith, education and a helping hand, and that is why I seek the presidency today. I also seek the presidency to fulfill the promise of Secretary of State William Cohen, one of Maine’s greatest public servants, by ending the policy of the United States coddling civil liberties terrorists and dictators across the globe. We must show the world that right makes might, and not the other way around in American foreign policy.”   

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-03-2003
Event Description: California Governor Richard Riordan issues an executive order defending sanctuary city polices in California. Sanctuary cities, which are cities in which illegal immigrants can not be asked by police if they are legal residents, have never been tackled by the federal government, making Governor Riordan’s decision a legal and valid one. “California has some of the biggest cities in the country,” Governor Riordan explains to the press, “We need to have ever law abiding resident, legal or not, available to talk to police when cries occur. This is why sanctuary cities need to exist.” This comment is roundly criticized by leading conservatives, with Rush Limbaugh telling his radio audience, “Riordan understands law and order about as well as Sam Waterson does it appears.”

Event Date: 4-05-2003
Event Description: Six anti-Russian Chechens kidnap a tour bus full of Russian and American tourists in Kiev, Ukraine. The terrorists demand that Russia remove two units of tanks from the Russian-Chechen border. President Webb and Undersecretary of State Joshua Bolton immediately condemn the attack and urge the European Union to intervene in the crisis. Russian President Boris Yelstin chooses to negotiate with the Chechens, though the opposition Nationalist Party of Russia demands a forceful response. After two days of intensive talks, President Yeltsin agrees to remove certain weapons from the border, including tanks and short range missiles. These concessions are enough to end the hostage situation, but they infuriate Nationalists in Russia who see the deal as a sell out.

Event Date: 4-12-2003
Event Description: Governor Norm Coleman (Republican of Minnesota) announces his candidacy for president of the United States. “I seek the presidency not to oppose the current administration,” Governor Coleman states in his announcement address, “I seek the office to be America’s Mayor, an executive who cleans up his town, something President Webb doesn’t want to do.” The slogan “America’s Mayor” is meant to point to Coleman’s many successes as Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as his strong tenure as Governor of the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Event Date: 4-22-2003
Event Description: The Senate confirms Joshua Bolton as the new Secretary of State, confident that his masterful handling of the recent crisis in Chechnya as proof he will perform well in the new job.

Event Date: 5-05-2003
Event Description: Governor Mitt Romney signs the Equality of Marriage Act, making the Bay State the second state in the nation to legalize homosexual marriage. “Laws should not be made to discriminate against other people,” Governor Romney tells the press as he signs to bill, “This is why every state needs to recognize the equality of holy matrimony, no matter if it is between a man and a woman or a man and a man.” This act makes Romney a popular figure amongst progressives, but alienates his own Mormon Church who opposes homosexual unions.

Event Date: 5-11-2003
Event Description: President Webb begins a tour of Latin America, the focal point of his foreign policy. The trip will not always be a pleasant one, as millions of Latin American people see the United States as an aggressor in their homelands. However, President Webb leaves for the trip with a strong face on. “This trip will open up new doors of understanding,” President Webb tells the press as he goes aboard Air Force One, “Even if it doesn’t, I haven’t had a good vacation in twenty years so I could just use it for that.”

Event Date: 5-13-2003
Event Description: President Webb and Mexican President Vincente Fox meet in Mexico City, Mexico, to discuss progress in Mexico’s faltering economy as well as Mexico’s attempts to decrease illegal immigration into the United States. While the guest worker project and the “satellite wall” have reduced illegal immigration from Mexico by more than half in the last five years, the problem still exists. In the end, Fox agrees to step up Mexican border patrol and crack down on the drug dealing crisis in his poverty stricken nation.

Event Date: 5-15-2003
Event Description: While touring Managua, Nicaragua, President Webb’s motorcade is attacked by a small group of leftist protesters. These rebels are armed with small firearms and Molotov cocktails, far more weaponry then local police had thought protesters would dare bring near a presidential convoy. The ensuing chaos will leave several police and protesters injured, but none are killed and President Webb arrives at the Presidential Manor unscathed.

Event Date: 5-20-2003
Event Description: In a surprise announcement, former Senator Gary Hart (Republican of Colorado) announces that he will seek the presidency in 2004. Senator Hart, thought discredited as a candidate for any office after the 1987 Donna Rice scandal, tells the Boulder Daily Press that he is, “Tanned, rested and ready to take on the president and restore progressive values to the Oval Office.” “Well if he’s around enough patriotic secretaries,” Rush Limbaugh comments, “More than just ‘progress’ will be brought back to the Oval Office.”

Event Date: 5-28-2003
Event Description: Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky, is racked by a minor explosion. While none are harmed by the blast, harm caused to the school’s cafeteria will cost thousands of dollars to replace. A formal police inquiry into the attack reveals that junior Ryan Petersen is responsible for the attack. His locker is found to have a copy of Timothy McVeigh’s “A Future of Fascism” in it, leading some in congress to call for the banning of the book. “These attacks on my work are uncalled for,” McVeigh tells Larry King Live, “I am only the messenger; people interrupt messages in different ways.”

Event Date:  6-08-2003
Event Description: In a White House ceremony, President James Webb presents General Tommy Franks with the Medal of Honor for leading American troops, “In the fight for freedom in Cuba.” Also today six U.S. soldiers who served under Franks will be given this high honor. Protesters line the streets outside of Pennsylvanian Avenue, attacking the president for giving awards for, as one protester tells CNN News, “Invading a country and propping up a murderous regime.”

Event Date: 6-11-2003
Event Description: United Airlines Flight 93 crashes outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all ninety-six passengers. Among the dead is former Congressman Malcolm Little, who was traveling to Washington, D.C., to march with the Reverend Al Sharpton and Project Push in favor of saving affirmative action, which will be decided on in Grutter v. Bollinger in three days. Little was seventy-eight years old, and as Sharpton will say at his funeral in Detroit, Michigan, “Feeling younger everyday due to the energy of justice.”

Event Date: 6-14-2003
Event Description: In Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court rules against affirmative action in university admissions by a 5-4 decision. “Race is no longer a valid reason to skew admission into universities and other areas of higher learning,” Chief Justice William Rehnquist writes in the majority opinion, “Though class based affirmative action are still a reasonable request for higher learning.” This decision outrages both liberals and conservatives, as liberals support race based affirmative action and conservatives oppose all forms of it!

Event Date: 6-25-2003
Event Description: French President Lionel Jospin becomes the first French president in history to face a recall election. Paris Mayor Nicholas Sarkozy, the protégé of Jacques Chirac, spearheaded this recall election, and was able to get the needed signatures to force a recall vote on July 14th, 2003, Bastille Day. If President Jospin is recalled, a special presidential election will happen in October 2003. “I will survive these bitter partisan attacks,” President Jospin tells the press, “No recalls can stop the power of the people’s voice.”

Event Date: 7-06-2003
Event Description: Vice-President Kay Bailey Hutchinson, while visiting Paris, France, for an economic summit, makes the grave error of endorsing the recall of President Jospin. “I believe that Mr. Jospin’s ideas on taxation and government control are out of step with those of the developed world,” Vice-President Hutchinson tells the BBC in an exclusive interview, “Which is why I feel that recalling him from office would do some good for France.” This comment is taken up by Republicans as proof that the Webb Administration is now targeting socialist governments in Europe as well as in the Americas. “This administration is trigger happy when it comes to over throwing governments!” Senator Mike Gravel declares at the first Republican Presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa, “Now they are looking across the sea to further their reactionary agenda.” President Webb responds that his administration, “Has nothing to do with the recall in France,” and, “the vice-president is entitled to her own opinion.”

Event Date: 7-14-2003
Event Description: President Lionel Jospin escapes recall as President of France by a 51-49% margin. This is by no means a mandate for governing, but as Jospin tells the French press at his victory celebration, “It’s a mandate of victory over those conservative bastards and that’s all that matters to me!”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-01-2003
Event Description: Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Republican of Ohio) throws his hat into the ring, declaring his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in 2004. “I’ve been fighting my whole life,” Congressman Kucinich declares at his announcement address in Cleveland, Ohio, “From my days of living in cars, to my battles as mayor to my current position as a champion of progressive values in Congress I have been fighting to be heard and to prevail.”

Event Date: 8-14-2003
Event Description: A wide spread power outage across the Northeastern United States leaves millions of Americans without basic electricity, some for hours and other for days. When it turns out that a grove of overgrown trees in Ohio caused the crisis, Senator George Voinovich (Republican of Ohio) introduces the Power Grid Maintenance Act of 2003. This act will require state governments to monitor their power lines every year to make sure that their power grid is not being interfered with by foreign objects. The bill will easily pass and be singed into law by President Webb.

Event Date: 8-18-2003
Event Description: Former Maryland Governor Peter Franchot declares his candidacy for President of the United States. One of the “Young Wonder Governors”, such as Bill Clinton, Jefferson Thomas and John Rowland, of the early 1990s, Governor Franchot is seen as the darkest of dark horses in the 2004 Republican Primaries. However, he has the support of House Minority Leader Stenny Hoyer and Senators Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski, all nationally known Republicans.

Event Date: 8-26-2003
Event Description: The European Space Agency begins the search for two astronauts to join the Americans as they blast off to Mars in 2005. The search will cause some tension between Germany and the United Kingdom, as Germany has the continent’s most advanced space program but the United Kingdom is America’s closest European ally.

Event Date: 9-02-2003
Event Description: The House of Representatives begins debate over the Webb Budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal years, with great controversy surrounding one decision. This decision is that the Webb Administration will balance the budget by 2005, meaning that major spending cuts will occur. The military, of which President Webb comes from, is barely affected by these cuts, but education, public housing, job training and free clinics are severely severed of funds. “If the president wants balanced budgets, that’s fine,” House Minority Leader Hoyer declares at a pres conference, “But let him cut from the military or take away his tax cuts, not from the poverty stricken in society.”

Event Date: 9-08-2003
Event Description: After days of heated debate, President Webb decides to humor his budget opponents by cutting funding for American missile defense and cutting loose ten underperforming contractors for the Pentagon. This move saves $23 million and allows several jobs programs and educational necessities to be returned to the budget. The budget will easily pass both houses of Congress by October 2003, leading political commentator Robert Novak to comment, “President Webb is the only politician in history who can be both a polarizing and a uniting figure.”

Event Date: 9-12-2003
Event Description: Political commentator Dick Morris, a columnist for the “The New York Times”, derides the Republican candidates for president as, “The Eight Dwarves.” “Snowe, Rowland, Gravel, Kucinich, Hart, Kerry, Coleman and Franchot are not serious candidates for the most powerful position on the planet,” Morris writes, “None have shown the American people that they have a clear plan that deviates from the Republican line, and those who actually stand a chance at the nomination show no real signs of deviation from President Webb.” Morris concludes that, “The president is on his way to a landslide victory in 2004 if no better candidate enters to race for president.”

Event Date: 9-20-2003
Event Description: The Dow Jones Industrial Average finishes above 20,000-points today, the first time in the history of the stock.

Event Date: 9-28-2003
Event Description: The New York State legislature passes a resolution outlawing Timothy McVeigh’s novels in public high schools. “Mr. McVeigh’s books show people a government conspiracy that isn’t there,” Assemblyman Sheldon Silver tells the press, “That is why such trash should be kept out of reach of impressionable students.” In response to this decision, McVeigh blasts Silver on “Radio Free America” as, “One of those government types I warn against in my books. This is a man who wants no free expression of ideas and will do anything to stop the First Amendment. Sheldon Silver is a fascist.”

Event Date: 10-10-2003
Event Description: Rush Limbaugh, the host of “The Voice of the Nation”, admits on his program that he is addicted to prescription pain killers. “I have shown great weakness and foolishness,” Limbaugh tells his listeners, “For this I apologize to my listeners, supporters and the American public at large.” While late night comedians and Republican talking heads make much of this scandal, it will die down and Limbaugh will remain the host of the most popular radio show on the airwaves.

