Day: January 22, 2010

Death Throes Of American Democracy

Since the very beginning there has been those detractors of American democracy that have predicted its demise…but few have been accurate until recently….the activist judges (to use a GOP slogan) on the Supreme Court have taken a step to finally end the government of the people, for the people and by the people…..

This from an article in the LA Times:

The ruling removes limits on corporations from spending their money on federal races, meaning that companies — and probably labor unions — will be free, for instance, to buy up advertising time days and weeks before an election to support or attack a potential candidate, perhaps creating slick spots with high production values similar to drug or car ads, or purchasing large blocks of network time.

Previously, federal law prohibited corporations and unions from using their treasuries to advocate for a specific candidate, allowing them to express themselves only through political action committees that were tightly regulated. They will still be prevented from donating money directly to campaigns even after today’s decision.

The question now is whether corporations and labor unions will take advantage of their new freedom. For the past decade, labor unions have been more aggressive than corporations in finding legal ways to fund independent political campaigns. But the relaxation of campaign-spending restrictions could clear the way for groups from all points along the political spectrum to spend more, and target more of that spending in the critical final days of a campaign.

This ruling is putting the very fabric of American democracy in danger….no longer will the people be the deciders…but rather the corporations will decide who rules and who gets what…..

The American will NO longer be a minor inconvenience to be tolerated; they will become insignificant to the political process…I have always said that Americans get the best government money can buy and now, thanks to the Supreme Court, I am proven right, yet again…..

The American voter will NO longer be relevant to the political process….more so than NOW!

Dems: Try This!

With the election of Brown from Mass the super majority is dead and with that so is health reform…..may I suggest a direction for the Dems to try….one the whole “Big Bang” approach just plain sucked!

You guys are making this whole health thing more complicated than it has to be…just keep in mind K.I.S.S.!

That bazillion page health reform bill…scrape it!….absolutely NO one knows what is in the damn thing…..it is so large that it only aids the opposition in their track down the misinformation highway….throw the damn thing in the trash and try again…..

I have an idea….put together a bill that contains a reversal of the anti-trust exemption for the insurance companies, insert a provision for a national exchange so that insurance can be bought like car insurance and finally, eliminate the pre-existing condition thing……send this to the Congress and wait…..

Let the opposition take shots at it all they want and then go before the people and say that the Repubs are fighting against people having choice, want insurance companies to keep their antitrust exemption and that people are not important…..

Then go back to the Hill and dare Repubs to vote against it……..their political future would be bleak if they do…..it would be hard for them to justify why they are against the bill to the voter….now you have them by the short hairs!

All bills are a political chess game….it helps if the players know the moves……unfortunately, just being in opposition is not a good move……maybe then the Repubs would offer alternatives other than tort reform….

Simplest answers are usually the best answers…..what could it hurt?

Cry For Haiti

We all have seen the disastrous in Haiti after the massive earthquake…all the death, destruction, misery and hopelessness….we have all watched the world respond generously to the situation…but now I am seeing a pattern that may just not be so….but it is all too familiar.

Writing recently for wsws.org, Bill Van Auken:

From the dawn of the 20th century, Haiti fell under the domination of Washington and the US banks, whose interests were defended by sending Marines to carry out an occupation that continued for nearly 20 years, maintained through the bloody suppression of Haitian resistance.

The Marines left only after carrying out the “Haitianization”—as the New York Times referred to it at the time—of the war against the Haitian people by building an army dedicated to internal repression.

Subsequently, Washington backed the 30-year dictatorship of the Duvaliers, which began with the coming to power of Papa Doc in 1957. While tens of thousands of Haitians died at the hands of the military and the dreaded Tontons Macoute, US imperialism saw the murderous dictatorship as a bulwark against communism and revolution in the Caribbean.

Since the mass upheavals that brought down the Duvaliers in 1986, successive US governments, Democratic and Republican alike, have sought to reconstruct a reliable client state capable of defending the markets and investments of US firms attracted by starvation wages, as well as the property and wealth of the Haitian ruling elite. This entails preventing any challenge to a socio-economic order that keeps 80 percent of the population in dire poverty.

Haiti’s original constitution was written by the commander of US troops that were occupying the island nation some 100 years ago…..

I believe it was Woodrow Wilson that sent the first troops to Haiti in 1913….and the US has been involved in Haiti’s internal affairs ever since…I am hoping that this is not a usual move to try and get a foothold in Haiti once again…to make Haiti into this “little” America in the Caribbean…….but it just seems all too familiar……