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Why an economic crisis is good for Americans
Why an economic crisis is good for Americans
We are only glimpsing the tip of the economic iceberg of disaster, as yet. The diabolical monetary and fiscal sleight-of-hand employed over the past 5 years to pay to blow up technology, contractors, soldiers, and civilians in the Iraq War, and to bail out corporations and millionaires alike, has looted our national treasury to an extent only guessed at, in a glass, darkly.
But soon – may I predict, shortly after this administration slinks out the back doors of the White House in January – we will come face-to-face with painful, snowballing economic realities: a plummeting dollar, skyrocketing prices for fuel, food, and other commodities, rampant unemployment, stifling inflation. A stock market in turmoil as the super-wealthy frantically trade money back and forth in a futile attempt to profit off market movements which increasingly, bear no relationship at all to the crumbling companies they once represented.
Pundits, ensconced in comfortable and isolated media towers, will fret on TVs, talk radio shows, and the internets. We can only hope that politicians will not resort, knee-jerkingly, to futile and counterproductive short-term palliation. A long-term plan for rebuilding and upgrading our infrastructure, educating our children in cutting-edge science and technology, investing in medical advances and alternative-energy to create new jobs, increasing interest rates, tightening the monetary supply, strengthening the dollar, ending needless wars and recrafting our military and diplomacy for the 21st century – including heavy investment in developing countries – this is how to build a strong foundation for an explosive economy a decade or two down the road. Just look at China , and their carefully-laid plans over the past generation. But such long-range and prudent planning will necessarily increase the intensity of our inevitable short-term economic pain – a bitter pill many instant-gratification Americans may deign to swallow.
But this pain will not ruin us. Instead, like all adversity we as Americans have experienced, individually and collectively, it will strengthen us, evincing core American values that lately have grown dusty, flabby, and disused as we lounge in comfortable, commoditized middle-class security, with a standard of living the envy of the world.
What do I see through optimistic eyes? A dramatic shift from our current isolated and dependent lives into a community of self-reliant and interdependent neighbors. We will grow our own food, sew our own clothes, fix our own cars and houses. We will walk, or bike, or take public transportation, share and re-use our possessions, cut our consumption, and abandon our disposable lifestyle – not because it is hip or trendy or we can afford to conspicuously non-consume, but out of necessity – we will be unable to afford the high cost of long, single-driver commutes, pre-packaged food flown in from thousands of miles away, replacing our perfectly serviceable cars and TVs annually.
We will build community. We will barter and exchange goods and services, eager to avoid the burgeoning tax rates and fees imposed by a government desperate to bridge a shortfall in revenue. We will share meals, rides, and houses. We will buy food from roadside stands again, and learn how to cook at home instead of frequenting drive-thrus and restaurants. Small, local, non-chain stores will re-appear, particularly co-operatives. More active from necessity, we’ll lose weight. Eating fewer pricey packaged and processed foods, we’ll be healthier. Eschewing convoluted insurance companies desperate to reimburse nobody, we’ll rediscover preventive, holistic, and “alternative” or traditional health care. Doctors eager to escape managed care will make house calls, and we’ll stop swallowing daily doses of wonder drugs, instead relying on health, diet, and lifestyle changes. Forced to slow down and interact with others on public transit and sidewalks, to barter items, to ask for help, we’ll get to know our neighbors again. We’ll unconsciously build those “grassroots” organizations that so un-nerve politicians embedded in their bureaucratic halls of power.
Unable to afford pricey professional sports games or lavish concert tour tickets, we’ll form and attend local sports leagues and support local bands and artists, forming our own entertainment by tossing a ball or strumming a few strings ourselves. We’ll circulate our own local newspapers and generate local radio shows and podcasts. News will become more truthful and transparent, instead of more entertaining and “truthier”. We’ll be too busy just trying to meet our basic needs every day to spend much time on idle entertainment anyway, thus weaning us from the addictive pull of advertising, convincing us to buy and consume products we never needed.