Event Date: 10-16-2003
Event Description: With the Russian presidential election just six months away, President Boris Yeltsin announces he will not seek a second term as president. “I feel a routine failing of my body,” President Yeltsin tells his people from a televised Kremlin address, “I have become an old and worn out man, and am not fit to be your president.” The Populist Party, after six years in power, feels the same way.

Event Date: 10-20-2003
Event Description: Bolivia bucks the pro-capitalist and pro-American attitudes of its Latin American neighbors by electing socialist Evo Morales to the presidency as well as voting in the Socialist Party as the majority in the Bolivian Legislature. Almost immediately, Senator Bill Frist introduces an embargo against Bolivia. President Webb never seriously considers an embargo, telling Secretary of Defense Wesley Clark, “The people of Bolivia will see the error of their ways without the big bad United States doing anything at all.”

Event Date: 10-31-2003
Event Description: Conservative attorney Starkman Roberts, a graduate of the University of Connecticut Law School as well as a member of the Federalist Society, announces that he will sue the New York State government for banning Timothy McVeigh’s books in public high schools. “We can not joke about freedom,” Roberts tells the press, “One man’s works can not be allowed in schools while another man’s is said to be ‘wrong’ for schools. To quote Orwell, this could mean that, ‘All animals are created equal, only some animals are more equal than others.’”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-05-2003
Event Description: The Louisiana gubernatorial election produces an unexpected winner today: businessman Piyeush “Bobby” Jindal, a very conservative Democrat whose parents were born in the nation of India. Jindal was considered a dark horse when he entered the race against three better known Democrats: Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Blanco, Congressman David Vitter and State Senator David Duke, a former Klansman. Jindal was able to use his “Baton Rouge outsider” image to win over the Bayou State and become the first Indian-American governor in the most unlikely of places.

Event Date: 11-08-2003
Event Description: President Webb meets with United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss the mission to Mars in 2005. The two men decide that one astronaut will be British and another will be German, to try to appease the two nations. “Is it not a bit presumptuous to be discussing your second term, Mr. President?” Prime Minister Blair asks President Webb, “After all, you do face an election next year.” “Mr. Prime Minister,” President Webb responds, “Elections in America are not like those here in Britain. In America, you know when you’re going to win.”

Event Date: 11-11-2003
Event Description: On Veteran’s Day, documentary director Ken Burns releases, “Mr. Churchill’s War”, a positive look at the war polices of Prime Minister Winston Churchill from 1939 to 1941. The documentary is attacked by pundit and historian Pat Buchanan as, “A revisionist wonderland.” However, the Churchill family, long discredited as a name for failure, sends appreciations to Burns from their home in Toronto, Canada.

Event Date: 11-18-2003
Event Description: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, rules that Governor Romney’s same-sex marriage laws are constitutional. This decision sends much of the political world into a free-for-all, as never before has it been ruled that same-sex marriage is protected by any constitution.

Event Date: 11-29-2003
Event Description: Congressman John F. Kennedy, Junior, announces his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2004. The forty-four year old Kennedy will face four-term incumbent Senator Alphonse D’Amato, a formidable task for a man with a discredited name.

Event Date: 12-08-2003
Event Description:  State Representative Alan Schlesinger, a conservative Democrat, introduces three articles of impeachment against Governor John Rowland. Governor Rowland is accused by the Democrats of taking money from banks to fight for a bill which deregulated certain aspects of state banking. “This is influence peddling and graft,” Schlesinger tells the state legislature, “We have no alternative but to impeach.” Republicans, seeing this as an attack on a presidential candidate more than the governor, do not let these proceedings occur. Governor Rowland remains in the race for president, and as a strong candidate for the nomination.

Event Date: 12-12-2003
Event Description: Congressman Ron Paul tells Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday that he will not challenge President James Webb for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. “While I disagree with the president on his belligerent foreign policy, especially towards Central America,” Congressman Paul tells Wallace, “But to run against him and divide our party would mean the election of a big government Republican to the presidency. At least the president fights for balanced budgets and against the military-industrial complex, which is not something I could expect from any Republican candidate.”

[PBrunsel]

HappyWarrior,

Governor Franchot served two terms as governor of Maryland, and was hailed for three major achievements:

1) He modernized voting in Maryland and made sure each ballot has a paper trail to cut down on voter fraud which is rampant in Baltimore.

2) Cleaned up corruption in the state government, especially bribery scandals under Price George’s County Executive Parris Glendening.

3) Governor Franchot lowered the state income tax and vetoed a state sales tax, attempting to end Maryland’s reputation as a “tax-and-spend” state and save retail jobs.

Congressman Robert Ehrlich, a moderate Democrat, was elected Governor of Maryland in 2002, defeating Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, the Republican nominee.   

[PBrunsel]

HappyWarrior,

I'm no expert on the poltics of Maryland, all I was looking at was 2002 in real life was a strong year for the incumbent party, as was 2002 in this alternate history. I took this and simply added that Democrats have had the governor's seat for more than twenty years and this led me to conclude that Congressman Ehrlich would be elected.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-04-2004
Event Description: Senator Hilmi Aydogdu is elected President of Kurdistan. The nominee of the right-winged Democratic Society Party, Senator Aydogdu ran his campaign based on attacking incumbent President Leyla Zana over concessions to the Kurdish Worker’s Party. The biggest concession was allowing the unionization of oil production in Kirkuk, the most oil rich province in Kurdistan. President-elect Aydogdu promises to, “Wrest socialism from our oil industry.”

Event Date: 1-12-2004
Event Description: President Webb announces that the crew for the May 2005 Mars mission has been selected. Leading the multinational expedition is Captain Michael J. Smith, who was the commander of the Challenger space station several times. Though he will be sixty in 2005, Captain Smith passed the routine physical and mental test to lead the greatest space mission in history.

Event Date: 1-19-2004
Event Description: Governor Norm Coleman wins the Iowa Caucus, using his position as a Midwestern Governor to appeal to the Midwest state. Senator Olympia Snowe finishes second, backed by women’s groups and popular in Iowa City and other college towns. Governor John Rowland and former Governor Peter Franchot finish third and fourth, though neither seriously contended for Iowa. Senator John Kerry and former Senator Gary Hart finish fifth and sixth, leading Hart to drop out of the race and endorse Senator Snowe, leading to some jokes about Hart being Snowe’s “running-mate” from Late Night Comedians. Congressman Dennis Kucinich and former Senator Mike Gravel round out tonight’s results to no one’s surprise.   

Event Date: 1-20-2004
Event Description: President Hilmi Aydogdu is sworn in as the new president of Kurdistan amongst great protest. The first act President Aydogdu issues is the de-unionization of all Kurdish oil companies. PKK leader Murat Karayilan declares that the new government “Is the new great enemy of the people.”

Event Date: 1-25-2004
Event Description: House Minority Leader Stenny Hoyer (Republican of Maryland) calls on President Webb to denounce the, “Anti-labor and anti-worker sentiments from the new leader of Kurdistan.” President Webb’s response is seen as noncommittal, as he tells the nation in an address from the Oval Office, “Events across the sea should make us more appreciative of the rights that all Americans have in this great country.”

Event Date: 1-29-2004
Event Description: Senator Olympia Snowe wins a narrow victory in the New Hampshire Primary, defeating her nearest rival, Governor John Rowland, by just 2,000-votes. Senator John Kerry of neighboring Massachusetts finishes third, and ends his quest for the White House. “Help is on the way, my fellow Americans,” Senator Kerry tells his disappointed supporters tonight, “That help will come from my close friends and associate Senator Olympia Snowe, who has my endorsement and support for the White House.” Governor Franchot takes fourth, disappointing his campaign as they had hoped his record as a tax reformer would appeal to the very anti-taxation atmosphere in the Granite State. The two most progressive candidates, Congressman Kucinich and Senator Gravel, once again round out the bottom of the results. “With the rise of anti-labor leaders in the Middle East,” Senator Gravel tells his small group of followers in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, “Makes it more important that America is a moral force for the poor and destitute, not a military arm for the oppressors of the everyday man.”

Event Date: 2-01-2004
Event Description: The New England Patriots defeat the Carolina Panthers in Superbowl XXXVIII. In the stands are two former presidents: Jack Kemp and Reginald Jackson, two huge football fans. At one point during the game the two presidents meet each other and discuss not the upcoming presidential election, but how cold the weather is for Texas. “You thought all the global warming stuff was real, Reggie,” President Kemp tells President Jackson, “I think this might debunk that theory.”

Event Date: 2-03-2004
Event Description: “Mini-Tuesday” is held, with primaries in Delaware, Missouri, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Arizona, as well as caucuses in North Dakota and New Mexico. Governor Rowland wins the Delaware Primary by a big margin, boasting the endorsement of Governor Ruth Miner and Congressman Michael Castle, as well as the Arizona Primary. Governor Coleman takes both caucuses in New Mexico and North Dakota as well as the Oklahoma and Missouri Primaries. Senator Snowe, with a history of supporting civil rights legislation and courting the African-American community, narrowly wins the South Carolina Primary. Governor Coleman’s big wins today make him the temporary front-runner for the nomination, though Senator Snowe and Governor Rowland are not far behind him.

Event Date: 2-07-2004
Event Description: Following a strong performance on Mini-Tuesday, Governor Norm Coleman wins a big victory in the Michigan Caucus, using his background as a businessman to talk economic sense in a state hurt by globalization. The Washington State Caucus goes for Senator Olympia Snowe, with Governor Coleman taking second place. Governor John Rowland finishes third in both states, leading many Republicans to urge him to pull out of the race. Tomorrow, Senator Snowe will easily win the Maine Caucus, taking over 90% of the vote in her home state’s contest.

Event Date: 2-10-2004
Event Description: The French National Assembly votes to pass a law banning religious items and clothing from schools. Mayor Nicholas Sarkozy attacks President Lionel Jospin for, “Using religion as a cheap distraction from the ailing economy of the French nation.”

Event Date: 2-12-2004
Event Description: The Tennessee and Virginia Primaries are held today, with surprising results. Governor Coleman, with the support of Senator John Warner (Republican of Virginia) and Governor Mark Warner (Republican of Virginia), wins the Old Dominion’s primary, but by a close margin over Governor Rowland. In Tennessee, Senator Snowe narrowly defeats Governor Coleman, primarily by tying herself to the African-American community in Memphis and Nashville. Governor Rowland declares tonight that he will, “Keep the fight going to at least Wisconsin.” Time may be running up for the scandal tarred executive of the Constitution State. Governor Peter Franchot, who had banked on a win in Virginia, drops out of the race and endorses Senator Snowe.

Event Date: 2-13-2004
Event Description: Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez declares that fair and free elections will be held in June 2004 to select a new government for his nation. All parties will be allowed to run, but many in the press see these elections as a show far more than an electoral contest. “’Fair and free’ are just words,” Morton Kondracke writes in Roll Call, “Any regime that came to power in a coup can not be trusted to have fair elections.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 2-14-2004
Event Description: Washington, D.C., and Nevada hold state caucuses, with Senator Snowe winning D.C. and Governor Coleman taking Nevada. Coleman’s support from Republican businessmen continues to give him the edge in the campaign, though Senator Snowe’s strong support from minorities, women and state parties enable her to stay in the race.

Event Date: 2-15-2004
Event Description: The Supreme Court of New York State rules in the case of Roberts v. New York State Public School System that Timothy McVeigh’s books can not be banned from public high schools. “Since there is no more profanity, nudity, obscenity or encouragement of violence in Mr. McVeigh’s books than in others in public school libraries,” the majority opinion rules, “His books can not be censored from public schools.” “Today was a major victory for freedom,” Starkman Roberts declares as he talks to the press after the verdict, “I hope that this case puts an end to the ridiculous notion of censorship of ideas. This is America; we should embrace all points of view.”   

