Month: February 2011

Why A Jeffersonian Democracy?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  Democracy/Government

With all the trouble and problems going on across North Africa, I have heard several media pundits calling and analyzing about the future of these countries and the possibility of a Jeffersonian Democracy…..most of them are conservs or right leaning Dems…..but what do they mean by “Jeffersonian Democracy”?

First of all, it is these pundits trying yet again to deify Jefferson and his ideals…….trying to link ALL democracy to the system set up by Jefferson…..secondly, that is total CRAP!

In its core ideals it is characterized by the following elements, which the Jeffersonians expressed in their speeches and legislation:

  • The core political value of America is representative democracy; citizens have a civic duty to aid the state and resist corruption
  • Americans had a duty to spread what Jefferson called the “Empire of Liberty” to the world, but should avoid “entangling alliances.”
  • The national government is a dangerous necessity to be instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people, nation or community; it should be watched closely and circumscribed in its powers.
  • The wall of separation between church and state is the best method to keep religion free from intervention by the federal government, government free of religious disputes, and religion free from corruption by government.
  • The federal government must not violate the rights of individuals.
  • The federal government must not violate the rights of the states.
  • Freedom of speech and the press is the best method to prevent the tyranny of the people by their own government.
  • A standing army and navy are dangerous to liberty and should be avoided; much better was to use economic coercion such as the embargo.
  • The United States Constitution was written in order to ensure the freedom of the people. A strict view of how the constitution was written is kept. However, “no society can make a perpetual constitution or even a perpetual law. The earth belongs always to the living generation.”
  • All men had the right to be informed, and thus, to have a say in the government. The protection and expansion of human liberty was one of the chief goals of the Jeffersonians. They also reformed their respective state systems of education. They believed that their citizens had the right and should be educated no matter their circumstance or status in life.

Just a bit of what I guess we could call Jeffersonian democracy…….but is there more?

Yep, it has come to mean limited government and other such conserv ideals that they push for in every election….no matter the ideals Jefferson was a bit of a hypocrite…..the Louisiana Purchase expanded the role of government…..his Embargo Act of  1807 and the fact that he continued to hold slaves even when he constantly voiced opposition…..

I think that Jefferson’s own words tell where he was standing on the political philosophy of the day….”The natural aristocracy I consider as the most precious gift of nature… Every one, by his property, or by his satisfactory situation, is interested in the support of law and order. And such men may safely and advantageously reserve to themselves a wholesome control over their public affairs, and a degree of freedom, which, in the hands of the canaille of the cities of Europe, would be instantly perverted to the demolition and destruction of everything public and private.”  (Does not sound like a person that actually believes in limited government)……

I know that many will not agree with me….for I will NOT deify Jefferson….and I see his Republican movement as…… by contrast, were more concerned about the preservation of the relatively democratic distribution of the nation’s wealth.  While they had always advocated freeing oceanic commerce and providing foreign markets for the farmers, they believed that Federalists had rendered the United States subservient to Britain and had actually preferred a gradual reintroduction of hereditary rule.

To pretend that Jeffersonian democracy is some sort of perfect democracy is just plain wrong!  There is NO such thing as a perfect democracy…..if it were then there would NOT be a democracy……

So what part of Jeffersonian democracy does the Right keeping hoping for the Middle East….the expansionism?  How about the return to hereditary rule?  Just what does the Right want for the Middle East?  You can bet that it is NOT a participatory democracy!

A Ranting I Will Go #3–Challenge

It is the weekend…..take a break from the mundane…….and now….for something completely different!

Ranting and Raving…the last refuge of a tired political observer……and anyone that spends any amount of time on Info Ink will know how I feel about Social Security…..and daily we hear from both parties that entitlements will be cut….entitlements?  That implies something that I feel I am demanding for nothing…..SS is NOT that…it is the basic retirement fund of millions of Americans that have been paying into it for decades…….and that the fund will be broke by 2037…..well first of all, it would NOT be broke if we had NOT allowed our politicians to steal from it to pay for other programs….and second, at current income it will be broke……AT CURRENT INCOME….if you believe that then you are believing that the country will NEVER recovery from this recession…….

Beyond that…..all the media pundits that jump all over SS, both media and political, say that it is a necessary evil…..to that I said CRAP!  It is all too easy to bad mouth the system when one is pulling down 6 or 7 figure salaries…..these people have NO idea what is going on in the middle of the country, regardless of the lip service they do…..