We will educate our own children, and each others’ children. We will care for our nieces and nephews and cousins and grandchildren, instead of hiring help. Older children will be expected to shoulder their burden of household chores, and to get jobs – not for prestige purchases of clothes, iPods, and cars, but to help pay the family’s bills. We’ll care for elderly or ill family members in our homes instead of dumping them in care centers. We won’t be afraid to help each other, and as we realize we all share in the same hardships, the artificial distinctions of race, color, gender, religion, and sexual orientation – initially intensified by the scarcity and the media hype – will fade.
I could continue, but my trajectory is clear. Americans – whether newly immigrated or Revolutionary War-descended – are, for the most part, just a generation or two removed from tremendous hardships. Our spectacular achievement of the American Dream over the past half-century – that with hard work, thrift, education, determination, and dedication, anyone, regardless of family name, race, class, gender, or any of a hundred other stratifying traits can, though it may take a struggle, ensure their children will be better off than they were – has numbed us to the energizing effect of privation on the American psyche. We are an innovative, determined, helpful, hardworking, compassionate, and respectable people whose greatness most shines in adversity. Wealth, and a steadily increasing standard of living, have made us complacent, flaccid, isolated, selfish. I wish hardship on no one, but wandering in the inevitable desert of economic pain that looms on our horizon may bring about just the “shock and awe” this country needs to uncover its ideals of greatness.
Would that such wanderings will not take us forty years.
Editor's note: Today's fantastic blog article was written by Veritas.
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I share Veritas' vision, and sometimes, but not always her faith. My sense is also that there are dark, terrible days ahead - but what man or woman, or indeed nation, has ever truly matured except through struggle, toil, and a vale of tears?
Veritas,
As I read your article, all I could think about was my childhood. No money. No electricity. Never enough food. No medical care. No choice. No chances. No hope.
I do not think the economic crisis will play out in such romantic terms when the result will be true and enduring poverty on an unprecedented level. And, not that I am greedy, but I prefer being flush with cash and other assorted valuables. Being hungry hurts, and I will myself turn into a shameless thief and even a KILLER to never feel that pain ever again.
I do understand the point, which is that we have grown fat and lazy and selfish and we need a reality check... But hunger is not the same as 'adversity'. Hunger does not spur you on, it weakens you, and breaks you down. Hungry people do not simply aspire to do better, they riot and eat each other.
Perhaps it will all be ok, but I can not muster the hope anymore to actually believe it will be.
It is going to get much worse, before it gets better.
Good article, V. There's so much that I can say about it, but I will tomorrow after some sleep.
In the meantime, speaking of gutting our government, Lou Dobbs came out for impeachment due to their gutting of the FDA.
Watch this link.
veritas
great article
i'm in tacoma washington four margaritas to the wind - the mexican restaurant was all people from jalisco, which I'd just visited - and my compatriates were mostly local bloggers i'd never met personally but only read from afar .. talking to Geov Parrish of Seattle Weekly and eat the state - for 45 minutes before realizing it weas him - commending him for always being so up on international affairs - talking to the guy from horseass blog - learning why it's called horseass blog - the horseass is tim eyman who has all the crazy initiatives - and oregon has their own tim eyman
it's still nice out and my camera is charged - i left to come back to my gorgeous hotel with world class glass art - i have no idea how much this room costs - i will be reimbursed by the think tank. anyway it is beautiful - this is the town of dale chihuly - google him if you are not familiar - wow i am writing w/o caps or punc like courtney love
nmp--you crack me up! (Your posts brings back memories of the y-kos posts last year.)
Yummy. Margaritas. I am already jealous even before I see the pics. Glass art? Do share!
BTW Rossi...Ummm. Speaking of art. I kinda got to fooling around and something really cool happened.
Would you like to see what your new grandbaby will look like in 15 years? HeHe.
http://christysartblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/scarlet-in-15-years.html
I hope hardship will force people to re-evaluate their lives.