Event Date: 2-17-2004
Event Description: The crucial Wisconsin Primary is held, with Governor Coleman outpacing Senator Snowe and Governor Rowland. Coleman, as the neighboring governor, enjoyed local support and also the endorsement of Senator Herb Kohl (Republican of Wisconsin). Senator Kohl’s colleague, Senator Russ Feingold, had campaigned extensively for Senator Snowe, placing her in second and forcing Governor Rowland out of the race. Congressman Dennis Kucinich breaks 5%, the first time this year, in the primary but still has yet to gain a delegate.

Event Date: 2-20-2004
Event Description: Senator Mike Gravel drops out of the Republican primaries for president, and declares that he will revive the defunct Progressive Reform Party. “I see now that both major parties are dominated by big money asking big favors!” Senator Gravel declares at a rally in Burlington, Vermont, “To save this country from the neoconservative movement, all good Americans must abandon the two party duopoly.” Congressman Bernard “Bernie” Sanders (Independent of Vermont), the former Mayor of Burlington, not only seconds the motion for a new party, he also asks Gravel if Burlington should be the host city for the Progressive Reform Party’s convention. “A fine idea,” Gravel tells Sanders, “I’m sick and tired of these big city conventions, let’s have a small town, regular American feel to our party.”

Event Date: 2-20-2004
Event Description: The conservative Islamic Fundamentalist Preservation Party (IFPP) wins the majority in the Iranian Parliament, tossing out the New Islamic Democratic Front (NIDF) for the first time since Iran held elections in the late 1970s. Shah Reza Pahlavi, the progressive leader who first introduced elections to his nation, is unhappy with the results, but welcomes them as, “The people’s resolution.” The new Iranian Prime Minister will be Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the forty-eight year old leader of the IFPP.

Event Date: 2-24-2004
Event Description: The Utah Primary and the Idaho and Hawaii Caucuses are contested by Governor Coleman and Senator Snowe. Coleman, with superior cash and organization, takes the Utah Primary and the Idaho Caucus, while Senator Snowe runs away with the Hawaii Caucus. Congressman Kucinich, to the surprise of most pundits, takes second place in Hawaii, edging out Governor Coleman with 26% of the vote to Coleman’s 22%.

Event Date: 2-29-2004
Event Description: Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the left-winged leader of Haiti, is overthrown in a military coup. He will be replaced by prominent right-winger, Judge Boniface Alexandre. Some public figures cry foul when President Webb sends relief to the island only after Aristide is forced to resign from office and flee the country. “It appears like humanity only matters to President Webb,” Senator Snowe tells a rally in San Francisco, California, “When their leader shares his view of the world.”

Event Date: 3-02-2004
Event Description: Super Tuesday comes to the 2004 Election, with primaries being held in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Ohio. Governor Coleman wins his home state of Minnesota and Ohio by wide margins, while Senator Snowe wins the states of Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont. The two big prizes of the night, New York and California, are split with Coleman narrowly winning California while Snowe wins New York. Coleman’s lead is all but wiped out by these results with Senator Snowe now benefiting from what she calls, “The Big Mo.”

Event Date: 3-05-2004
Event Description: President Webb begins a campaign swing through the Pacific Coast States, all of which have voted for Senator Snowe. This move is interpreted by political writer Michael Barone as, “The president realizing who is opponent will be in November.”

Event Date: 3-08-2004
Event Description: Kurdish President Hilmi Aydogdu announces that the PKK will be considered, “The greatest public enemy to the Kurdish state.” A campaign of terror against the PKK will begin, with Amnesty International chronicling the abuse of prisoners and the pure horror of the campaign for the world to see.

Event Date: 3-09-2004
Event Description: Southern Tuesday, the Florida, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi Primaries, comes in for Senator Snowe. The Senator from the state of Maine wins in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi, while Governor Coleman pulls out a narrow win in Florida.

Event Date: 3-12-2004
Event Description: Spanish police break into the home of Silvin Zarcola and arrest him for being a member of ETA, a Spanish terrorist group tied to a minor explosion at a Madrid post office. Over the next twenty-four hours it will become apparent that the government arrested the wrong man, as Mr. Zarcola had quit ETA in the 1990s. It is revealed by the BBC that the real reason that Mr. Zarcola was arrested is because of his ties to the Kurdish PKK as their main bankroller in Europe. “The Zarcola Affair” comes just two days before the Spanish Presidential election, thus hurting the reelection chances of conservative President José María Aznar.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-13-2004
Event Description: Senator Olympia Snowe wins the Kansas Caucus, defeating Governor Coleman 55-40%. Senator Snowe is emerging as the new front runner, though Governor Coleman still leads three-to-one in cash on hand and slightly in the delegate count.

Event Date: 3-14-2004
Event Description: Spanish President José María Aznar, tied to the Zarcola Affair and being accused of misuse of the police force, is narrowly reelected over Socialist nominee José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. Despite the police scandal, Spanish voters still saw President Aznar as the better choice for the economy and the European Union, which they strongly support.

Event Date: 3-16-2004
Event Description: The Illinois Primary is held, with Senator Snowe once again besting Governor Coleman. Snowe has now taken the lead in delegate count, though Coleman still has far more cash allowing him to stay in the race for the long run. The primary for U.S. Senate is far closer, with State Senator Barack Obama winning the Republican nomination over eight other candidates. The charismatic and photogenic Obama declares in his victory address, “It is time that we bring the change that is needed to Washington, D.C., not just more of the same.” Obama’s Democratic opponent will be airy magnate Jim Oberweis, who narrowly defeats businessman Jack Ryan in a heated battle.

Event Date: 3-19-2004
Event Description: President Webb, upon seeing reports from Kurdistan by Amnesty International, calls on the Kurdish government to, “End the senseless barbarism of your own citizens.” Words are all the President will commit, however, as he seems to not want to begin a full scale invasion of Kurdistan. “Understandably so,” Vice-President Hutchinson tells Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball”, “The Russians and the Turkish failed when they sent their armies into Kurdistan, we know that we should keep soldiers out of that country.”

Event Date: 3-20-2004
Event Description: Governor Coleman regains some momentum with wins in the Wyoming and Alaska Caucuses, but Senator Snowe has begun to gain the support of the Republican establishment.

Event Date: 3-25-2004
Event Description: Prime Minister Tony Blair welcomes PKK leader Murat Karayilan to 12 Downing Street. “The minds of progressive leaders, as well as their hearts, stand with the worker’s of Kurdistan,” Prime Minister Blair tells the world press,”No laborer is safe as long as the regime in Kurdistan continues its reign of terror.” Reaction to this meeting is mixed world wide. Bolivian President Evo Morales applauds the meeting as, “The first real ray of hope for world labor since the new American President took office.” President Webb is silent on the issue, but Press Secretary Tony Snowe tells the press, “The administration does not approve of our allies meeting with terrorists.”

Event Date: 4-05-2004
Event Description: The African Union begins sending military units and humanitarian aid to Darfur in the troubled region of the Sudan. “It is human dignity and rights we defend in Darfur,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame, the head of the African Union, tells the press, “This is why all nations must support the fight for humanity in Darfur.”

Event Date: 4-08-2004
Event Description: President Webb signs the Graham Act, introduced by retiring Senator Bob Graham (Democrat of Florida). This act requires coastal states to begin routine reinforcements of levy systems in case of a severe hurricane. “I know this sounds like something our mothers used to say,” President Webb jokes as he signs the bill, “No matter the incontinence, it is always better to be safe than the be sorry.” 

Event Date: 4-13-2004
Event Description: Senator Snowe pulls a major upset off by winning the Colorado Caucus. Governor Coleman, who had the support of Senator Ben Lighthorse Campbell (Republican of Colorado), had outspent Senator Snowe three-to-one in the state. Senator Snowe, with the support of Boulder and Denver liberals, was able to successfully pull together a collation to defeat Coleman by a 53-47% margin.

Event Date: 4-15-2004
Event Description: The Charles Lindbergh Museum of Aviation opens in St. Louis, Missouri. Vice-President Hutchinson attends the ceremonies, leading to outrage from Jewish groups. “Though Lindbergh may be an aviation hero,” Rabbi Maier Abbott, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, tells the press, “He is no hero to those of differing faiths, religions and creeds. The vice-president should not have honored such a man by attending the opening of the museum.” Hutchinson comments later this week about the controversy, telling the press, “The only thing about Charles Lindbergh in that museum is his record as an aviator.”

Event Date: 4-17-2004
Event Description: Senator Snowe continues her winning streak by beating Governor Coleman 58-42% in the North Carolina Primary. Governor Coleman’s campaign begins to contemplate exiting the race. In the primary for United States Senator, Congressman Richard Burr wins the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Senator Lauch Faircloth, a fellow Democrat. On the Republican side, 1998 nominee and trial attorney John Edwards defeats State Senator Kay Hagan to once again vie for the Senate.

Event Date: 4-20-2004
Event Description: Sixty Minutes reports that Kurdish President Hilmi Aydogdu has begun imprisoning opposition party leaders in a nightmarish prison: the Gulga. The hour long report entails the stories of union leaders, opposing politicians and even former members of presidential cabinets who are sent to Gulga, and never return. Senator Joseph Biden introduces a resolution to condemn the current Kurdish President, which will easily pass. However, no politician in America seems to want to do much more than shout some ugly words at Aydogdu.

Event Date: 4-29-2004
Event Description: The Pennsylvania Primary seals the deal for Senator Olympia Snowe. The Maine senator defeats Governor Norm Coleman by a 59-41% margin, and scores the endorsement of Senator Arlen Specter (Republican of Pennsylvania), former President Reginald Jackson and the new Republican National Chair Michael Nutter. “It seems like our dreams of the Oval Office are now over,” Governor Coleman tells his supporters during his withdrawal address, “But the fight has not yet begun. We must do everything in our power to make sure that Senator Olympia Snowe becomes the first woman and the next President of the United States.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-01-2004
Event Description: The largest expansion to date of the European Union takes place, extending its hand to Poland, Hungary, Austria, Cyprus, Greece, Moldova, Italy and Spain. Despite this success, two nations conspicuously refuse to join: France and the Baltic Union.

Event Date: 5-05-2004
Event Description: A PKK car bomb explodes outside of the Kurdish Parliament, killing two legislators and wounding eight others. The man they were aiming for, President Aydogdu, had been tipped off by police that an attack on the parliament was eminent.

Event Date: 5-10-2004
Event Description: The Populist Party of Russia suffers massively in the nationwide elections held today. National Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky defeats Populist Vice-President Sergey Glazyev, Social Democrat Andrei Bogdanov and right-winged Putinist Dmitry Medvedev. President-elect Zhirinovsky will have a working coalition of Nationalists, Russian Liberals and three Putinists in the Duma. Outgoing President Boris Yeltsin will spend the rest of his teem in office in a depressed drunken state.

Event Date: 5-19-2004
Event Description: Columnist Richard Morris begins speculation over Senator Olympia Snowe’s running mate. “While Senator Snowe stands little chance of defeating President Webb,” Morris writes in his weekly column, “I see three veep possibilities that might stave off a 400 electoral votes or more victory for President Webb.” These three names are Governor Norm Coleman, Snowe’s strongest competitor in the primaries, California Governor Richard Riordan, who has the strong support of the west and Hispanics, and, somewhat unexpected, Maryland Senator Paul Sarbanes. “Senator Sarbanes is respected by both parties,” Morris writes, “He also is honest, intelligent and seen as a reformer in a state known for corrupt officials.”

Event Date: 5-22-2004
Event Description: The National World War I Monument opens in Washington, D.C. The remaining thirteen veterans of the Great War attend, and are honored by President Webb. “For too long your service for the world has been ignored,” President Webb tells the veterans as he dedicates the memorial, “You kept the world safe for democracy and you also brought new meaning to why Americans fight wars. We entered World War I not as an imperial power, but as a democracy seeking the end of imperialism.”

