Lucky 13. J.C. Burton of the Socialist Equailty Party placed 13th overall in the California recall election.

True, he came in behind Gary Coleman, but that can be attributed to a sentimental vote proferred by nosaligic Coleman fans who also realized that the recall was a lost cause for all concerned. A protest vote against protest votes, as it were. Still, it was surprizing to see how well Burton did in some extremely conservative counties such as Sutter.

Andrea Peters at WSWS gives us her take on the Burton vote.

On the basis of the election statement, the principles and perspective advanced in these statements, and the public campaign the SEP demarcated itself from all other major and minor candidates in the race, including those who identified themselves as socialists or lefts. The results of John Christopher Burton’s campaign point to a palpable shift among the most politically conscious layers in California, who are revolted by the backwardness and political reaction that dominated the recall election and are searching for a genuine alternative.

Chris Floyd on the purposes of the Iraq war and a prediction of what is to come for the sheeply American "electorate."

All this blood and destruction so that Bush might remain in power, and dole out the plunder of two nations -- Iraq and America -- to the gilded corporate mafia he represents. And now the greatest prize in the history of the world beckons: domination of the world's oil reserves, precisely at the point when the rising, insatiable demand for oil is about to exceed the remaining supply. Nations will be increasingly desperate, willing to pay any price -- financial and political -- to those who control access to the precious, dwindling resource.

For the criminal mind, this is indeed a prize worth lying for, worth cheating for, worth killing tens of thousands of innocent people for. And as often noted here, a gang that doesn't blanche at aggressive war will certainly have no scruples about subverting the political process -- by any means necessary, even violence -- to maintain their power.

Yet the political fate of George W. Bush is insignificant. What matters now is the fate of the Republic itself. Always an imperfect instrument -- as are all human constructions -- and buffeted by decades of militarization and vast corruption, the Republic nevertheless has served as a vehicle to carry forward some of the best instincts and noblest aspirations of our fragile, conflicted and unstable human nature. But Bush has crossed the Rubicon. He has taken the worst aspects of U.S. society to unprecedented extremes, breaking down the already-weakened civic and social structures of the Republic. The center will not hold; the rule of law will be replaced by the rule of shock and awe, the rule of arbitrary force, rampant corruption, witless diversion, sugared piety, aggressive nationalism and empty pomp. These perverted values are already ascendant in American public life today.

With Bush's criminal war and autocratic decrees -- remember, he's asserted the right to imprison or even kill any American citizen he designates an "enemy" -- the traditional restraints on arbitrary power have been broken, and the pattern of lawless tyranny established. Even if Bush himself should fall, someone else -- perhaps more charming, clever, capable, seductive: a true Caesar instead of a clownish thug -- will step in and take these developments to their inevitable conclusion.