Category: Politics

The Real Inconvenient Truth

I was in the middle of reading “Dear Senator Obama” by Marc Ash http://www.truthout.org/articl…

and a word leaped out at me.  It was the word “inconvenient”.

   

In 2000, we were a nation rushing to put hanging chads behind us. Dealing with what really happened in Florida was inconvenient. Seven and a half years later, we are still paying the debt.

I’m reading Sheldon J. Wolin’s (Chalmers Johnson’s prof)”Democracy Incorporated: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Capitalism” and he also zeros in on Florida as either a coup-d’etat or, he theorizes,  akin to a corporate hostile takeover.  

Sarko’s Mad Fever Dream of a “Mediterranean Union” (with POLL!)

Crossposted at The Crusty Polemicist.

I wish  French President Sarkozy all the luck in the world building a “Mediterranean Union”  — like the European Union, but encompassing the countries of the Mediterranean basin. His idea has three fundamental problems, things that are differences from the situation that prevailed at the founding of the EU:

1. with the EU, all the founding countries had pretty much come to the conclusion that war was no way to get things done. They were all prepared to turn their backs on making war and get on with the much harder work of making peace. With countries like Syria, Libya,  Israel, and Serbia in the Mediterranean Union  mix, there are way too many countries that still think war is a great way to solve problems.

Mister .. Can I have my official terrorist detector badge?

Found this interesting blurb over at the Progressive, the article is a few weeks old so my apologies if somebody has done a diary on the topic.

It concerns the drafting/appointment of certain personnel to assist in the

detection of terrorists in our midst. It makes me wonder if we are all facing a future of being dragged in from of a special house committee to deny that we are terrorists and to give lists of names.

According to the article….

And the latest one to come to my attention is the dispatching of police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and utility workers as so-called “terrorism liaison officers,” according to a report by Bruce Finley in the Denver Post.

Their mission is as follows…..

They are entrusted with hunting for “suspicious activity,” and then they report their findings, which end up in secret government databases.

What constitutes “suspicious activity,” of course, is in the eye of the beholder. But a draft Justice Department memo on the subject says that such things as “taking photos of no apparent aesthetic value” or “making notes” could constitute suspicious activity, Finley wrote.

The states where this is going on include: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Washington, D.C.

So. I am about to do y’all a favor. As it happens, I undercovercalico, live in Tennessee and one of my hobbies is taking pictures. I wouldn’t say that I am a photographer because that would imply a level of skill.

And you’re going to need evidence of my activities so I might as well just give it up now…

Bad Pragmatism pt. 3: Common Sense Principles for a Crappier World

I know your attention is probably better devoted to some good, popular diaries which have made the rec list today: One Pissed Off Liberal’s jeremiad against the crooks, for instance, or Nightprowlkitty’s harrowing story of detention.  This is simply a short reflection upon the recent history of bad pragmatism, the political trend which decks itself out in colors of “realism” and “pragmatism” (while attempting to present a moral face to the world) but is in fact just plain wrong.

This diary will only confront three rhetorical principles of bad pragmatism: “bipartisanship,” “teacher accountability/ test them every year” and “fiscal prudence.”  More will be forthcoming.

(crossposted at Big Orange)

Ask Dick Cheney

Dear Vice President Cheney,

  Now that your term of power is nearing its “official” end (he he), which accomplishment makes you prouder:  the nearly complete dismantling of constitutional democracy or bringing torture back into mainstream acceptance?

                                                            Complete Idiot

Dear Complete Idiot,

   One hand rubs the other, he he.  And gleefully, too.  On one hand, torture terrifies people and makes them eager to give up their power.  On the other hand, committing torture with impunity requires weaseling out of hundreds of years of western jurisprudence.  I’m going to say it’s a toss-up, although on a personal level, of course, torture is a lot more fun.

Dear Vice President Cheney,

   At what point in your presidency did it become obvious to you that were going to get away with doing anything you wanted without regard to the constitution, your “opponents” in Congress, or basic human decency?