Event Date: 6-01-2004
Event Description: CIA Director George Tenet tells President Webb that PKK terrorists are planning to attack an American military base in southern Kurdistan. Webb, who has served in the Kurdish theatre of the Iraq War, takes this threat literally and orders the commander of the base to ready for an attack. This attack never comes, leading Senator Snowe to question the competency of the administration. “Either this is President Webb showing his intelligence agencies are less than stellar,” Snowe tells the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C., “Or the movement of American troops in Kurdistan is yet another propping up of a right-winged tyrant.”

Event Date: 6-03-2004
Event Description: Following his misstep in Kurdistan, CIA Director George Tenet announces his resignation from his post. Tenet cites, “personal reasons”, to the press, but all can figure out his missteps on June 1st were what really led him to resign. President Webb will nominate Attorney General Jim Gilmore for the position of CIA Director, and he will be easily confirmed by the Senate. “I had to get him out of the cabinet,” Webb tells his wife that night, “If I hadn’t he would have wanted to be on the Supreme Court.”

Event Date: 6-05-2004
Event Description: Ronald Reagan, the “Voice of the Nation”, dies peacefully in his sleep at his home in Manhattan, New York. The ninety-three year old former NBC Nightly News anchor had been fighting Alzheimer’s disease for a decade, leaving him out of the public eye. Following news of Reagan’s death, President Webb goes on air and eulogizes, “Ronald Reagan, the man who never lost faith in America or its promise.” The Congress votes to let Reagan lie in state, an honor rarely given to those who spent their entire lives as private citizens.

Event Date: 6-11-2004
Event Description: Timothy McVeigh speaks at the Libertarian National Convention in Los Vegas, Nevada. “As a marine I saw waste and misuse of funds and soldiers in the Pentagon,” McVeigh tells the cheering convention, “As a writer I have seen the free exchange of ideas be attacked by lawyers, politicians and beaurocrats. The founder’s would be ashamed with what we are putting up with. We are a nation overtaxes, overregulated and over run by empty suits who call themselves our ‘leaders.’ It is time that we take our country back from the CIA, FBI, Pentagon, public schools and their socialist allies who are destroying the land of the free and the home of the brave.” The speech goes over so well that some delegates begin a “Draft McVeigh” campaign, which McVeigh will have nothing to do with. “If I was meant to be president,” McVeigh tells the delegates, “I would have been born wealthy and stayed in the marines. Those are two things I didn’t want, which is why I don’t want to be president.”

Event Date: 6-20-2004
Event Description: The Venezuelan elections go the way of President Perez, giving the New Venezuela Party a 2/3rd majority in both houses of the Venezuela Legislature. Socialist politicians decide to contest the results, but nothing comes from these protests. To the world press, Perez is a popular president who was given a deserved mandate.

Event Date: 6-28-2004
Event Description: The Degela Massacre. Kurdish troops gas and fire on anti-government protesters in the city of Degela, a hot bed for PKK activity. Seventy-five people are wounded and fifteen are killed during the free-for-all. This incident further sours relations in Kurdistan with that of the rest of the world.

Event Date: 7-10-2004
Event Description: Senator Olympia Snowe announces that Senator Paul Sarbanes will be her running-mate in the 2004 Election. “In the Senate, Paul Sarbanes has been a beacon of hope for those who seek affordable college, equal treatment in the work place and a chance to succeed in this great country, “ Senator Snowe declares from Baltimore, Maryland, “He has served his nation in war and peace, prosperity and recession and will help me retake the White House!” Senator Sarbanes simply tells the crowd, “All I can say is that I was surprised when Senator Snowe asked me to be her running-mate. I always thought you had to smart, handsome and intelligent to be on a national ticket. Well the first woman should be paired with the first ugly and boring running-mate.” In all honesty, Senator Sarbanes was one of the best choices Snowe could have made. He helps unite the national party behind the campaign, brings foreign policy experience to the ticket and is well respected by members of both parties. 

Event Date: 7-13-2004
Event Description: Chinese President Hu Jintao begins a massive economic relief program for Central and Southeast Asia. Working with U.S. aid, Jintao will oversee modernization of water treatment and electrical plants in Vietnam, North and South Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia and his own nation of China. He also begins to encourage these nations to modernize their roads, sea ports and airports to encourage western investment in their economies.

Event Date: 7-26-2004
Event Description: The Republican National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, nominates Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine for President and Senator Paul Sarbanes of Maryland for Vice-President. “We stand at a crossroads, my fellow Americans,” Senator Snowe tells the crowds in her acceptance address, “We can keep the same disastrous path of President Webb. In Webb’s world, millionaires deserve tax cuts and murderous dictators deserve to be propped up by our military. President Webb sees the thugs in Cuba’s and Kurdistan’s governments as close allies, I see them as thugs.” This tough talk is not a usual vocabulary for the senior senator from Maine, but it is effective. After the convention, Gallup shows that Senator Snowe has narrowed the gap between her and President Webb, though the president still leads by a 58-40% margin.

Event Date: 7-30-2004
Event Description: At a small convention in Burlington, Vermont, former Senator Mike Gravel accepts the nomination of the newly reinvigorated Progressive Reform Party. He selects Congressman Bernie Sanders for Vice-President, creating a strong left-winged alternative to the major parties. “The disastrous course of two-party America must be ended,” Senator Gravel cries, “We need to replace war with peace, the powerful with the powerless and the rulers with the people.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-02-2004
Event Description: President Webb is interviewed by Tim Russert on Meet the Press, and makes a stunning comment. “I do not support the Kurdish government,” Webb tells Russert very bluntly, “I do not support the secret prisons, the massacres of the innocent or any of the ethnic hatred that the government is whipping up. I also don’t support the PKK or any other terrorist organization. I wish that President Aydogdu would resign and new leadership would take the reins in Kurdistan.” President Aydogdu responds to this wish by telling his people in a radio address, “It appears as if Kurdistan now stands alone against the world.”  

Event Date: 8-15-2004
Event Description: Australian Prime Minister John Howard, facing a economic downturn as well as a lack of a major issue to run for reelection in October on, unveils a new campaign slogan for him and the National Liberal Party of Australia: “Who do you trust?” “Who do you trust to keep the economy strong and protect family living standards?” Prime Minister Howard asks the press,” Who do you trust to keep interest rates low?” This slogan seems to be empty, however, as interest rates have hit new highs under Howard and Australians are generally unhappy with the overall performance of the government. Labor Party Leader Mark Latham responds to the new slogan with glee. “We've had too much dishonesty from the Howard Government,” Latham tells a Labor rally in Darwin, “The election is about trust. The Government has been dishonest for too long.”

Event Date: 8-27-2004
Event Description: Protesters begin to flock to Richmond, Virginia, to protest the nomination of President Webb for a second term. “Webb is a war criminal,” progressive activist and former cabinet secretary Ralph Nader tells a Richmond television news reporter, “He should be behind bars for illegally overthrowing legitimate governments.” By the end of the week more than 200,000 protesters will begin forming around the Greater Richmond Convention Center and not leave until September 2nd, 2004, and the nomination of President Webb. Mayor J. Douglas Wilder, a Republican, will extend medical aid as well as refreshments for protesters, leading some conservative Democrats on the city council to call for his resignation. That will not come, but the convention will.  

Event Date: 8-29-2004
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention in Richmond, Virginia, renominates President James Webb and Vice-President Kay Bailey Hutchinson for a second term in office. “Tonight I seek the presidency not for the glory and power of the office,” President Webb tells his cheering supporters in his acceptance address, “I seek it so that freedom may be protected, free enterprise defended and the future of this great nation be secure. I took the reins of power in 2001 and saw a nation faced with economic calamity and foreign disaster, and with the help of the American people, my advisors and almighty God I turned it into the prosperous, respected nation it is today. I seek the presidency to use the power to better this nation, to shrink the government and to protect the rights of the people.”

Event Date: 8-31-2004
Event Description: With the Gallup Poll showing President Webb with a 61-35% lead, the Snowe-Sarbanes Campaign unleashes a series of attack ads, calling President Webb, “The Misleader.” They attack the president for his support of tax cuts, the aid of the right-wing regime in Cuba and, “His disregard of the needs of minorities.” The advertisements are so vicious that even some Republicans call for them to be taken off the air, but they will run until Election Day.

Event Date: 9-01-2004
Event Description: The 2004 hurricane season begins, and it will be horrendous. Hurricanes Ivan and Jeane will ravage the coastal states, especially Florida, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. President Webb’s quick response of sending FEMA agents and National Guard troops to the afflicted area, as well as traveling to stricken areas himself several times, will increase his standing with the American people.

Event Date: 9-10-2004
Event Description: President Webb signs an extension of the Assault Weapons Act, enabling Americans to continue purchasing assault weapons legally. Senator Snowe attacks him at a rally in Detroit, Michigan, for, “Enabling the enemies of the law to have the weapons capable of killing good police officers.” President Webb will respond to this attack at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, “Senator Snowe says that more police officers will be killed because I didn’t veto the Assault Weapons Act. Well, maybe in Maine they didn’t receive the increased federal funding for new police weapons and protective armor, to defend themselves from any type of powerful weapon.”

Event Date: 9-15-2004
Event Description: The Iraqi military begins helping Kurdish political refugees cross the border, creating tension between the two nations. “I would advise the Iraqis to keep there own home in order,” Kurdish Foreign Minister Quami Al-Haseem tells the Associated Press, “As that is one sore if opened will reveal much puss.”    

Event Date: 9-30-2004
Event Description: The first presidential debate is held at the Convocation Center of the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida. Moderated by PBS’s Jim Lehrer, the debate focuses on both domestic and foreign policy. The night is marked by an exchange between Senator Snowe and President Webb over Kurdistan. “Why do you support that regime in Kurdistan, Mr. President?” Senator Snowe asks the president. “You know I don’t, senator,” Webb snaps back, “You know that, and you’re ignoring it because it doesn’t fit your preconceived notion of my White House. Why don’t you tell the truth to the American people, Olympia?” This comment is seen as insensitive towards a woman by many viewers, and it is reflected in the polls. A Newsweek/Reuters poll shows the next day that President Webb was seen by 66% of viewers as “mean” to the female senator. “I guess I’m kind of rough around the edges sometimes,” President Webb explains to FOX News’ Bill O’Rielly on the number one rated “O’Rielly Factor”, “But what do you expect from a sailor?”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-05-2004
Event Description: Outgoing Russian President Boris Yeltsin announces that he will move o the United States in 2005, explaining that he has been given a job as a senior fellow at Princeton University. “I hope they don’t have him teach ‘Leading a Country 101’”, Rush Limbaugh quips.

Event Date: 10-08-2004
Event Description: The second presidential debate is held at Washington University in St. Louis, in a town-hall format moderated by Charles Gibson of ABC News. President Webb is farm more cordial and relaxed in this second encounter with Senator Snowe. When the issue of taxes is raised, Webb quips, “Hey, Democrats see everyday as July 4th, Republicans see ever day as April 15th.” While Senator Snowe responds well to the questions from undecided voters, the folksy President Webb wins the debate easily.   

Event Date: 10-09-2004
Event Description: Labor Party leader Mark Latham defeats Prime Minister John Howard and the Liberal-National coalition in the Australian Federal Elections. The Labor Party gains a narrow majority in the Australian Parliament, making Latham the new prime minister. Howard’s campaign was seen as a great deal of empty slogans, with very little recent success to back them up. “If there had been a national security issue in the mix,” Howard will tell National Review magazine in December, “I think we could have pulled it off.”

