World War IV
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
-Albert Einstein
Galbraith Foresaw
“Corporate power is the driving force behind US foreign policy – and the slaughter in Iraq.”
John Kenneth Galbraith, a towering figure in the intellectual landscape of the 20th century, died Saturday at the age of 97. Born in Canada, he moved to the States when Roosevelt was President – and he stayed here. He was an economist, author, professor, frequent presidential counselor, U.S. ambassador to India, editor of FORTUNE magazine (1943–48), and was the driector of the U.S. Strategic Bombing Survey. He foresaw what has now happened in America. He was insightful, eloquent, and witty – and had that rare talent of being able to express his ideas in ways that non-academics could understand. He had rural roots and a moral imperative: the common good. His lectures (for some 25 years at Harvard professor) routinely drew standing-room-only audiences. He authored some 40 books and was granted some 50 honorary degrees.
He warned that corporations were becoming too powerful. His famous 1958 work “The Affluent Society” argued that while market forces could produce great wealth, it was at a social and environmental cost that wasn’t so obvious. More specifically, while the American economy produced wealth, it did not adequately address public needs such as schools – it did not meet the social contract in proportion to its wealth. Overproduction of consumer goods was already harming the public sector and depriving Americans of such benefits as clean air, clean streets, good schools and support for the arts. An unfettered free market system and capitalism without regulation would fail to meet basic social demands.
The New Industrial State (1967) argued that the rise of giant multi-national corporations had also created a bureaucratic “technostructure” that exercised a powerful influence over the economy. In Economics and the Public Purpose (1973) he discussed a bureaucratic reciprocity between big government and big business that often worked against the public interest.
“The family which takes its mauve and cerise, air-conditioned, power-steered, and power-braked automobile out for a tour passes through cities that are badly paved, made hideous by litter, blighted buildings, billboards, and posts for wires that should long since have been put underground. They picnic on exquisitely packaged food from a portable icebox by a polluted stream and go on to spend the night in a park which is a menace to public health and morals. Just before dozing off on an air mattress, beneath a nylon tent, amid the stench of decaying refuse, they may reflect vaguely on the curious unevenness of their blessings.”
On trickle-down economics:
“If you feed the horse enough oats, the sparrow will survive on the highway.â€
On conservatives:
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
On leadership:
“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”
Capitalism vs Communism:
“Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it’s just the opposite.”
A few years ago, I saw an interview with him in which he was asked what was different about the Bush administration. He said something to the effect that for the first time, corporations are running our government directly.
(If anyone can find that quotation or a reference, please comment – I’d appreciate it.)
More than 750
That’s the number of laws that Bush has claimed authority to disobey.
Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ”whistle-blower” protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.
Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush’s assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government.
The President’s job is to faithfully execute the laws. In his (or his advisors’) view, the Supreme Court’s job and the Congress’ job is really his job too.
I think that perhaps he’s spent a little too much time with the Royal Family – no, not his own, but the Saud variety. American boots on the ground in Saudi Arabia, protecting the regime of the royal family, acted as one of the first recruiting points for bin Laden’s terrorist network (despite his own ties) there. Our role in the middle east has been unpopular — supporting dictators, establishing military bases, things like that. Our decades-long protection of this family has been documented to some extent already – but I fully expect to see more revelations of just how deep our complicity has been, and how much it has really cost, as time goes on. Meanwhile, they’re raking it in even faster than ExxonMobil.
In any case, the expansion of executive power in this administration has been striking. They must feel very confident in continuing “Republican” power (They’re not really Republicans, are they…).
Here’s how it’s done, the modus operandi: Signing statements. It’s a form of crossing fingers behind your back, if you remember that children’s “loophole on a promise.”
Bush is the first president in modern history who has never vetoed a bill, giving Congress no chance to override his judgments. Instead, he has signed every bill that reached his desk, often inviting the legislation’s sponsors to signing ceremonies at which he lavishes praise upon their work.
Then, after the media and the lawmakers have left the White House, Bush quietly files ”signing statements” — official documents in which a president lays out his legal interpretation of a bill for the federal bureaucracy to follow when implementing the new law. The statements are recorded in the federal register.
In his signing statements, Bush has repeatedly asserted that the Constitution gives him the right to ignore numerous sections of the bills — sometimes including provisions that were the subject of negotiations with Congress in order to get lawmakers to pass the bill. He has appended such statements to more than one of every 10 bills he has signed.
”He agrees to a compromise with members of Congress, and all of them are there for a public bill-signing ceremony, but then he takes back those compromises — and more often than not, without the Congress or the press or the public knowing what has happened,” said Christopher Kelley, a Miami University of Ohio political science professor who studies executive power.
Here are a couple of examples:
Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.
Bush’s signing statement: The president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks.
