Have We Really Made Progress?
Read up, people! Another installment from guest blogger Madame LaFarge:
Beginning with Neanderthal hunting and gathering, what most anthropologists will agree upon is that men tend to interact with other men in groups.
What do men want? This is a question usually asked about women, I know. But let’s take a look at what men want. We can begin by asking what do men do? Well, they usually work – outside the home. If men have made societal structures for the optimum aggrandizement of themselves, those main areas of work are: war, sports, and business. I suppose we may add art as a fourth category, for those so inclined. The American mythologist Joseph Campbell believed that men want to be heroes. Fair enough. Each of these work categories can claim heroes aplenty.
Little Johnny comes into world as preferred stock, no matter where he is born. His parents, grateful that they have a son to take care of them for the rest of their lives, shield and protect him from criticism, encourage him to develop his many talents, and warn him about those things that will ruin his life.
Depending on how much power and money his family has and where he lives will pretty much determine Johnny’s future. If he has drawn a short straw in both of the above, his work could be war. Of course, wars need generals too, so, as usual, the upper class men will dictate whatever ‘needs’ to be done. If you have an entire country made up of short straws, you may have tribal factions like the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, and other terrorist groups who, like the generals, have chosen war as their lifelong occupation.
By now, we all know that honor is writ large for these straw men particularly. How did honor come to play such an important role in their lives? Poverty surely, but also, I think, more importantly, embarrassment. Embarrassment because the rest of the world can see the backwardness which, while desperately clinging to old tribal customs, has left them totally unprepared to go forward as equals in the modern world.
In war, I can see the fairness somehow, of armed men killing other armed men. What fails to make sense to me is how anyone in any fit of rage, could commit atrocities against unarmed females; like throwing acid on the faces of little girls who dare to go to school; fathers, husbands, and brothers killing or disfiguring daughters, wives and sisters for the sake of their honor. These men consider women as entirely extraneous to themselves. After all, what society would cover their women in sacks from head to toe, like they were shameful things to be hidden? Again, the shame is with these men themselves.
The measurement of a man’s progress could be in the way that he views women. If hormones are the culprit, which seems to be the case, as the sexes become increasingly interchangeable, then must we wait patiently for men to evolve? Do we have the time necessary to achieve this goal? If business is the final frontier, if success for men is the adulation and recognition from other men, why not add saving the world to the list?
The Margin of Error for Obama Appointees
Goodbye Daschle, and your little red glasses, too! Apparently, his error was too big to pass muster. Do we need to find appointees who are absolutely perfect? It’s a tough balance when government is in need of some serious ethics. While I agree that Daschle’s case was fairly serious ($128,203 in back taxes and $11,964 in interest), it’s hard to lose these people who probably would’ve been effective at their jobs. New Mexico governor Richardson has had some possibly shady dealings with contractors who were also political donors. Geithner made it to confirmation despite having paid late income taxes (approximately $34,000).
Sadly, you can also say goodbye to Chief Performance Officer appointee Nancy Killefer. Killefer withdrew herself from the appointment with an acknowledgment that she’d also made a less than a thousand dollar error ($298 in unpaid taxes, $48.69 in interest, and $600 in penalties) on her DC employment taxes. She failed to pay employment taxes for a year and a half for household employees.
Do women hold themselves to a higher standard than men? Maybe. Or Killefer may have had more to hide. While I’m ecstatic about the positions of Pelosi, Clinton, Boxer, and Feinstein, I’d love to see more women appointees and hope more women have the stomach to stay in the fight. Wouldn’t it be great to have more women on the Supreme Court?
The One and Only Reason to Love Bush
Leaving Bush behind, the old bedraggled Texan that he is now, will be easy and somehow just pitiful. Cheney, on the other hand, I’d love to see burn in hell. He’s the sinister force behind Bush’s (I’m being generous here) vulnerable ignorance. Cheney took the office of the vice president to new levels of executive control, at times even bypassing (“protecting”) the president from controversial executive decisions.