                                                            Clueless in Seattle

Dear Clueless,

    Naturally, I know a lot more than you.  Let’s just say it was clear you were fucked when they let Nixon walk. I turned to Rumsfield one day and said, “Next time, we’ll just ignore them.”  We still laugh about that.

                                                       

The Great Betrayal

For 40 years I have been told be patient, work within the system, elect more Democrats.  In all that time I have seen few victories and most of those merely symbolic (ooh, they increased the minimum rage by 15 cents an hour), and these anemic victories have been overwhelmed by the horrendous losses the American people have suffered time and time again.  There has been a steady erosion of our Constitutional rights, economic inequality has increased, the working poor and the middleclass have been robbed at every turn by the filthy rich and our government has become more corrupt, more warlike and more evil.  We now openly torture our prisoners and publicly argue that it is our right to do so.

0_61_dems_pelosi_reid

each of us faces tough choices

we tell ourselves we’re on the brink. the world as we knew it is gone. holy shit. oh my fucking god. the polar bears are drowning. frogs are disappearing. we are beyond safe limits of CO2.

Photobucket

fyi: the world as we knew it has always been a fleeting construct… it’s always changing. there is nothing to hang onto. there never was… our lives keep moving forward. our lives will not stop. we, all of us, will eventually fall off cliffs into our own abyss…

in a way, i think then this frees us up. because if life is basically in chaos and out-of-control, why not use that to our advantage? why are we thinking inside the political box when the problems we confront are so outside of it??? i like this kind of thinking…

The resources of a single human cell’s “biospace” are as unbounded as the resources of outer space. Quantum microscopy opens vast new resources that fulfilll Paul Dirac’s criterion for a golden era:

“Golden eras occur when ordinary people can make extraordinary contributions”



why are we tied to barack obama, just for an example? if obama reads like a corporatist. if he voted for FISA… why? if he is the presumptive nominee because he tacked left of Clinton and now pulls right… if he can change direction, why can’t we change the course of this election? why? who determines our actions? do we? or do we allow some monolithic, decaying political system keep us in its thrall? do we have to accept this?

no. maybe it’s not the politics. we haven’t gotten it yet. it’s all temporary. it’s all just beyond our grasp. what lasts timothy? fucking nothing. oh. right. change lasts. and yet maybe that very thing gives me right now. if it’s all i have, then i want to own it.

ha… then i don’t have to vote for obama (or clinton) as the lesser of two evils. i can write to the delegates of New York and urge them to cast their ballots for Dennis or John… I can tell the Super Delegates what I think. And promise them a course of action that will leave them all realizing just how much the world as they knew it has moved way past them…

so… it’s another call to form another party. another call for a systematic campaign of filling school boards, town boards, state houses, and congressional seats with different points-of-view: we can tell the old ones, still stuck in the world as they knew it, that the Real Life Party is here. the Resistance Party is here. the Green Party is here. the Common Good party, here!!! and i have to ask myself, what is really progressive? voting for the lesser of two evils or abandoning that path? even when that path takes us further to the brink? or do we, at some point, have to risk being pulled over the brink? and how do we know that is really the worst thing? how do we really know what the brink is? and maybe that changes all the time too… or, and i’m not sure who first said it but: who the fuck really knows

we have in us the power for drama and daring and doing great things. this is the time. we have, in front of us, another wild west to explore. uncharted ocean to cross. this trek is to reclaim the territory of our minds. our souls.

we are still fighting to be free. we will always have to fight for our freedom. because the world as we know it will always change, will often fall into the wrong hands… and yeah, life as we know it will always leave us with tough choices.

The Millennial Left and the Old Left

As we geezers are coming to find out, there is a new force in politics, the people who are trying to shape the future that they will live in after we are ‘gone.’

From Wikipedia:


Generation Y (sometimes referred to as “the Millennials” or “Echo Boomers”) refers to a specific cohort of individuals born, roughly, between 1980-94.

Generation Y are primarily children of the Baby boomers and Generation Jones (US only), though some are children of older Gen X adults…..



A central characteristic of what defines Generation Y is that they have no memory of the Cold War….