SS is the only retirement that most Americans have….why?  Try juggling college, new house, new car raising food and other conditions and then tell me how much is left over for your retirement if it were NOT for SS…….

I issue a challenge to these people……let say $1000 a month is the average…..try living on that….stop partisan bullsh*t and go live where most of the country lives….from month to month….it is all so easy to condemn when you live on the Lower Eastside …..just once trying living on Main Street…..and please do NOT tell us that when you were growing up things were tough…..how nice for you…..now you live in the lap of luxury….that cancels out any statement about your past poverty…..so pick a spot, any spot, and try living like the rest of us….

I realize that this challenge will go unaccepted……and if so then my point has been made……these people are all talk….no one will give up the lap of luxury to see how the rest of us live…..and they are what they are…pompous asses!…….nice try Chuq!

My Cup Of Joe!

We have watched the Middle East with concern….and in my case with endless cups of joe……how is that for a segway?

I like so many others…..live and breath thanks to caffeine……a cup of joe does more to start my day and have often wondered why….other than being really tastey I have always thought that something so good cannot be so wrong……apparently…I have been smarter than I thought…….

In a study published in a special supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, researchers explored the potential benefits of caffeine and found substantial evidence that it may be protective against the cognitive decline seen in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

The result was a collection of original studies exploring a number of topics ranging from molecular targets of caffeine, neurophysiological modifications and adaptations, to the potential mechanisms underlying the behavioral and protective actions of caffeine in distinct brain pathologies.Here’s a brief summary of what they found:

1. Caffeine has a positive effect on cognition, memory performance, and the ability to complete complex tasks.

2. An inverse association between regular caffeine consumption and the incidence of Parkinson’s disease was found — in other words, caffeine looks to be protective against Parkinson’s disease.

3 . The consumption of moderate amounts of caffeine was seen to decrease the cognitive decline associated with aging, as well as the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease.

4. Caffeine prevented motor deficits, normalized brain function, and prevented brain degeneration.

5. Caffeine improves a sense of well-being, happiness, energy, alertness and sociability.

6. Caffeine enhances aerobic endurance.

7. Consumption of coffee can lead to a decreased risk of Type 2 diabetes.

8. Coffee has a whopping amount of antioxidants — on average, Americans receive 1,299 milligrams of antioxidants from their 1.64 cups of daily coffee. The closest competitor was tea at 294 milligrams. Rounding out the top five sources were bananas, 76 milligrams; dry beans, 72 milligrams; and corn, 48 milligrams.

So there!  To all you self-absorbed naysayers……..I say Bite Me!

What Could Be The Final Outcome?

Tunisia is still smoldering….Egypt is on fire…..the rest of the Middle East is tense…..should Mubarak go or should he stay?  Should the army jump into the fray?  What will happen at the end of the saga?

WaPo and Glenn Kessler gives us a look into the future (the possible future, that is)………

The Iranian outcome

Iran’s Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, like Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak today, was an anchor of U.S. power in the Middle East who maintained relations with Israel. He was socially progressive, with a largely secular approach. But when he was ousted in a popular revolution, a theocratic clique led by the long-exiled Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seized power and smothered a movement originally led by students and moderates. Moreover, the outcome was deeply damaging to the United States, with Iran the major backer of anti-Israeli militants in the region.  (Not likely…there is NO one waiting to be the face of the revolution as was in Iran)

The Indonesian outcome

In 1998, President Suharto’s 32 years of authoritarian rule came to an end. He was another longtime U.S. ally whose departure was deeply feared in the White House. But in the end, the world’s most populous Muslim country made a messy and long transition to democracy – and remained a key partner of the United States.  (This one is more likely, as it is today…..but who knows for sure?)

The Romanian outcome

Romanian revolutionaries overthrew dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1989 – and killed him – but within months the military and Communist elite had engineered their survival, with the designated president, a former ally of Ceausescu’s, winning 85 percent of the vote in a May 1990 election

Egypt’s security services – army, paramilitary, National Guard and the like – are about 1 million strong. It is quite possible that the country’s ruling elite would slowly squeeze the life out of the opposition by making Mubarak a transitional figurehead and enacting a few cosmetic reforms that give the illusion of change. State control of the media would not be lifted, and elections would still be manipulated to ensure the election of a president beholden to the current power structure…….( This is the Middle East and the whole violent coup with the death of the leader is still quite possible…….the US may have a hand in preventing this….but then it will depend on how we handle any attempt to seize power)….