Event Date: 10-16-2004
Event Description: Kurdish President Hilmi Aydogdu is assassinated at his office in Arbil, but not by PKK terrorists. Minister of Defense Shadman Ali fires three shots from a concealed pistol at the president, killing him instantly as two bullets enter his brain. The Kurdish military backs Minister Ali due to fears that the anti-Iraqi positions of the Aydogdu Administration would lead to a costly, and most likely ill ending, war. Ali takes power as the new Kurdish president, and will immediately free all political prisoners from the Golga and other secret prisons. President Webb, campaigning in Pennsylvania, calls the death of Aydogdu, “A chance for a new beginning for Kurdistan.”

Event Date: 10-20-2004
Event Description: The assassination of the President Aydogdu creates a crisis with oil process in the Middle East. Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad closes the Strait of Hormuz, the most critical passageway for oil shipments in the world, until the new Kurdish President Shadman Ali turns himself in for, “Crimes against the Islamic faith.” While Ali is a Muslim himself, Ahmadinejad dislikes him for his “reformed’ or more moderate version of the religion. Also, and more importantly, Ahmadinejad sees the cold blooded and surprise murder of a fellow Muslim as reason enough to hurt the West which he believes really killed Aydogdu. President Webb responds immediately to the crisis, calling on the nations of the world to demand the opening of the Strait of Hormuz. “I also call on the people of Iran to demand free exchange on the strait,” President Webb tells the world from the Oval Office, “After all, it is you who will be most harmed from the decline in commerce.”

Event Date: 10-23-2004
Event Description: A world military force, made up of warships and jet bombers from the United States, European Union, Russia, Iraq, Kurdistan and China, begins to from in the Persian Gulf, ready to forcible reopen the Strait of Hormuz if necessary. This move proves unneeded, however, as Prime Minister Ahmadinejad, “blinks”, as Secretary of Defense Wesley Clark tells the president. Apparently the Iranian Parliament threatened retaliation against the Prime Minister if war came over his stubborn move. Due to his coolness under crisis, President Webb gains in the polls, making his reelection a near lock.

Event Date: 10-30-2004
Event Description: In another sign of support for President Webb’s policies in Latin America, National Party nominee Jorge Larrañaga defeats leftist Progressive Ring nominee Tabaré Vázquez for President of Uruguay.

Event Date: 11-02-2004
Event Description: President James Webb is reelected in a massive landslide over Senator Olympia Snowe.

James Webb/Kay Bailey Hutchinson (D): 446 EV; 58.9% of the PV
Olympia Snowe/Paul Sarbanes (R): 92 EV; 39.2% of the PV
Mike Gravel/Bernard Sanders (PR): 0 EV; 1.8% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, Green, etc.): 0 EV; 0.1% of the PV

The Webb landslide crosses over into Congress, as the Democratic Party makes big gains in both houses. In the Senate, the Democrats pick up seats in South Dakota, Nevada, Washington, Indiana and Ohio. In Illinois, State Senator Barack Obama bucks the Democratic trend by defeating Democratic businessman Jim Oberweis by a 63-37% margin, though President Webb narrowly carries Illinois. In New York, Senator Al D’Amato holds on by a 50-49% margin against “the Republican Kennedy”, Congressman John F. Kennedy, Junior. In North Carolina, Congressman Richard Burr defeats attorney John Edwards by a close 52-48% margin, as Edwards ran a far more professional campaign than Burr. The massive 62-37% win for President Webb in the Tarheel State helped Burr cross the threshold for victory. “I see tonight as a mandate,” President Webb declares in his victory address, “A great mandate of the people for four more years of success and progress.”

Event Date: 11-08-2004
Event Description: Following last Tuesday’s dizzying election defeat, Republican National Chairman Michael Nutter resigns and moves back to Philadelphia. Nutter is planning a run for mayor of the City of Brotherly Love in 2007. The new man who will head up the party is a wildcard, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, who had been a strong supporter of Senator Snowe but also a critic of her negative toned campaign. “If we are going to win again,” Dean tells a meeting of Republican leaders in Wilmington, Delaware, “We have to offer a strong message of change to the people of the United States, not just an argument that we are not like the other guys. That just sounds whiny, and whiners don’t win.”

Event Date: 11-10-2004
Event Description: Kurdish President Shadman Ali declares that labor unions are once again legal in Kurdistan. “Let us welcome back Western progress,” President Ali tells his people. This move is applauded as President Webb as, “A clear sign that Kurdistan is once again entering the community of nations.”

Event Date: 11-16-2004
Event Description: The Corporatist State of China agrees to invest $20 billion dollars in Argentina, a deal signed days before the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to be held in Santiago, Chile. Even President Jintao, a noninterventionist, wants to make some quick investments in the emerging Latin American economy.

Event Date: 11-25-2004
Event Description: Thanksgiving Dinner at the Governor’s Mansion in Boston, Massachusetts, is a raucous affair. Governor Mitt Romney tells his family that he will run for president in 2008, and his wife Anne does not like the idea one bit. “You have to remember what anti-Mormon bigots did to your father, Mitt?” she pleads, “Can you do that to us?” “Anne,” Romney responds, “My father knew the risks of running for president, and he paid the ultimate price for his decision. I know that I could be harmed while running, but this is not 1972. I would like to believe America is a different place today.” That comment connects with Mrs. Romney, and she relents to allow him to start exploring the possibility of running for the White House, “But don’t you do anything else without telling me.”

Event Date: 12-01-2004
Event Description: Governor Mark Warner (Republican of Virginia) commutes the long-term sentences of three men convicted of first degree murder as new evidence has surfaced confirming their innocence. “I hope this episode can be a lesson to us all,” Governor Warner tells the Associated Press, “All crimes should be researched to the fullest before sentences are made.”

Event date: 12-12-2004
Event Description: Governor John Rowland, a former presidential candidate and three term Governor of Connecticut, resigns from office under the cloud of scandal. It was recently revealed by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald that Governor Rowland had met with several construction firms in April 2003 and offered them special contracts and bidding rights for cash gifts. One of these gifts is a yacht, which Rowland had named, “The Guilty Pleasure.” “Well it’s guilty, all right,” Fitzgerald tells the press. Lieutenant Governor Joe Courtney will take office as the next Governor of Connecticut, and Governor Rowland will be sent to court to stand trial for perjury, extortion and abuse of power.

[PBrunsel]

The Second Term of President James Webb

Event Date: 1-03-2005
Event Description: The 109th Congress convenes with the Democratic Party dominating both houses on the Hill. Senate Majority Leader Don Nickles had retired in 2004, leaving the position up for grabs. Senators Al D’Amato (Democrat of New York), John Cornyn (Democrat of Texas), Chuck Robb (Democrat of Virginia) and Jeff Sessions (Democrat of Alabama) vie for the position, with Senator Robb winning the position with support from his friend President Webb. “The Democratic Party is now a fully owned corporation from Virginia,” Senator D’Amato complains. Senate Minority Leader Rudolph Giuliani (Republican of New York) retains his position, declaring that he will, “Wage legislative battle against the majority.” In the House of Representatives, Speaker of the House J.D. Hayworth keeps his position as does House Minority Leader Stenny Hoyer, though he is challenged from the left by his old foe Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Republican of California).

Event Date: 1-05-2005
Event Description: The South Carolina State Legislature passes a resolution protecting the right to fly a Confederate Flag from all government buildings in the Palmetto State. This decision opens the old wounds of the 1996 Democratic Primary, where the civil war was fought at a candidate debate. The NAACP will sue the South Carolina State Government, while the South Carolina government will defend the right to fly the flag. “It’s somewhat funny,” columnist Robert Novak writes, “That the Civil War is still being raged after the last cannon fired more than 140-years ago.”

Event Date: 1-10-2005
Event Description: Secretary of State Joshua Bolton meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting revolves around the issue of a newly insurgent Iran, led by reactionary Muslims. President Abbas promises to stand with the United States and its allies in Iraq and Israel if the Iranians chose to ever upset the flow of world oil or the peace of the Middle East ever again.

Event Date: 1-20-2005
Event Description: President James Henry Webb, Junior, is sworn in as President of the United States, with another four years as Chief-of-State peering before him. “I have no fears for the future of this nation,” President Webb declares in his inaugural address, “I do not think that the American people fear the future either. Those who say that our nation’s best days are behind it are looking in the wrong direction.” This uplifting address appeals to a nation currently strong, prosperous and under competent, honest leadership.

Event Date: 1-25-2005
Event Description: Senate Minority Leader Rudolph Giuliani (Republican of New York) unveils, “The Change Plan for America.” This Republican manifesto outlines, “The five ways that the Republican Party can change America and make it a nation worth living in.” The Dewey New Day of the 1950s is generally this “new” plan. It involves increases in government welfare-to-work training programs, increased student loans for poor and Middle Class college students, complete revamping of Social Security so that it can last until the 22nd Century, a foreign policy which, “Respects the sovereignty and legitimacy of elected governments,” and, as the former Mayor of New York City includes, a national urban policy which deals with the rise of violent crime, drug usage and poverty in America’s cities. This plan is accepted by most Republicans, and laughed at by most Democrats. “This is politics,” Republican National Chair Howard Dean tells CNN’s Larry King, “We’ve been laughing at the Democratic Plan for years, and most of the time the joke is on us. Maybe the laughter will come back and hit the Democrats in the face this time.”

Event Date: 2-02-2005
Event Description: President Hu Jintao wins a massive reelection victory in the Chinese Presidential election. The Corporatist Party nominee Jintao takes 78% of the vote, easily defeating Nationalist Ma Ying-Jeou and Social Democrat Li Yuanchao. The Jintao Government has brought China something it has not experienced since the 1950s, prosperity and competence in government.

Event Date: 2-14-2005
Event Description: On Valentine’s Day, the California State Legislature passes the Sam Sex Union Recognition Act. Governor Richard Riordan will sign the bill, making California, the largest state in the union, a state where same sex couples can legally marry and be given the same rights and benefits of traditional married couples. “It is a shame that the California state legislature is voting against the voice of the people,” the Reverend Pat Robertson tells his audience on the 700 Club, “More than 80% of Americans oppose gay marriage, and of that number most consider it an abomination to God and human decency. I would hope that no other states follow this path and override the views of the American people.” Former California Senator Pete Wilson comments to the Associated Press after hearing Robertson’s remarks, “I certainly hope that most of our states can see beyond that thick of hyperbole.” 

Event Date: 2-20-2005
Event Description: For the third time in less than ten years, the French Republic rejects entry into the European Union. This time the proposition is defeated by an 89-11% margin, the largest of the three votes by far. “We stand united as Frenchmen,” President Lionel Jospin had declared at anti-EU rallies, “We are not members of a European community, but members of the European continent. We respect EU members, but we also respectfully decline to join them.”

Event Date: 2-27-2005
Event Description: President Webb announces that hiring practices for office potions in government buildings will no longer be influenced by race or gender. This form of affirmative action had been in place since the mid 1970s, so this decision understandably outrages many minority activist groups. “President Webb has one again shown that he does not care about those who are unlike himself!” the Reverend Al Sharpton blares from his radio show, “This decision means that fewer and fewer people of different religions, races and creeds will serve the government.” “I don’t see what the big deal is,” President Webb tells the press, “If you are the best for the job, you’ll get the job. That’s the American way after all.”

Event Date: 3-01-2005
Event Description: The Supreme Court of the United States rules in a 6-3 decision on Roper v. Simons that the death penalty is still considered unconstitutional. “Killing prisoners is still ‘cruel and unusual punishment’,” Justice Kathleen Sullivan writes for the majority, “It does not matter how ‘modern’ the forms of killing they are, it is still cruel and unusual.”

Event Date: 3-10-2005
Event Description: Kurdish President Shadman Ali is elected to a full six year term as President of Kurdistan in a special election. The moderate Ali has been able to bring about an uneasy peace between the government and the PKK, though now radical Islamic terrorists are beginning to become the number one threat to Kurdistan. As the Associated Press reports, several voting precincts were rocked with violence today and the attacks came from Islamic fundamentalists, not the PKK.

