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Archive for Raise The Debate
August 19, 2007 at 11:44 pm · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate, Call Bullshit
It’s time to impeach Bush and Cheney.
Personally, I believed they should have been impeached after the whole secret torture prisons episode. Not only was it itself a travesty, but its execution further illustrated tis administration’s incompetence.
The first real “enough is enough” moment for me, though, has been the whole executive-branch/legislative-branch/just-go-fuck-yourself 3-card monty game being played by the white house, followed by the back-door pardon of Scooter Libby.
The last one was Cheney’s office explaining away his 1994 arguments for not invading Iraq: “He wasn’t the vice-president then.”
3,706 dead Americans.
On a more emotional level, I’m upset because I have always referred to them as President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, capitalized words like White House, Congress and Capitol; always believing that the office is above the man.
But this administration has done what Nixon and Clinton never did – brought the office low. They decimated the Justice Dept., FEMA, the FBI and other federal agencies in ways that reach down into our day-to-day lives. They go to extraordinary lengths to vigorously promote, defend and cover up torture. They have abandoned the rule of law. They consider me to be a traitor.
It’s time.
What we really need is a leader with a mandate – a landslide election. Currently, the only person that has a chance to give us that is Al Gore, and he won’t throw his hat in (yet). I thought we could wait for that, but these guys see the Visigoths coming over the seventh hill and have already started scorching the earth.
Congress wants to get rid of them, even the GOP members; but they are scared that they’ll pay for it next November. If enough people back them, they’ll do the electoral math and either do the right thing, or at least know the consequences of maintaining the status quo.
We can hope, anyway.
Either way, call your congressmen and tell them: It’s time.
August 4, 2007 at 11:05 pm · Filed under Raise The Debate
To read about all of the furor over Delaware County’s property tax increases, I am reminded of a simple fact: All politics are local.
Having just moved back to Muncie from Florida after 10 years in a community where the property taxes on my 1,500 square foot home were $3,000 a year, I was surprised to read that people were complaining that their tax bills went up to $1,000 when their home was reassessed. But outrage is relative, as is perception of value; so while my personal feeling is one of “get over it,” I understand how a dramatic change in monthly expenses could make folks upset.
What disturbs me is who they are upset at.
I read comments like “the schools are killing us” or “downsize MITS” and just grimace. There’s nothing like a tax controversy to bring the me-monkeys out of the woodwork. After all, my house has never caught on fire, so why should I pay for emergency services, right?
The sad fact is that the blame usually rests squarely with the very people making all of that noise.
People who decry taxes will vote for anyone who promises them relief from “the tax man,” regardless of whether that person is qualified, intelligent or competent enough to hold the office for which they run. Case in point: In 2004, Hoosiers voted to re-elect President Bush (after having elected him in 2000); and in Delaware county he won by a full 14 points.
So what, you ask? Well, who do you suppose is paying for all of those Bush tax cuts?
Maybe a lot has changed in 10 years, but I always believed Hoosiers to be a fiscally careful lot. And, if I asked one what would have to happen if I suddenly cut his income by a third but none of his expenses, he’d probably tell me that he’d have to find the difference somewhere else. But change “income” to “taxes” and such common sense flies right out the window. City services still cost money. With the federal government paying less to the state, and the state paying less to the county who did you think was going to pay the difference?
Six years ago, economists warned that the President’s tax proposals were reckless and short-sighted, that they only really benefited the top 1 percent of Americans, and that the state and local governments were going to have to raise taxes to take up the slack. But the GOP media machine dismissed them all as out-of-touch “Harvard elite” party-poopers. The president talked bonnily about reinvestment and job creation, hoping that no one would recognize his plan as a re-hash of the old “trickle down” Reaganomics of the 80’s.
Apparently, enough people didn’t; but I bet they can feel it trickling down on them now.
The good news is that, compared to the national average, taxes in Indiana are still pretty reasonable. That will come as cold comfort to someone already struggling to make ends meet; but change is the way of life, and Hoosiers are up to the challenge. What needs to happen, though, is for concerned citizens to look not for ways to blame local politicians; but for ways to revitalize local economies with local business and true community reinvestment.
As always, the answer is to lead the way forward, not to look back.
July 4, 2007 at 2:39 am · Filed under Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
Note: At the end of this post is a link to the latest episode of the Thomas Jefferson Hour, in which Clay Jenkinson, as Thomas Jefferson, discusses the Declaration of Independence.
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Listen to Thomas Jefferson discuss the Declaration of Indpendence. It will open your eyes.
June 12, 2007 at 2:54 pm · Filed under Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
It’s always interesting to me to see real life reflect national politics (or is it the other way around?).
You would think that with a represenative democracy, it would happen more often than it does. Yet, our day-to-day sensibilities seem to become less relevant, the closer you get to the White House.
Still, it happens. Employers hire otherwise incompetent people, out of cronyism or because of whom they are related to, or to gain favor with some group of customers. People who should lose their jobs get to keep their jobs because of who or what they know, or because of some favor they’ve done in the past.
It never really turns out well, does it?
Much like politics, the solution is deceptively simple: Hire the best person for the job. Period.
Sure, you may alienate some interested group; but did you really want to do business with such small-minded folk anyway, let alone allow them to tell you how to run your business?
So why on earth would you let them decide who gets to run the country and how?