If the years 1981-2000 are used, as is common in market research, then the size of Millennials in the United States is approximately 76 million.

Who are these people? What do they want? And why don’t they realize that fighting the ideological battles of the past is more important than creating the future???

And most importantly, how can we help them to not have to reinvent the wheelPhotobucket

as they flex their newfound political power?

The Center Cannot Hold

Some think the US government should avoid violating international laws, the Geneva Convention, our own Code of Military Conduct and jus cogens by not torturing.

Others think some torture of certain people is okay.

The Center:  Allow torture of certain people under limited circumstances.

Some think the constitution is “sacred obligatory on all citizens,” the foundation of our nation, the bulwark of our very liberty, a document which unites all Americans around principles of self-governance, and whose defense is the basis of all oaths of office and the essence of patriotism.

Others think it is “just a piece of paper” to be violated at whim.

The Center:  Follow the constitution some of the time and subvert it at other times.

Some think all government officials, private citizens, and corporations are obligated to follow the law of the land or pay the penalty.

Others think violations of the law should be ignored if high officials say it is okay.

The Center:  Require obedience to the law in most circumstances but sometimes allow lawlessness.

Some say human-caused global warming is the most serious threat to the future of humanity and could well lead to our extermination unless drastic action is immediately undertaken.

Others say global warming is the biggest hoax ever visited on the American people.

The Center:  Everybody recycle and try to turn off unneeded lights.

Some think the US should only go to war on the basis of reliable intelligence which reveals a plausible threat to our national security.

Others think its okay to go to war on the basis of trumped up intelligence in order to further the financial and power interests of an elite minority.

The Center:  Try to go to war only when intelligence proves it’s necessary, but continue to prosecute wars started under other circumstances.

Dazed and Confused

Not long after I arrived in Texas, somebody asked me where I was from and when I replied “Canada” they asked me what state that was in. The story got good play among the other Canadians who had arrived as new nurses in the remote Texas town because it reinforced the stereotype held by some Canadians about the level of intellect in America.

Canadians tend to be overly smug about it while being conveniently ignorant about some of their own history.

Southerners of course are still obsessed by the “War of Northern Aggression” and I work with a few people who like to dabble in “reenactment” scenarios. I am assuming they think if they do it over enough maybe the outcome will change. Odd all of them are white. Go figure. I never quite understood the urge to reenact major battles.

You won’t find many Canadians eager to play out Dieppe all over again.

Happen 2 U? A friend?

I find it real hard to believe I am the only one this happened to. So please read. if it does not apply to you, and you have no comment, then please go ahead and enjoy the novelty of the problem. It’s long, but it’s fun, unless it’s you,

To preface, because it is now apparent that I owe these guys no Courtesy, the following has been sent for review to :

a/ My family and friends.

b/ The local paper.

c/ The local grapevine.

d/ Representative Defazio.

e/ Representative Conyers, via his blog.

f/ Senator Wyden

g/ You.

But it has not yet been sent to the Department of Education, because they won’t give me their email, and my printer is kaput. Tuesday the Library is open. Then I will burn two copies, one for the bad guys, the other for the local Senior and Disabled Services Office. This gives some time to change the letter, make it better. And that is why I am asking for input.

Thanks all, and with no further ado, on with the show !

=======================================================

 

Bad pragmatism in political decisionmaking

This diary was prompted by the debate that circulated here around Senator Obama’s vote on telecomm immunity in the FISA bill, especially in Keith Olbermann’s diary of 6/26, and thereafter.  Olbermann’s rationalization was that Obama’s vote was a pragmatic move to attain power for the greater good.  The debate about Obama’s vote culminated in a defense of “purity trolls” (as such) in a diary listed here: “I’m calling out purity trolls by name,” incl. the Founding Fathers.  Since this “pragmatic” justification is endemic in politics today, I think it behooves us to examine it, and to specify and explain a “bad pragmatism” that comes of the uncritical acceptance of social “reality”.  I will also specify an antidote to “bad pragmatism,” in the concept of utopian dreaming.

(crossposted from Big Orange)

Load more