Event Date: 3-15-2005
Event Description: U.S. President Webb, United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, French President Lionel Jospin, Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Chinese President Hu Jintao and Japanese Corporate Chairman Yasuo Fukuda meet in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to celebrate the completion of the Space Shuttle Tomorrow. “’The Tomorrow’ will travel to Mars three months from now,” President Webb tells the world leaders, “Aboard it will be astronauts representing every nation here today. Together we will reach the planet Mars, for together we can do anything.”

Event Date: 3-25-2005
Event Description: In a case concerning the sanctity of human life, the United States' 11th Circuit Court of Appeals refuses 2-1 to order the reinsertion of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube. Mrs. Schiavo has been living off a feeding tube ever since a stroke inhibited her brain functions in December 1996. Conservative pundits and politicians call for this ruling to be overturned, as Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners, “We can’t let the courts play God, since they always make him a liberal.” President Webb does not get involved in the hoopla, with the exception of him defending the rights of the courts to make an informed decision. This response does not win him any points with the Religious Right, but a majority of Americans seem to agree with the president’s view on the matter of Mrs. Schiavo. After a prolonged battle, Mrs. Schiavo will be taken off the feeding tube and die peacefully in her hospital room. “Sometimes I wonder how such a morally bankrupt nation can claim God has blessed it,” the Reverend Robertson solemnly ends the 700 Club the day after the death of Terri Schiavo.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-05-2005
Event Description: Mexican President Vincente Fox and President Webb begin a joint border policing policy to keep drugs put of both nations. “The war on drugs must be fought with alliances,” President Webb tells the press, “If it will ever be won.” 

Event Date: 4-10-2005
Event Description: Senator Lincoln Chafee (Republican of Rhode Island) and Congressman Tom Latham (Republican of Iowa) introduce the Social Security Protection Act of 2005. The act does two things for Social Security. The first is that it creates a “lock box” for Social Security, making sure that there will always be enough money to fund the pension program. The second part of the bill is that it outlaws any attempt to privatize the program by allowing people to invest in private Social Security accounts. “We must show our children that we are ready for them to retire,” Senator Chafee tells his Senate colleagues. President Webb, who supported President Reginald Jackson’s reforms of Social Security, announces that he will support the “lock box” for funds for Social Security, but not the abandonment of private accounts for Social Security. “It is important not to impair future generations,” President Webb states, “If our children want private accounts, they should be given the right to make that choice.”

Event Date: 4-19-2005
Event Description: The death of the beloved Pope John Paul II leads to an election for a new pope. The Papal Conclave selects Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to succeed Pope John Paul II. This selection is welcomed by the Jewish community, as Cardinal Ratzinger had been the chief religious advisor for Erwin Rommell during the 1950 rebellion against the Third Reich as well as during chancellorship of Rommell. Ratzinger was also a close friend of the late Father Rudolph Braun. The last thirty years of now Pope Benedict XVI have revolved around helping victims of the twenty year Holocaust against Jews, gypsies, homosexuals, Muslims and liberal thinkers.

Event Date: 4-22-2005
Event Description: The Social Security Protection Act of 2005 is given a major revision in the U.S. Senate as the provision prohibiting the privatization of Social Security is edited out of the bill. “This is something we can not stand for,” Senator Chafee tells the Republican Senate Caucus, “We can’t just let the Democrats give away Social Security.” Senate Minority leader Rudolph Giuliani agrees with his colleague, and declares that, “The new version of the Social Security Protection Act is unacceptable.” “Let them oppose it,” Senate Majority leader Chuck Robb tells the press, “We didn’t support it in the first place.”

Event Date: 5-01-2005
Event Description: A suicide attack targets a Kurdish funeral in the northern Kurdish town of Khazna, killing at least 25 people and injuring more than 30 others. The funeral was one for a leading town politician, killed two days earlier by radical Islamic terrorists. These terrorists will take responsibility for this attack as well, declaring on Al-Jazeera Television, “We will hunt infidels all the way to their funerals.” President Ali calls for calm in northern Kurdistan, where attacks are becoming more and more frequent every day.

Event Date: 5-05-2005
Event Description: The rewritten Social Security Protection Act of 2005 is defeated in the Senate, with only twelve Republicans and three Democrats voting for the bill. “We refuse to compromise on Social Security,” Senate Minority Leader Giuliani tells the press, “Even if that means voting against bills introduced by Republicans. The new version of Senator Chafee’s bill was bad law, and I refuse to support bad law.”

Event Date: 5-11-2005
Event Description: With violence increasing in Kurdistan, President Webb announces that Secretary of State Bolton and Secretary of Defense Clark are traveling to the troubled nation to try to work out a defense plan for the Ali Government. While security will be difficult, both men believe that they are needed to help the strong U.S. ally defend itself from resurgent Islamic terrorism.

Event Date: 5-13-2005
Event Description: The United States Department of Defense issues a list of bases to be closed as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process, which enrages President Webb. “This is yet another Pentagon problem!” President Webb yells at Secretary Clark, who will leave for Kurdistan tomorrow, “Why can’t we keep these bases open?” “Well sir, they are too expensive,” Clark explains. “Well get the money to keep them open,” Webb demands. “How, sir?” Clark asks. “I don’t know,” the president responds, “Why don’t you fire some officers, God knows we have too many.” The two men, who were both military officers, laugh at the comment and leave in good spirits. Secretary Clark will cancel several private contracts with the military to pay for the bases, which will save them from being closed.

Event Date: 5-15-2005
Event Description: Controversial member of the British Parliament George Galloway, known for his love of the late Hugo Chavez and his profanity ridden rants against the United States, is convicted by the British court system of accepting bribes from the socialist government of Libya. While Galloway had denied it, the evidence began to show that the colorful lawmaker was lying to the court. Now the only Big Brother that will be watching Galloway is the warden at Birmingham Prison.

Event Date: 5-20-2005
Event Description: Secretaries Clark and Bolton arrive in Arbil, Kurdistan, and meet with President Ali and his top military and domestic advisors. The battle against the rise of new and more dangerous Islamic terrorism is the main focus of the meetings. Over the next three days the American and Kurdish officials write, “The Bolton Plan”, named in honor of the Secretary of State. This plan begins a “War on Terrorism” in Kurdistan, a proactive move that has never been picked up before by any nation. Under the plan, the Kurdish military will attack terrorist camps and cells before they can strike, which is what Secretary Bolton calls, “The doctrine of preemption.”

Event Date: 6-08-2005
Event Description: President Webb’s choice for the Democratic nomination for Governor of Virginia wins the primary, as State Senator and Iraq War veteran Bill Bolling defeats former Congressman George Allen and Attorney General Jerry Kilgore for the Democratic nod. Governor Mark Warner also gets his Republican choice; Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine easily defeats Congressman Eric Castor for the GOP nod. The two most powerful Virginia statesmen, Webb and Warner, will face off in November in the form of Bolling and Kaine.

Event Date: 6-15-2005
Event Description: The Space Shuttle “Tomorrow” takes off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with its destination being Mars. The multinational crew is led by 60-year old Captain Michael Smith. “The mission to Mars has officially begun today, “President Webb tells the world from the Oval Office, “Together, the world community has begun to conquer the final frontier of space.”

Event Date: 6-30-2005
Event Description: The states of Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin officially legalize homosexual marriage through acts from their state legislatures. While traditionalist groups will sue these states for overriding anti-homosexual marriage propositions passed in 2002 and 2004, homosexual couples throughout these states begin marrying and are given the rights of traditional married couples for the first time.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-05-2005
Event Description: President Webb signs the Assured Social Security Act, introduced by Senator Conrad Burns (Democrat of Montana). This bill takes Senator Chafee’s idea for a secure “lock box” for Social Security funds, thus assuring enough funds for Social Security until 2099. However, the bill also contains an assurance that privatization of the program will not be outlawed or prohibited, leading many Republicans to oppose the bill.

Event Date: 7-06-2005
Event Description: The International Olympic Committee awards the 2012 Olympics to New York City. Under the leadership of Mayors Rudolph Giuliani, Andrew Stein and Susan Molinari the Big Apple has become an ideal big city. The crime rate is the lowest since the 1950s and city pollution control has made the metropolis a healthy place to live. “All the work are citizens have done to make New York a place for decent people to live,” Mayor Molinari declares, “Has paid off, and now New York City will be able to show the world what a great place it has become.”

Event Date: 7-19-2005
Event Description: President Jim Webb appoints Appeals Court Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. to the United States Supreme Court, following the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, a Kemp appointment. Judge Roberts is seen as a far more moderate choice than Republicans were expecting the conservative president to appoint to the open seat on the nation’s highest court.

Event Date: 7-30-2005
Event Description: Speaker of the House J.D. Hayworth (Democrat of Arizona) creates a stir in his own party by attacking the selection of Judge Roberts for the Supreme Court. “I do not want any lighthearted conservatives on the Supreme Court,” Speaker Hayworth tells the Federalist Society in a keynote address, “President Webb needs a Bork or a Scalia as his nominee, this Roberts will not do.” Most Democrats do not share this belief, and these statements will harm Hayworth’s standing in the party.

Event Date: 8-05-2005
Event Description: President Webb appoints Congressman Jeffrey Flake (Democrat of Arizona) as U.S. Trade Commissioner. Congressman Flake, a known expert on trade relations, will easily be confirmed for the seat. In the special election that will happen in September 2005, former Vice-President John McCain will be elected to his old seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming the first former Vice-President to be elected to the House of Representatives.

Event Date: 8-29-2005
Event Description: Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast, causing serious damage. However, former Senator Bob Graham’s hurricane preparedness legislation helps save the levies outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. President Webb will immediately order FEMA agents and National Guardsmen to Louisiana and Mississippi, helping to alleviate the suffering in two of the nation’s poorest states.

Event Date: 9-01-2005
Event Description: With the destruction of several off shore drilling operations by Hurricane Katrina, oil prices skyrocket to all time highs. This massive change in the economic scene throws Wall Street into a panic, with the Dow closing 500-points lower than the day before.

Event Date: 9-03-2005
Event Description: Chief Justice William Rehnquist dies peacefully at his home in Washington, D.C. President Webb, still under fire from the most conservative members of Congress for the nomination of Judge John Roberts for the Supreme Court, elevates Roberts to the appointment of Chief Justice and then nominates an unexpected person for the open seat as Associate Justice: former Governor Hillary Rodham. Rodham, a former attorney and law professor, accepts the nomination. Speaker Hayworth, though still upset over the Roberts nomination, applauds the appointment of Rodham as, “A victory for strict constitutionalists.”

Event Date: 9-19-2005
Event Description: Secretary of State Joshua Bolton along with several diplomats from Russia, the United Kingdom, China and Japan hammer out a treaty with the rogue state of North Korea. North Korea, under its Lilliputian leader Kim Jung Il, has been expanding a nuclear weapons program for more than a year. Under this world nuclear treaty, the impoverished nation of North Korea will be given humanitarian aid as well as trade options with the nations of Asia and the West.

Event Date: 9-29-2005
Event Description: The United States Senate easily confirms Judge John Roberts as the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. However, Governor Hillary Rodham is facing a bumpier ride in her own confirmation battle. Senate Minority Leader Rudolph Giuliani is demanding that Rodham explain her business dealings with Chicago “slum lord” Antonio “Tony” Rezko, whom had given Rodham more than $25,000 in her bid for Governor of Illinois in both 1994 and 1998. “Everything which Tony did for me was legal,” Rodham explains to the press, “None of it could prohibit me from being an effective Supreme Court justice.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-01-2005
Event Description: The PKK and the Kurdish Government sign an historic Treaty of Understanding and Cooperation. President Ali, who has been applauded by the PKK for his liberalization of labor laws, and PKK leaders, will now fight hand-in-hand against radical Islamic terrorism. “The strategy of the Bolton Plan must be one of full agreement amongst the Kurdish people,” President Ali tells the Associated Press, “This is why we must have the Kurdish worker’s party standing by our side as we face a new enemy.”