Money and comfort are wonderful, if everyone has the ability to keep it all in perspective. Unfortunately, a greedy one-upmanship competetive spirit creeps in and rears it's ugly head ~ and a NEW definition of success is written in the minds of many.
It became not enough to just have our needs met, but we were urged (capitalism drove it)to compete, to buy bigger houses, cars, recreation vehicles, computers and toys. Name brands. Instead of a man being judged on his character and values and deeds it became that he was judged by his possessions and money and social circle. Status symbols became the scale to measure a person's worth. And we know that that led us to (and in a way, it's NOT IRONIC, IT'S ALMOST KARMA) being governed by an administration that was mostly concerned with it's image ~ not what really was, but what everything looked like. Thinking about it tonight, I don't think it was by accident that we ended up being led by such an administration; no, not at all. It was what was being silently accepted and adopted by our society and increasingly being the norm. Money, material possessions, images, manipulation, greed, dishonesty...they are all cousins...and we were surprised to find out our leader had these same shallow ideals?
A good friend of mine told me a while back: "A
few generations ago people had to struggle and work alot harder for what they got. Now they have become fat and comfortable, and increasingly neurotic."
It might just be that a hard time will bring some to their senses, and cause many to re-evaluate what measures status in this land. We sure need it.
I wonder if times of plenty and times of want appear in cycles, like everything else does? We are very liberal, we are very conservative, and as far as the scale tips to one side it must tip on the other before it can come to balance.
Our parents and grandparents went through the Great Depression. Our children saw the height of wealth, success, and sometimes excess.
Could it be that everything goes in cycles to even things out?
Would you like to see what your new grandbaby will look like in 15 years? HeHe.
I put her with her portrait, will be checking the changes all the time to see how right you are.
Love it. Tony Loved it also
I don't think it was by accident that we ended up being led by such an administration; no, not at all. It was what was being silently accepted and adopted by our society and increasingly being the norm. Money, material possessions, images, manipulation, greed, dishonesty...they are all cousins...and we were surprised to find out our leader had these same shallow ideals?
TSP, your leader always had these same shallow ideals from birth, that is why I could never understand how enough people voted for him, allowing the Supreme Court to give him the 2000 election, and then for him to take the election in 2004 spoke volumes for how extremely complacent the majority of Americans were.
Edging Away From Air Force, Army Adds Air Unit
By THOM SHANKER
Published: June 22, 2008
WASHINGTON — Ever since the Army lost its warplanes to a newly independent Air Force after World War II, soldiers have depended on the sister service for help from the sky, from bombing and strafing to transport and surveillance.
But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have frayed the relationship, with Army officers making increasingly vocal complaints that the Air Force is not pulling its weight.
In Afghanistan, Army officers have complained about bombing missions gone awry that have killed innocent civilians. In Iraq, Army officers say the Air Force has often been out of touch, fulfilling only half of their requests for the sophisticated surveillance aircraft that ground commanders say are needed to find roadside bombs and track down insurgents.
The Air Force responds that it has only a limited number of those remotely piloted Predators and other advanced surveillance aircraft, so priorities for assigning them must be set by senior commanders at the headquarters in Baghdad working with counterparts at the Air Force’s regional command in Qatar. There are more than 14,000 airmen performing tasks on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Air Force civil engineers replacing Army construction engineers.
But now in Iraq, the Army has quietly decided to try going it alone for the important surveillance mission, organizing an all-Army surveillance unit that represents a new move by the service toward self-sufficiency, and away from joint operations
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/washington/22military.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin
Whose Flag Is This, Anyway?