Like I said….this is the Middle East and anything is possible……there is someone waiting and hiding in the shadows and after today the culprit may be unmasked….who will it be?

Equality, Liberty And Brotherhood

Since all this began in Egypt there have been those pundits (names withheld to protect the morons) who keep pushing the Muslim Brotherhood as some sort of terrorist state in waiting…..thanx to the rhetoric of Mubarak who has painted them as such and along with those on the Right that are concerned with the group and even some respected fellows at the Council of Foreign relations keep pushing a point that is not accurate…..most of their concern is unfounded…..

Bruce Reidel writing in the Daily Beast……offers up a bit of history for those that refuse to see the forest for the trees……

The Muslim Brethren was founded in 1928 by Shaykh Hassan al Banna as an Islamic alternative to weak secular nationalist parties that failed to secure Egypt’s freedom from British colonialism after World War I. Banna preached a fundamentalist Islamism and advocated the creation of an Islamic Egypt, but he was also open to importing techniques of political organization and propaganda from Europe that rapidly made the Brotherhood a fixture in Egyptian politics. Branches of the Brotherhood grew across the Arab world. By World War 2, it became more violent in its opposition to the British and the British-dominated monarchy, sponsoring assassinations and mass violence. After the army seized power in 1952, it briefly flirted with supporting Gamal Abdel Nasser’s government but then moved into opposition. Nasser ruthlessly suppressed it Nasser and his successors, Anwar Sadat and Mubarak, have alternatively repressed and demonized the Brotherhood or tolerated it as an anti-communist and right-wing opposition. Technically illegal, it has an enormous social-welfare infrastructure that provides cheap education and health care.

The Egyptian Brotherhood renounced violence years ago, but its relative moderation has made it the target of extreme vilification by more radical Islamists.  Al Qaeda’s leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri, started their political lives affiliated with the Brotherhood but both have denounced it for decades as too soft and a cat’s paw of Mubarak and America.

It is understandable that we Americans need a good guy and a bad guy, like our old time westerns, but in this case…….the media is misinforming the public….but as has been said….”it is not up to the US”……..

Running Scared?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  International Studies

Yes…they are!

Tunisia was first…and then the big bang came from Egypt…..and for 10 days and counting anti-government protesters have been taking to the streets and recently the pro-government guys have also….the inevitable clashes….the blood, the violence and the injuries were something that we all thought would have come earlier……but it is here now and the people will have to decide if the efforts by Mubarak are enough to satisfy their lust for freedom…..

Mubarak said he will not seek another term….and that he will leave when this one is up…..and then he appointed a VP…something Egypt has NOT had in 30 years……and then that VP starts laying blame for the violence…..

“When there are demonstrations of this size, there will be foreigners who come and take advantage and they have an agenda to raise the energy of the protesters,” Vice President Omar Suleiman said……..

Only bad guys from the outside would do such dastardly things in Cairo…..(what a yawn)

The rest of the Middle East has been watching the drama unfold in Egypt…..and other leaders in the surrounding countries have taken the cue….and started the reform process……(funny how that works)….

Algeria……President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will lift a nearly 20-year-old state of emergency in the “very close future,” the state news agency announced Thursday. The move is one of several demanded by demonstrators in recent protests against the government, which imposed the emergency decree in a crackdown against Islamic political parties in 1992.

Jordan…….King Abdullah has acknowledged the reform process “has suffered from many shortcomings” and young Jordanians were frustrated by lack of opportunity. He has instructed his new government to re-examine the election law and urgently tackle corruption — but his appointment of former intelligence chief Marouf Al Bakhit as his new premier was also seen as an attempt to shore up support among Jordan’s tribes, the bedrock of loyalty to the monarchy.

Yemen……President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has ruled Yemen since 1978, has attempted to quell growing discontent by announcing that he won’t seek re-election in 2013.   Saleh announced  that he would not seek a new term or install his son to replace him. He called on opponents to join in talks aimed at “a sustainable and reconcilable political agreement.”

Syria……President Bashar al-Assad took power in 2000 after the death of his father, who had ruled since 1971. In an interview published Monday in The Wall Street Journal, he said Middle Eastern leaders must “see the need of reform” before protests like those in Egypt and Tunisia break out, because by then, “it’s too late.”

Funny how quickly these long time leaders have an epiphany when they are looking down the barrel of history…huh?

How many would have made such proclamations if Tunisia and Egypt had not happened?