Event Date: 10-09-2005
Event Description: President Webb signs the National Right to Work Act, allowing union members to be able to work during strikes. Introduced by Congressman Brian Bilbray (Democrat of California), this act outrages national labor leaders. “We will fight this law tooth and nail!” AFL-CIO President John Sweeny tells the press, “I don’t care if we have to take the battle all the way to the Supreme Court, we will defeat this law.” The Gallup Poll will show that a majority of Americans oppose this national right to work law, as it seems to void union membership. “If we don’t have to stay loyal to the union,” one Indiana steel worker comments to the Associated Press, “Then why even join one?”

Event Date: 10-20-2005
Event Description: Following a tumultuous confirmation process, former Illinois Governor Hillary Rodham is confirmed by the United States Senate as the next Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

Event Date: 10-31-2005
Event Description: Iranian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls for Kurdistan to be "wiped off the map" before the Iranian Parliament in Tehran. The raving Iranian also calls on the Bolton Plan to, “Be a miserable failure”, and the PKK to, “Reject the calls of your pig, anti-Islamic oppressors.” “It’s Halloween,” President Webb will respond, “I guess the Iranian prime minister is dressed as Adolph Hitler this year.”

Event Date: 11-01-2005
Event Description: President Webb’s “Hitler Remarks” come back to bite him as Prime Minister Ahmadinejad attacks the president for the comparison. “I am not the one who used a military to invade another nation or to overthrow another government,” Ahmadinejad tells Al-Jazeera Television, “That was Mr. Webb, and he compares me to Adolph Hitler?” While the White House will respond to these statements immediately, the episode is an embarrassment for President Webb.

Event Date: 11-08-2005
Event Description: The showdown between President Webb and Governor Warner in Virginia ends in victory for the president. State Senator Bill Bolling, the Democrat, defeats Republican Lieutenant Governor Tim Kaine by a 53-47% margin. This victory for the Democrats is overshadowed by a major victory for the Republicans in the New York City Mayoral election. Republican businessman Michael Bloomberg defeats Democratic City Councilman Tom Ognibene by a 56-44% margin. This major victory for the Republicans in the Big Apple foreshadows a Republican comeback, or at least that is what RNC Chairman Howard Dean hopes.

Event Date: 11-14-2005
Event Description: Prime Minister Tony Blair announces that he will retire in 2007, citing that he believes, “One man should not hold the reins of government for too long, lest he believe the reins are his arms.” With the United Kingdom not facing any serious crisis of confidence in Blair this announcement comes as a great surprise to the nation.

Event Date: 11-28-2005
Event Description: Associate Justice Robert Bork is shot at by radical college student William Harris as he enters Colombia University to give a guest lecture. While Bork is not harmed and Harris is arrested, this episode leads Congress to pass strict security laws for college campuses.

Event Date: 12-12-2005
Event Description: Bolivian President Evo Morales is reelected in a recall election brought about by his conservative, pro-business opponents. President Morales suspected that the American government had much to do with the recall, but in the end he is easily reelected to his job. “Bolivia is a boil on the neck of South America,” President Webb tells Secretary Bolton.

Event Date: 12-30-2005
Event Description: Secretary of Defense Wesley Clark announces that all U.S. military bases will remain open in 2006. “It’s amazing where you can find money in the budget if you really want to,” Clark quips. This victory for President Webb keeps military families behind him, but cuts he was forced to make to job training and public housing to keep the bases open will come back to hurt him next year.           

[PBrunsel]

1) Who is the Opposition Leader, aka leader of the Liberal Party of Australia in this TL, considering that Mark Latham defeated John Howard in his quest for a fourth successive term in October 2004? Also how is Mark Latham performing as Prime Minister, and is he set for another term as Prime Minister at the next Election?

Rocky,

Following the defeat of PM Howard, Julie Bishop became the leader of the Australian Liberal Party. PM Latham, who is underperforming as head of state, will face another election in 2007. Latham's greatest problem is that he, as he decribed himself, is a "hater." He does not work well with the members of his own party and routinely firies cabinet ministers.

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The Tommorrow will land at Meridiani Planum, which is located 2 degrees south of Mars' equator. It was where the Opportuinty landed in January 2004.
 

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-2006
Event Description: A strange explosion of the Trans-Russian Pipeline leaves the nations of Georgia, Ukraine and several other nations without any gas power. Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky is suspected by the leaders of the affected nations of foul play. “After all,” Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko declares at a unity rally in Kiev, “The Russians do not want us to be autonomous and independent. They see us as ‘little children’ and themselves as ‘the great father.’ I say it is time that the ‘children’ leave the home!”

Event Date: 1-05-2006
Event Description: Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus and the Baltic Union from the Alliance of Minsk. This agreement is that these nations will help each other in regard to economic and foreign affairs, especially energy independence from the Russians. Moscow cries fowl to this affair, but the nations stand united at their alliance. “I see a bad moon arising in Eastern Europe,” Secretary of State Bolton tells President Webb in the Oval Office.

Event Date: 1-07-2006
Event Description: In the first signs that the Democratic Party is becoming infected by the “Washington Bug”, as Morton Kondracke writes in Roll Call, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (Democrat of Texas) is indicted by a Texas court for several charges of corruption, including money laundering. DeLay will be packed off to a prison, while House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (Democrat of Missouri) becomes the new Majority Leader.

Event Date: 1-27-2006
Event Description: Conservative Stephen Harper wins the Canadian general election over the Liberal government of Prime Minster Paul Martin. President Webb has been a long time supporter of the Conservative Party of Canada, leading Liberal Party leaders to paint Harper as, “Mr. Webb’s puppet.”

Event Date: 2-04-2006
Event Description: Senator Sean Parnell (Democrat of Alaska) and Senator Jodi Rell (Republican of Connecticut) begin a Congressional investigation into government contracts. With governors and senators in both their home states going to prison over fixing government contracts, Senator Parnell asks the press this interesting question, “How many other public officials are guilty of the same crime?” The Parnell Commission will open next week and begin close scrutiny of government contracts in constriction, the military and education.

Event Date: 2-12-2006
Event Description: As the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, celebrate world peace, the Russian government in Moscow does not share that ideal. In response to the Alliance of Minsk, Russian President Vladimir Zhirinovsky issues an ultimatum that the alliance be severed in a month, or all Russian gas lines will be severed to members of the alliance. “Let the Russian leader rant and rave,” President Viktor Yushchenko defiantly tells the world press, “The Alliance of Minsk will stand, and no Russian bear can make it fall.”

Event Date: 2-19-2006
Event Description: Congressman Shelly Moore-Capito (Democrat of West Virginia), in response to several tragic mine collapses, introduces a bill that would require all underground mines in the United States to be inspected regularly by state inspectors. The bill will fail, as Speaker of the House Hayworth calls it, “Unneeded government interaction in private industry.” Increasingly, the Congress is becoming more and more reactionary.

Event Date: 2-24-2006
Event Description: Corrupt right-winged President of the Philippines Gloria Macapagal Arroyo successfully rebuffs a coup lead by six left winged legislators. The CIA was involved in exposing the coup and rebuffing the attack on a close ally of the United States.

Event Date: 3-04-2006
Event Description: The “Tomorrow” touches down at Meridiani Planum, which is located two degrees south of Mars' equator. Captain Michael John Smith becomes the first man to step on the planet Mars, declaring, “The impossible dream has been fulfilled.” On Earth, the world celebrates the monumental landing as proof that space can now be a frontier capable of exploring to, as former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw opines, “The very ends of the heavens.”

Event Date: 3-12-2006
Event Description: The Russian ultimatum is not followed as the Alliance of Minsk is still in tact one month after the threatening declaration from Russian President Zhirinovsky. Instead, the leaders of the nations represented by the alliance hold a unity rally in Kiev, Ukraine. In response to this attack on his word, President Zhirinovsky orders that all pipelines to the nations of the Alliance of Minsk be cut off, “Until they abandon their folly of unity.”

Event Date: 3-15-2006
Event Description: Three days after Russia cuts off all gas power to more than six nations who have an alliance not against it at all, the European Union sides with the Alliance of Minsk against the Russian Federation. “The autocratic response of Russia shows that it wants no part of a unified and peaceful Europe,” Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, the President of the European Union, tells the press, “Because of this fact, we can not allow the nations of the Alliance of Minsk to be defeated by such a foe.” Humanitarian aid from Western Europe will flow into the nations of Ukraine, the Baltic Union, Moldova and the rest of the alliance nations.

Event Date: 3-26-2006
Event Description: President Webb addresses the world from the Oval Office regarding the Russia-Minsk Crisis. “All civilized nations of the world need to remember that the art of compromise is a fine art,” President Webb declares, “There is no reason for a dispute over natural gas to lead to a full scale war in Eastern Europe. I know that the leaders of the nations involved are able to meet together and solve this problem, and that is why I shall go to Kiev this week and see if there is not something that can solve the crisis.” This announcement shocks the world, and especially President Zhirinovsky’s diplomats, who do not want to meet the American war hero face-to-face.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-02-2006
Event Description: President Webb arrives in Kiev, Ukraine, where diplomats from Russia and the alliance nations are meeting to solve the ongoing crisis. “We can come to an agreement,” President Webb tells the diplomats, “After all, we are all grown men.” This is easier said than done, as representatives from Georgia and Ukraine refuse to speak with the Russian diplomats. “These guys are acting like spoiled kids,” President Webb tells his wife over the phone that night, “The presence of the President of the United States doesn’t even make them get along.”

Event Date: 4-05-2006
Event Description: After three days of gridlock at the Kiev Conference, a breakthrough finally comes in the oddest of ways. With much prodding from President Webb, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili concedes that the Russian government was not behind the Tran-Russian Pipeline burst in January 2006. This slight concession leads Russia, not to be outdone, to concede that it has been too slow to repair the damaged pipeline. This minor concession breaks the ice between the alliance and the Russians, leading to serious discussions over the Russian-Minsk Crisis.

Event Date: 4-11-2006
Event Description: The Agreement of Kiev, or as the Russians call it, “The Cordial Agreement”, as they refuse to admit that the decision was made in the Ukraine, ends the Russian-Minsk Crisis. Russia will begin regularly pumping gas into Ukraine, Georgia and other such nations, but the Alliance of Minsk must end its mutual protection pact. “This was the best deal I could get,” President Webb tells President Yushchenko. “Well,” the Ukrainian leader responds, “They are better terms then we could have gotten if you were not here.”

Event Date: 4-15-2006
Event Description: President Webb’s popularity hits an all time high, as the Gallup Poll shows him with a 70% approval rating. The president’s successes in Kiev as well as an expanding economy have kept him a popular leader. However, Congress has an abysmal 26% approval rating. “It’s funny,” political columnist Robert Novak writes, “This year’s midterm elections may go Republican because of the incumbent party in Congress. People seem to like Webb and how he works with Republicans than with his own party.”

Event Date: 4-22-2006
Event Description: The Senate rejects a bill to build a statue in Washington, D.C., to the late Vice-President and progressive icon Robert LaFollette. President Webb supported the bill, believing that LaFollette has been an unsung hero of American history. However, Senator Trent Lott (Democrat of Mississippi) saw it differently, calling LaFollette and his progressive Republicans, “The type of people who started the rush to socialism.” “I[m finding it easier to work with the Republicans than these reactionary donkeys,” an exasperated President Webb tells his wife that night.

Event Date: 5-01-2006
Event Description: First Lady Hong Le Webb, the first Asian-American first lady, begins a goodwill tour of Southeast Asia, returning to her native land of Vietnam for the first time since the 1970s. The tour will be well received by the pres, but Speaker of the House Hayworth comments, “I wish that the president wouldn’t honor the socialist holiday of May Day by sending his socialist born wife to one of our socialist enemies.”