Past vice presidents have attempted to assume greater authority, with results that just look quaint next to Cheney. From Mark O. Hatfield and the Senate Historical Office:
In assuming substantive policy responsibilities, vice presidents often ran afoul of cabinet secretaries whose territories they invaded. As administration lobbyists, they also irritated members of Congress. My favorite example of this problem occurred in 1969. President Nixon had pledged to give his vice president a significant policy-making role and – for the first time – an office in the White House itself. Spiro Agnew was determined to make the most of that role and to expand his legislative functions as well. Since he lacked previous legislative experience, he had the Senate parliamentarian tutor him on the intricacies of Senate floor procedure. Soon he began to inject himself into the course of Senate proceedings, contrary to the well-worn practice that constrained his predecessors. During the debate over the Anti-Ballistic-Missile Treaty, Agnew approached Idaho Republican Senator Len Jordan and asked how he was going to vote. “You can’t tell me how to vote!” said the shocked senator. “You can’t twist my arm!” At the next regular luncheon of Republican senators, Jordan accused Agnew of breaking the separation of powers by lobbying on the Senate floor, and announced the “Jordan Rule.” Under his rule, if the vice president tried to lobby him on anything, the senator would automatically vote the other way.
What did Cheney do?
According to a 2004 Executive Intelligence Review article, Cheney was already, pre-2004 election, racking up impeachable offenses. Remember the invisible weapons of mass destruction? The author says:
Cheney, beyond all other Administration officials, was the Joseph Goebbels of the Iraq war. As recently as his media interviews in Switzerland and Italy in late January, he continued to lie about Iraq’s weapons, claiming that several trailers seized by American inspectors, following the March 2003 invasion, were mobile bio-weapons labs.
David Kay, the CIA’s chief weapons inspector in Iraq until his hasty mid-January resignation, made clear in interviews and in testimony at the Senate Armed Services Committee on Jan. 28, that these trailers had nothing to do with WMD. Former CIA chief of counterterrorism Vincent Cannistraro told Salon magazine on Jan. 29, “It’s disgusting. I just can’t find words to describe how horrible it is…. It just illustrates the peculiar worldview Cheney has and how distorted it is.
Here’s a quote from an NPR article in which Washington Post reporter Bart Gellman, author of Angler, discusses Cheney:
“Cheney created a new doctrine in which the president was accountable to no one in his decisions as commander in chief,” Gellman said. “What was new and innovative here, and quite radical, was the notion that the president’s interpretation could not be challenged, that because the executive is a separate branch, courts and Congress could not tell the president, in any way, how to exercise his powers as commander in chief.”
Indeed, so pervasive was Cheney’s control that when lawyers from the National Security Agency, which was conducting the domestic surveillance, went to the Justice Department to look at the legal opinion authorizing the warrantless surveillance, Cheney’s lawyer, Addington, showed up and angrily told them they had no right to see it.
On keeping Bush in the dark about the surveillance program, Gellman says:
“You had the FBI director, attorney general, the next five levels of officials — which is a couple of dozen people — in the Justice Department, the general counsel of the CIA and the FBI, were all going to resign, in principle because they believed this program was unlawful,” Gellman said. “And George Bush didn’t know it until an hour before it was going to happen.”
And are you ready for this? The New York Times reported last week that Bush rejected Israel’s request for bombs to drop on Iran. According to the NPR article:
When the president refused to give bunker-busting bombs to the Israelis for use against Iran’s nuclear sites, the president’s decision was made over Cheney’s objection, according to a high-ranking former administration official.
The Bush legacy is not pretty. But PROPS to Dub because in the end, he saved us from Cheney.
Bretton Woods II
From “Madame La Farge”, a new guest poster from New Hampshire!! Welcome Madame La Farge!
An excellent article was buried in the Weekend Journal yesterday, A 21ST CENTURY BRETTON WOODS. The second upcoming United Nations Monetary and Finance Conference is to be held in here in New Hampshire on Nov 15th at the Mount Washington Hotel. The first Bretton Woods meeting in1944 saw the creation of the IMF and the World Bank which were intended to stabilize the world’s many different currencies and the attending fixed exchange rates. The United States adhered to the gold standard with the rest of the world’s currencies based on the USA dollar.
The [1944] conference rebuilt the economic order by creating a system of fixed exchange rates. The aim was to prevent a return to the competitive devaluations best illustrated by the “butter wars.” In 1930 New Zealand secured a cost advantage for its butter exports by devaluing its money; Denmark, its main butter rival, responded with its own devaluation in 1931; the two nations proceeded to chase each other down with progressively more drastic devaluations.