So, you bet your butt these people are running scared…..and a change is NOT looking too bad at this point in time……but are they serious?  Or is this just a typical move by despots to buy some time?  And how long will it be until the Saudis see the light?

Watch The Army!

Egypt is burning (literally and physically) no body has an idea of what will happen if this continues….will Mubarak survive?  Will the violence continue?  Who will step up and make the right decision?

The first day that Egypt went into the streets of Cairo, I said that if it was sustained then next would be Jourdan and possibly Syria….I was right!  (patting myself on the back…kudos all around)………now after 10 days and counting….the unknown factor in all this upheaval is….the Egyptian army…….the player to watch!

Why?  Easy!  They hold the ultimate power…….

Mubarak, the VP and the PM all have come from the military….but right now NO military commander has stepped up to insert himself into the fray……they are like the Brotherhood…they are waiting and watching…and eventually action will be taken……but in favor of whom?  Now there is the $64 question……

In my opinion…it will most likely be a junior officer……the Army needs the US and its cash….and any decision to intervene will be made from that point……..democracy is Not the only concern here…..

The West needs to keep in mind……No-one with any knowledge of Egypt can forget that it was a coalition of such officers that came together in the post-war Free Officers Movement that overthrew King Farouq  and led to the toppling of a succession of pro-British regimes.

Mubarak’s little speech on Tuesday was nothing more than a delaying tactic….eventually these people who are poor will have to return to their lives before the protests and then he (Mubarak) will have won his reprieve…..for now……but the Army can change the tone and complexion of the protests……..but only if there is a chance of success….no one is stupid!

All eyes turn to Cairo…and they wait…and they wait…and they wait……..

Who Is The Next Big Cheese In Egypt?

The media is scrambling around trying to find some they can propel to the forefront of the “revolution” happening in Egypt….it is pissing them off that they are left in the dark and have to fill their time with actual facts and occurrences….

The question is who will finally step out of the shadows and finally be someone that the media can zero in on and propel in one direction or the other…….There is a list of known opponents of Mubarak, but will anyone of them be the next big cheese?

Reuters compiled a list for the media to fixate on………

MOHAMED ELBARADEI

The 68-year-old former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), returned to Egypt in 2010 after a career that saw him win a Nobel peace prize in 2005. A lawyer by training, he immediately threw himself into the political arena saying Egypt needed a complete overhaul and an end to the authoritarian rule of a military man like Mubarak. He disappointed many democracy activists by spending much time outside the country in recent months, but returned on Thursday stating he was ready to take any role in a transitional government and later addressing protesters at Tahrir Square in central Cairo.

MOHAMMED BADIE

Badie, 66, became leader of Egypt’s biggest opposition group last year. The Brotherhood is run on a collegiate basis, with a number of figures who often speak in its name such as Essam al-Erian or London-based Kamel El-Helbawy. But if it were to enter into talks with the government it would be on the authorisation of its “murshid ‘aam”, or general guide, Badie. Badie is seen as a conservative, in the typical mould of Brotherhood leaders, who was reluctant to challenge the authorities for fear of provoking more repression. Mubarak has made fending off the Islamists a major plank of his policies, accusing them of subverting last week’s protests and provoking the looting and disorder. The government says the Brotherhood is a banned organisation but allows it to operate within limits.

AYMAN NOUR

A liberal politician and trained lawyer, Nour was Mubarak’s rival in the 2005 presidential election but suffered for his impertinence. He was jailed after conviction for submitting forged documents when setting up his Ghad (Tomorrow) party. He was released after serving more than three years of a five-year term. The law as it stands bans him any political office for at least five years after the end of his original jail term, which would rule out running in elections in September. Nour served previously as a parliamentarian for the Wafd party, which he left.

AMR MOUSSA

The secretary general of the Arab League was a popular foreign minister under Mubarak, celebrated by singers for his populist pro-Palestinian rhetoric during years of Arab-Israeli peacemaking. His move to the Arab League, a conservative organisation that backs existing Arab rulers, has tarnished his image somewhat but he has been cited in the past by many Egyptians as someone they would support as president. He has been vocal since the protests began, saying on Sunday he wanted to see multi-party democracy in Egypt.

AHMED ZEWAIL

Egyptian winner of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1999, Zewail said last year he had no political ambitions. However, newspapers said on Monday he would return on Tuesday to continue work in a committee for constitutional reform including Ayman Nour and prominent lawyers. Al-Shorouk newspaper published a “letter to the Egyptian people” in which he proposed a “council of wise men” to write a new constitution.