Event Date: 5-03-2006
Event Description: Senator Orrin Hatch (Democrat of Utah) and Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrove (Democrat of Colorado) introduce the Federal Marriage Amendment. The FMA aims to use the Constitution to outlaw homosexual marriage in the United States. “More and more states are falling to this disgusting practice,” Congresswoman Musgrove declares on the floor of the House, “It is imperative that we destroy this practice immediately and forever.” ”Matrimony, love and family unity,” Congressman John Lewis (Republican of Georgia) shoots back, “Those really are disgusting concepts to the average Democratic member of Congress.”

Event Date: 5-05-2006
Event Description: While being interviewed by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday, President Webb is asked if he supports the Federal Marriage Amendment. “Chris,” the president responds, “I do believe that marriage is between a man and a woman, and I will always believe that. That is my personal belief. It is also shared by millions of Americans and my own Democratic Party. However, I do not believe that the Constitution, our greatest legal document, should get into the discrimination business. If individual states want to ban homosexual marriage, more power to them. If states want to make it legal, I say let them do that too. I’m a state’s rights man on everything.” This response enrages Speaker of the House Hayworth, who tells the press that President Webb “Has gone liberal.” “If I’m a liberal,” President Webb will comment, “Than the Democratic Party is in a hell of a shape.”

Event Date: 5-10-2006
Event Description: The Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA) passes by a partisan vote in the House of Representatives. Speaker Hayworth had overseen the vote and manipulated it so that every Democrat was present to vote. In one almost humorous instance, he slowed down the roll call so that Congressman Zack Wamp (Democrat of Tennessee) could arrive in the chamber from the airport. The Senate, much closer in party membership than the House, will be the real battle for the FMA.

Event Date: 5-12-2006
Event Description: The ACLU announces that it will wage a legal war against the FMA if it passes in the Senate next week. “We can not allow an amendment made only for discriminating against people to become law,” ACLU attorney Cynthia Bell tells the press, “Even President Webb agrees with us on this issue.”

Event Date: 5-15-2006
Event Description: Senator Russ Feingold (Republican of Wisconsin) takes to the floor in the Senate, and delivers a speech against the FMA in a short, yet strong manner. “Why?” he asks with his eyes ablaze, “Why should we use the Constitution to discriminate and to stop the rights of states to chose their own laws? I thought that the men and women of both parties were for equal rights and state’s rights. Please, do not prove me wrong.” The sort, earnest words ring through the galleries, and lead to a standing ovation from those Americans sitting in them. “I wish I could be that clear when I talk,” Senate Minority Leader Giuliani tells Feingold. Senator Feingold is emerging as the leader of the progressive movement in America more than any other public figure.

Event Date: 5-17-2006
Event Description: The Federal Marriage Amendment fails in the Senate by a 59-41% margin, with ten Democrats joining the Republicans in opposing the amendment. “I could not vote against the rights of states to chose for themselves their marriage laws,” Senator John Thune (Democrat of South Dakota) tells the press, “I know that President Webb would have expected no less from me or anyone in the Senate.”

Event Date: 5-28-2006
Event Description: President Alvaro Uribe Velez, the pro-American conservative, is re-elected in Colombia for a second term. He becomes the first president in over a century to serve consecutive terms. To celebrate this victory, the Congress passes a guest worker program for Colombia, which is intended to help the struggling economy of the strongly capitalist nation.

Event Date: 6-05-2006
Event Description: The California Primary for Governor and U.S. Senator are a disaster for President Webb, as his preferred candidates for both offices are defeated. In the Democratic Primary for governor, State Senator Tom McClintock, who was backed by President Webb, is defeated by a wide margin by the extremely conservative Congressman Darrell Issa. In the senatorial primary, anti-immigration activist Jerry Gilchrist defeats Congressman Gary Miller, a close ally of the president. Both of the Webb backed candidates were painted as “soft conservatives” by their more reactionary opponents. These two men will undoubtedly go down to overwhelming defeat in November against Republican Governor Richard Riordan and Senator Linda Sanchez.

Event Date: 6-12-2006
Event Description: The Parnell Commission releases its first report on fixed government contracts. While no members of Congress are found guilty of illegally using their power to fix contracts, Senator Jon Corzine (Republican of New Jersey) is reprimanded by the commission for fixing several construction contracts for companies who donated to his campaign for senate in the year 2000.

Event Date: 6-15-2006
Event Description: Following the news that he was involved in government graft, Senator Jon Corzine is defeated by State Senator Thomas Kean, Junior, for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate. Kean’s campaign had been seen as hopeless until the Parnell Commission began exposing the corruption of Senator Corzine. Kean, a moderate Republican in a moderate state, is expected to easily defeat his Democratic rival, former Bogota, New Jersey, Mayor Steve Lonegan.

Event Date: 6-29-2006
Event Description: The 2006 Mexican Presidential Election does not appear that it will go the way of the conservative National Action Party (PAN) and the United States government. With polls showing that the Mexican Socialist Party nominee, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leading the PAN candidate, Felipe Calderon, by a 6-point margin, CIA Director Michael Hayden meets with Undersecretary of Defense Lewis “Scooter” Libby and plan a way of “fixing” the voting in Mexico to stop a, “Marxist revolution south of the border.” President Webb does not know of this meeting or this plan, but he has given his CIA so much autonomy that there is no way he could stop Hayden and Libby had he even known.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-02-2006
Event Description: Conservative PAN Nominee Felipe Calderon defeats Socialist Lopez Obrador in the Mexican Presidential election, though by a very narrow margin of less than 10,000 votes. Obrador and his supporters take to the streets in Mexico City, demanding a recount of ballots. President Vincente Fox insists the election is, “Completely fair and free,” but he knows that CIA operatives from the United States had participated in voter suppression, stuffing ballot boxes with fraudulent votes and closing down voting stations throughout impoverished and pro-socialist areas of the country.

Event date: 7-06-2006
Event Description: Four days after the Mexican election, Calderon is still considered the victor while Obrador still argues that the election was fixed. President Webb tells the press at a televised press conference that, “The U.S. government had nothing to do with the Mexican elections, and they were run autonomously from any foreign involvement.” CIA Director Michael Hayden also states that, “The conspiracy theories can stop claiming that the CIA is setting up elections in foreign countries.”

Event Date: 7-19-2006
Event Description: As President Webb is visiting an elementary school in Florida, the greatest scandal to hit his administration is exposed by Matt Drudge, the internet’s investigative reporter. “CIA AGENT TELLS ALL” the Drudge Report blares, declaring that CIA agent Michael Pearl, who had worked in the “Mexico Operation”, has exposed, “The CIA’s intrusion and obstruction of the presidential election in Mexico.” The testimony proves damning as the CIA opens up in the next twenty-four hours to the press, proving that Mexican politicians and CIA and Defense department officials were involved in suppressing voters and stuffing ballot boxes in Mexico.

Event Date: 7-20-2006
Event Description: President Webb responds to the CIA-Mexico Affair on national television. “My administration did not, I repeat did not, send CIA agent to Mexico to disrupt their presidential election,” a very serious President Webb tells the nation from the Oval Office, “I never approved of such an action and no one in my administration did.” The Gallup Poll shows that 68% of American believes the president, but a strong 30% believe that Webb, who has sent troops to prop up right-wing governments, did order CIA meddling in Mexico.

Event Date: 7-28-2006
Event Description: Senator Russ Feingold demands on the Senate floor that a special commission be started to investigate the CIA-Mexico Affair. “We can not allow the Executive Branch to either be held captive by the CIA,” Senator Feingold declares, “Or to use that organization to intervene in fair and free elections around the globe.” While Senate Majority Leader Robb defends his friend President Webb, it appears likely that public demand for an investigation will make it all but impossible for the Democratic Senate to vote down Feingold’s proposition. The Senate CIA-Mexico Committee will be chaired by Senator John Ensign (Democrat of Nevada), and Senator Feingold will be given a position on the committee.

Event Date: 8-06-2006
Event Description: Mexican President Vincente Fox certifies the results of the 2006 Mexican Presidential Election, causing a three day riot in Mexico City. These riots will kill more than 200 people and injure more than 1,200 innocent bystanders. Socialist Lopez Obrador will be sworn in as “The Legitimate President of Mexico” in Vera Cruz, while President-elect Felipe Calderon declares that, “Only traitors support the illegitimate rival government of Marxists.”

Event Date: 8-15-2006
Event Description: The Senate CIA-Mexico Committee calls for Undersecretary of Defense Lewis Libby to testify before them. Libby has been tied to the affair by several CIA and Defense Department officials. Libby defies the subpoena, claiming his Fifth Amendment rights. “If this is not damning enough evidence that the administration was behind this ongoing scandal,” Senator Feingold tells the press, “I can not tell you what is.”

Event Date: 8-20-2006
Event Description: President Webb suffers a massive stroke while touring a nuclear power plant outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. The president is rushed to nearby St. Luke’s Hospital, where he rests peacefully for two days. Vice-President Hutchinson tells the press that, “The stress of his job and the ongoing investigation into the CIA has taken a great deal from the president’s health.”

Event Date: 8-29-2006
Event Description: Undersecretary of Defense Lewis “Scooter” Libby commits suicide at his home in Alexandria, Virginia. Constant calls to testify before the Senate committee and counter-demands from the CIA to stay away from the investigation led Libby to put a bullet through his brain. “Today,” NBC Anchorman Charles Gibson begins the newscast with, “The country may be in the midst of the greatest constitutional crisis since the 1980s."

Event Date: 9-01-2006
Event Description: President Webb meets with his cabinet to discuss how to end the crisis engulfing his administration. “You denied it,” Secretary of the Treasury Brett Schundler tells the president, “The people believe you.” “Not so, Brett,” Chief of Staff Charles Robb, Junior, tells the secretary, “The latest Gallup Poll shows that the country is split nearly fifty-fifty on whether or not the president knew about the scandal.” “I’ve told the truth, Chuck,” President Webb responds, “What more do they need to know?” “You need to fire Hayden,” Secretary of State Bolton tells the president, “He’s infecting this administration with his lies and denials.” “I would be damned if I cut someone’s ass to save my own,” President Webb responds. “Mr. President,” Bolton tells him, “It isn’t your ass we’re talking about; it’s the country’s ass.”

Event Date: 9-02-2006
Event Description: President Webb fires CIA Director Michael Hayden, declaring, “I hope we can turn a new page now in America.” However, Hayden does not want to play along. He swears vengeance on the president who served with him in China and Iraq, but threw him under the bus when the times got the toughest.

Event Date: 9-08-2006
Event Description: President Webb appoints former CIA Director Robert Gates to once again head up the Central Intelligence Agency. Gates consistently attacks the actions of General Hayden and the late Scooter Libby during his Senate confirmation hearing, which gives him points with the media but the anger of his old allies at the CIA. While Gates will be easily confirmed for the job, General Hayden will soon testify before the Senate, making the White House shiver.

Event Date: 9-20-2006
Event Description: General Michael Hayden testifies before the Senate CIA-Mexico Committee. The next eight hours are filled with both Hayden’s statements about a White House that encouraged CIA actions in other nations, as well as a president who had hands off approach to intelligence agencies. “I saw the intervention in Mexico as another Cuba, Philippines or Venezuela,” Hayden tells Senator Ensign, “I was simply enforcing the administration’s strong stance on Latin America.” The news world explodes following these statements, with every cable and network news channel giving twenty-four hour coverage to Hayden’s remarks.

Event Date: 9-29-2006
Event Description: Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Republican of Ohio) introduces three articles of impeachment against President Webb. “The president has shown that through both negligence and cronyism that he is unfit for the high office he now has,” Congressman Kucinich declares with dramatic flare, “If we fail to impeach Webb for these crimes, then we should simply create dictatorship for him and Hayden.” While the House of Representatives does not seriously consider this prospect, President Webb’s popularity has fallen to 39% and now more than 35% of Americans see impeachment as a necessary punishment for negligence.