Read the rest of this entry »
April 16, 2007 at 10:45 pm · Filed under Raise The Debate, Call Bullshit
Senator Mel Martinezn (R-FL) wrote in a recent op-ed piece that the Democrats need to reach accross the aisle and be more bipartisan in their approach.
After six years of lording themselves over the world (and six years before that doing their best to keep anything good from getting done), the freshly-neutered GOP are finally going to get to be the underdogs they are always portraying themselves to be.
Personally, I always found the GOP to be a bunch of cry-babies. They come across all tough, but they’re the ones to come up with pedantic nuggets like “freedom fries” and “homicide bombers.” Anyone smarter than them is “elite,” and anyone different from them is a degenerate.
Mel Martinez, who viciuosly and personally attacks anyone who disagrees with him, wants the Dems to work harder get along with the likes of himself, James Inhofe and Ted Stevens. More Ted here. And here.
I hate to disappoint you, Senator, but no can do.
I’ll tell you what we will do, though. In the spirit of compromise, in 2009, we’ll be happy to work closely with the new Democratic senators from Oklahoma and Alaska.
Don’t worry, you’ll still have two years left to enjoy the newfound friendship before you go.
March 20, 2007 at 11:20 pm · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
Continuing with my reflections on this past weekend’s March on the Pentagon, I focus my attention today on war protestors.
War protestors are difficult to pin down. It’s not that they are scattered in their focus – on the contrary, they are often very single-minded. This is particularly true when the war hits home, by endangering, or claiming, the life of a loved one.
No, what makes them tricky is that so many of them are opposed to abstract concepts, rather than specific realities.
First of all, any enlightened being must be opposed to war. The suffering created by violence, in the interest of economy, territory and/or ideology is itself intolerable. “Live and let live” means exactly that, and doesn’t really leave any wiggle room.
Then there are those opposed to the secondary issues of war, such as occupation, economic collapse and suppression of civil liberties (both abroad and at home).
For example, I hear many people complain about how Americans are not asked to make sacrifices for this war, when the simple fact is that they have – they just don’t realize it, because there is no dollar amount associated with things like habeas corpus, Miranda rights and torture.
There are also the “anti’s”. A reflection of their pro-war – any war – counterparts, they are simply anti-establishment. They are typically anarchic, disdain all authority, and war protests serve only to give them an outlet for their dissent. They don’t want to see the war end, they want to see the government end; and there’s no reasoning with them.
Finally, there are the practical objectors. They see any military operation that does not directly relate to true defense as a waste of lives, money and resources. Many of them believe, in fact, that such opertations are folly and ultimately weaken our defensibility. While this persepective doesn’t adequately regard the human cost of such conflicts, it does address a very real aspect of ill-conceived combat operations.
Moving beyond the idea of war, and into the theatre of Operation Iraqi/Enduring Freedom, we find people opposed to every aspect of this partcular war – even some you never knew existed.
Read the rest of this entry »
March 19, 2007 at 3:44 pm · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
The March on the Pentagon, this past weekend, was a profound educational experience for me – and on a number of levels.
The most powerful thing I walked away with was a clearer picture of war supporters.
I don’t mean the average joe, casual, ‘I voted for Bush so I have to stand behind him’ Republicans; but rather the die hard, dedicated, ‘dissension equals treason’ war supporters.
I talk about the war in Iraq with a lot of people. Most are against it, but some are for it.
Of those, it’s hard to get many of them past the bumper sticker arguments and indignant insults; but every once in a while, someone will be open to the idea of a reasonable discussion.
Here’s the big three points I’ve taken from them:
Read the rest of this entry »
March 18, 2007 at 12:16 pm · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
I’ve set up some photos of yesterday’s march. I’ll be writing more on the experience later.
View the photos here.
It was really a profound experience that I whole heartedly recommend.
March 17, 2007 at 10:48 am · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
9:00 am - It’s cold. 30º and windy, but the rain/sleet/ice is all gone and it’s sunny and beautiful – so long as you’re inside looking out a window.
The local news is dominated by last night’s NCAA tournament. But the national news shows republicans preemptively disputing the protest. Madman McCain is in New Hampshire right now hyping the end of the world that will come about if we leave Iraq.
The protest begins in just a few hours. You still have time to get here.
10:43 am - I’m leaving the Hotel Harrington now. I tried the diner, Harriet’s, for breakfast. No. The people are nice enough, but the service sucks and the coffee is terrible.
12:00 pm - It is freezing cold and the wind is brutal. There was another event planned for today – a Gathering of Eagles – which appears to be a bunch of Vietnam vets/bikers protecting the monuments from destructive hippies and showing their support for the war.
Read the rest of this entry »
March 16, 2007 at 8:39 pm · Filed under Confound Authority, Finish Ahead, Raise The Debate
12:20 pm - I’m on my way to DC this weekend for the big anti-war protest.
I was supposed to take a bus, but UCF’s Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were in charge of that, and well, they mean well.
Then the bus was replaced by a carpool; but again, SDS was in charge, so I’m on plane.
Air travel has become so utilitarian, flying domestically is not so different from taking a commuter train – except you bring whatever you like on a train, with or without a Ziploc bag.
Speaking of which, can someone explain to me how taking the toothpaste out of someone’s carry-on bag, putting it inside a ziploc bag, and then returning it to the carry-on is keeping us all safe?
I’m sure the procedure didn’t start out that way, so what was the original intent?
Read the rest of this entry »
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