HAMDEEN SABAHI

A popular Arab nationalist politician who leads the Karama party that has never achieved formal licencing from the government. Elected to parliament in 2005, Sabahi considered running in the presidential elections that year after Mubarak introduced amendments under pressure from Washington but later changed his mind. He was expected to attempt a bid for the presidency this year.

KEFAYA

Respected trade union leader George Ishak founded the Kefaya movement in 2004 that galvanised protests against Mubarak’s rule in 2005 around the idea of rejecting his son Gamal as a future president. The movement, which appealed to middle class professionals, subsequently lost its momentum amid internal dissent but when protests began last week Kefaya appeared to play a role in mobilising them.

OTHER GROUPS

The Wafd party, with its roots before the 1952 military coup, has traditionally been the bastion of liberal democrats in Egypt. But it is seen as having been coopted by Mubarak’s government in recent years. The leftist Tagammu has played a similar role. Magdy Hussein, leader of the Islamist Labour party, is a popular opposition figure who has frequently been in and out jail.

Now you have all the info that the media is working with during this trying time…..now ask which one will they fixate on?  Shall we start a pool to see who will become the knight in shining armor that will save Egypt from itself?

Another Nail In The Coffin Of Democracy?

From the VOMITORIUM

Last year the Supreme Court opened up the way for the control of elections by corporations and special interests……they rules that it was fine for corporations to donate almost endless amount of funds to campaigns…..the Congress is already in the back pocket of special interests….and yet there is even more effort to keep the people from having a say in the electoral process……

This from the AP…….

Eager to cut spending, the Republican-controlled House voted to end multimillion-dollar federal subsidies for presidential candidates and national political conventions on Wednesday, the first of what party leaders promised will be weekly, bite-sized bills to attack record deficits.”Eliminating this program would save taxpayers $617 million over ten years, and would require candidates and political parties to rely on private contributions rather than tax dollars,” said Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., “In times when government has no choice but to do more with less, voting to end the Presidential Election Campaign Fund should be a no brainer.”

Under the law, presidential candidates qualify for matching funds from the government once they have met certain requirements during the primary elections. In accepting the subsidies, the White House hopefuls also must agree to certain restrictions.

Presidential nominees are eligible for funds after the party political conventions as long as they do no fund raising on their own during the general election campaign. Additionally, the conventions themselves are financed through the presidential fund.

Looks like another way that the GOP is trying to take the people out of the equation of the selection of who will become president……if this is enacted only the special interests will have the power to make a president….if they succeed then we can say hello to a “Corporatocracy” (thanx to Quin for the term…I knew I could eventually use it in a post….go to blogroll and visit Quin’s site, Quintessential Havoc….)

Is this really what the people want?  Do they really want to be marginalized like this?

Slowly the people will play a lesser role in the election of our politicians…..it will be up to the special interests to decide who will lead us….and the way the GOP is going…how long will it be before that is NO longer our part in the process?

2011 Anal-Ocity #8

I realize that a general election for president is rapidly approaching….and that many things will be said to foster ones public appeal…..and that misinformation should be the rule of the campaigns…on both sides….but there has to be a point where candidates stop mouthing diatribes and offer up a concrete plan with specifics….we have seen that generalities is NOT doing any good…….but then I am probably mistaken.

Mitt Romney, considered the front runner for the GOP nomination by many, has started with his positioning himself as the real anti-Obama candidate.  How did he do this?

Good question!

In his book, No Apology, the new edition, he makes an anal statement about the Dems and as most of my readers know….when something is said about what the Founders said….. I take offense….and Romney is NO different….

“They (liberals)  simply do not believe in America as it was shaped by the Founders,” he writes. “They do not believe that the principles and values that made America a great nation still apply.”

Here is a news flash!  The Repubs do NOT have a corner on knowing what the Founders were about, just as the Dems do NOT either……What makes the GOP ers think that they are more scholarly on the Founders than anyone else?  The worship of Jefferson does NOT make one an expert on the Founders……….

What does this sanctimonious $#%(*&^ mean by that?  Who knows?  If Romney does he does not do well at explaining his little slogan that he hopes will help propel him to front runner status….this is why I despise most politicians….they make wild accusations and then leave it there and do not explain why they say the lame ass crap they say…..

Mr. Romney….welcome to 2011 Anal-Ocity…….you have made it big as a purveyor of anal BS………