Oct. 29, 2005: Defense Department personnel are prohibited from interfering with the ability of military lawyers to give independent legal advice to their commanders.
Bush’s signing statement: All military attorneys are bound to follow legal conclusions reached by the administration’s lawyers in the Justice Department and the Pentagon when giving advice to their commanders.
Nov. 6, 2003: US officials in Iraq cannot prevent an inspector general for the Coalition Provisional Authority from carrying out any investigation. The inspector general must tell Congress if officials refuse to cooperate with his inquiries.
Bush’s signing statement: The inspector general ”shall refrain” from investigating anything involving sensitive plans, intelligence, national security, or anything already being investigated by the Pentagon. The inspector cannot tell Congress anything if the president decides that disclosing the information would impair foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations.
The method of “no veto, then ignore with signing statement” is deceitful, especially given the way he does it. A Presidential veto can be overturned by Congress, but this cross your fingers behind your back is just plain infantile – not to mention creepy – and more than 750 examples is rather excessive.
“Ha-ha – take it back! Fooled ya again!”
It’s amazing to me that Congress is handing over its powers like this. It’s got to burn even the most rabid right-wingers a little bit.
Claim vs Fact – American Progress Action Fund
The Claim vs Fact database at the American Progress Action Fund is a great resource.
Each conservative quote is matched against well-documented facts, so users can get a more accurate picture of the issues.
Select by topic or by speaker.
Daily Activism
The actions I post are those I support, at least for the present. Sometimes I change my mind when new information, evidence, or compelling argument convinces me to do so (but – note to trolls – rarely do I change my mind because of comments intended to provoke me, harass me, and drain my energy and time).
There are so many things going on right now that I feel I need some sort of realignment with my larger priorities. I will try to do my part to support actions to bring compassion and ethics and accountability to our government and public sphere, to reawaken the American people to a realization of their own interests and to the need for a functioning democracy here. But I have to refocus on some other priorities as well, and this is not my top calling.
Among other things, I have decided to change the format of the activism suggestions I post – they need to be more minimalist. There is always a lot of information on the topic at the site, and adults can use their favorite search engines and so on to find out more about any of these topics.
Click on the links to read more and to decide whether you support the views presented. Go right ahead and read up on the issue elsewhere too!
Develop discernment – among other things, it’s a survival skill.
Today’s Actions:
Demand that our government stop dragging its feet and take decisive action to stop Darfur genocide (Color of Change)
Support Real Effort to Address US Oil Dependence – Fuel Choices for American Security Act (S.2025/H.R. 4409) bipartisian legislation would save as much as 10 million barrels of oil per day by 2030 by creating incentives and standards that would increase vehicle efficiency and alternative fuel use. (Union of Concerned Scientists)
Sign petition to repeal tax breaks for oil and gas companies (they admitted they don’t need the money). (Biden, Unite Our States)
Tell your Senators to protect our coasts and stop more offshore drilling. We can’t drill our way to energy independence. (League of Conservation Voters)
Support the troops, but not the unending war. Listen to the new Neil Young album “Living with War”, then take action to bring our troops home in 2006. (True Majority)
Take a wide range of actions at: Consumer’s Union (publisher of Consumer Reports)
Roosevelt 100 Years Ago
In April 100 years ago:
“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day.”
–Teddy Roosevelt.
(April 19th, actually – I’m a few days late with this.)
Looks like the “invisible government” he was referring to has surged forward and become a lot more visible.
Consider this, from Lawrence Wilkerson: “Is U.S. being transformed into a radical republic?” in today’s Baltimore Sun:
As Alexis de Tocqueville once said: “America is great because she is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
In January 2001, with the inauguration of George W. Bush as president, America set on a path to cease being good; America became a revolutionary nation, a radical republic. If our country continues on this path, it will cease to be great – as happened to all great powers before it, without exception.
From the Kyoto accords to the International Criminal Court, from torture and cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners to rendition of innocent civilians, from illegal domestic surveillance to lies about leaking, from energy ineptitude to denial of global warming, from cherry-picking intelligence to appointing a martinet and a tyrant to run the Defense Department, the Bush administration, in the name of fighting terrorism, has put America on the radical path to ruin.
Unprecedented interpretations of the Constitution that holds the president as commander in chief to be all-powerful and without checks and balances marks the hubris and unparalleled radicalism of this administration.
Moreover, fiscal profligacy of an order never seen before has brought America trade deficits that boggle the mind and a federal deficit that, when stripped of the gimmickry used to make it appear more tolerable, will leave every child and grandchild in this nation a debt that will weigh upon their generations like a ball and chain around every neck. Imagine owing $150,000 from the cradle. That is radical irresponsibility.
Sounds like place to start for the statemanship of today.