This beggar-thy-neighbor behavior added to the protectionism that brought the world to ruin, and the Bretton Woods answer was simple. In the postwar era, the dollar would be anchored to gold, and other currencies would be anchored to the dollar: No more fluctuating money, ergo no competitive devaluation.
The brilliant essay by devilstower of DAILYKOS, points out the clear objective of this year’s meeting being urged forward by France ’s Sarkozy and Britain’s Gordon Brown. The purpose is to persuade China, which currently has a $2T reserve in foreign currencies in the IMF, to take the reins from the United States in exchange for an expanded role in the IMF.
We knew the fall had to come. The US has carried the day since WWII. Unfortunately, it has led to incredible arrogance and isolation, culminating in the current administration. It has been a progression given huge directional impetus by Nixon. Today, it is regrettable, in the face of the tremendous downfall of the entire world markets, that we, the American people, allowed this to happen. I suppose it will take some time for all of us to realize that the baton has been passed. Just as the UK passed it to the USA in 1944.
Fashionably Detached
Is it me, or are there increasing numbers of people who claim to “not care” about politics or current events? I do understand that following politics takes a huge amount of tolerance (for lying, distortion of facts, bickering, pettiness — all unpleasant!) and time and that most people don’t have much to spare. “I can barely keep up with my Tweets! How can I find the time to read Huff Post?” Lack of bandwidth, as we used to say before that wasn’t cool any more. So satirical news, ala John Stewart, is all the rage. We want FUN news! Taking anything too seriously, or being passionate about just about anything is so unfashionable. (Except dissing Cindy McCain’s upturned collar which just SCREAMED wealthy ho-bag!)
Now don’t get me wrong. I am right up this alley myself since I want an antidote to my cynical tendencies. I’d rather be detached and laughing than disheartened.
But what does this do for our political landscape in general? It’s how Bush ended up with a second term. The only passion that spoke to people at the time was “support the troops, support Bush as the Commander in Chief.” Was this a manufactured situation to ensure Neocons would stay in power? You’d think so if you followed the shrill side of political reporting, but I’m just not sure I believe it. Would people really go to such lengths, starting a war they thought would be quick and easy just to get their boy reelected? You know what? It probably IS true. And somehow I cannot bring myself to care.
I’m supporting Obama. My own vote for “regime change” at home. But what the heck can we expect after we get past HOPE? My fashionably detached self says, “more of the same.” But my inner activist is ready to kick some congressional and supreme court butt! Where’s my constitutional amendment disbanding the electoral college? How can we break out of the strangling hell of the two-party system and move to coalition government? How can we become a true democracy with more state-level control and less federal strong arming? SEE? DOESN’T THAT SOUND RIDICULOUS?
Ah well, back to watching sitcoms… or this video which is way more fun!
Today Now!: How To Pretend You Give A Shit About The Election
Antidote to Evil
I spend a lot of time wondering why people do evil things. Clearly, in some cases it’s brain chemistry gone bad. Evil people are sometimes just physically sick people. But sometimes evil people are normal people who turned bad. Or acted badly and then returned to normal. Everyone wants to know how could terrorists blow up innocent people and think they’re right? Or how did Nazis forget to disagree with Hitler? The reasons are complex and worth addressing because we all know 90-99% of humans are capable of great malice in exceptional circumstances. (Or maybe that’s just me if anyone messes with my kids. Or my ice cream…)
Well, if you’re like me and you feel disheartened by the glorification of violence in things like video games and (some) rap music, here’s something cool: The Hero Workshop.
The idea of the workshop is to respond to one of society’s great problems: if we as individuals don’t seek to correct evil who will? This is an awesome program that seeks to encourage kids to do the right thing. To be a whistleblower even though it can be tremendously difficult and come at a cost. I love this idea because it’s taught in a constructive way that reminds us all of our civic duty to preserve peace. This workshop doesn’t teach vigilantism, it teaches kids to feel good about respecting their sense of right and wrong. I’m assuming there’s probably a difference in religious schools, but this is not taught in public school. A moral compass, tempered with compassion and humanity, is a valuable thing to own.
All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.”
~Edmund Burke
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