Gary Hart, 06.16.2008
Here's a modest proposal: all of us who support Barack Obama for president should now wear flag pins. This will signal that we are all just as patriotic as anyone on the right.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/whose-flag-is-this-anyway_b_107371.html
June 22, 2008
Veterans Rebut ‘Swift Boat’ Charges Against Kerry in Answer to Challenge
By KATE ZERNIKE
For most people, “Swift boat” has become a political verb, a synonym for the kind of attack that helped destroy the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry in 2004.
But for a group of Vietnam veterans at the center of the attacks, it is still a fresh fight.
On Friday, the group, who served with Mr. Kerry in Vietnam, sent a letter to T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire Texas oilman who helped finance the 2004 attack advertisements, taking him up on a challenge he issued last November: that he would give $1 million to anyone who could disprove a single charge the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth made against Mr. Kerry.
- MORE -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/us/politics/22kerry.html
June 22, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Two years ago, President Bush declared that America was “addicted to oil,” and, by gosh, he was going to do something about it. Well, now he has. Now we have the new Bush energy plan: “Get more addicted to oil.”
Actually, it’s more sophisticated than that: Get Saudi Arabia, our chief oil pusher, to up our dosage for a little while and bring down the oil price just enough so the renewable energy alternatives can’t totally take off. Then try to strong arm Congress into lifting the ban on drilling offshore and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
It’s as if our addict-in-chief is saying to us: “C’mon guys, you know you want a little more of the good stuff. One more hit, baby. Just one more toke on the ole oil pipe. I promise, next year, we’ll all go straight. I’ll even put a wind turbine on my presidential library. But for now, give me one more pop from that drill, please, baby. Just one more transfusion of that sweet offshore crude.”
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/opinion/22friedman.html?hp
I will wear a flag pin on me when more than .04% of our population has actually read the US Constitution.
By God if I am enough of a patriot to know it, then they can take their flag pin and shove it up their.... any orifice will do actually.
Now, I am not saying if you wear a flag pin you are all fubar. I am just saying if they want to question my patriotism they better have more than a stupid piece of jewlery to come at me with.
Shit, I have been to southern Africa several times and this story is horrible news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080622/ap_on_re_af/zimbabwe
Mr. Bush, Lead or Leave
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Would that be The Friedman Unit' Friedman? Of The FU for short... THAT Friedman...?
HAHAHAHA! What? He doesn't automatically get 6 more months?
If it is THAT Friedman, I guess since georgie barely has 6 more months, he knows he only has one more FU left to be proven all right all along and it just is not likely to happen.
OMG IT IS THAT FRIEDMAN! HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
Wow. Welcome to the party Thomas!
Oh geez, Oncall. That's bad! It reminds me in a way of the election in Pakistan last year.
Christy--I have no idea what Friedman you're chuckling at and why. (Sorry to be abrupt but I am too tired to research much.)
mugabe is burning the wives of the opposition after chopping off their hands and feet.
Monster does not even begin to describe him.
Friedman Unit... Because he defended bush all along by framing all his stories to basically say 'Yes, it is bad,... but in 6 months... Just give it six months....Victory! Victory! Victory! In 6 more months...'
He actually did it so often Atrios at Eschaton among others started calling a 6 month time period a Friedman Unit. They mocked him for it mercilessly and even I was surprised at how often he would keep doing it even knowing he was being widely mocked for it.
They even held anniversaries as this or that Friedman Unit expired. "6 months ago today Friedman said this or that would happen, just give it 6 months... and alas.." It was freaking HILLARIOUS.
But, that, anyways, is how the Friedman Unit got its name. It denotes a 6 month period that will lead to another 6 month period and another, until whaddaya know, it's been years already.
Or, as it came to be known. The FU.
But, it seems even the propaganddists know they don't get 6 more months to lie and spin and stall.
V,
After my last post, I went back to read your commentary. I also read some of the comments following it.
For one, my family and I have been extremely fortunate during a time which has been hell for many. My children have wanted for nothing, but my wife and I have helped them to realize the value of humanity and the need for humanitarian instincts. In many ways, that is what you are describing, a more humanitarian American society where people are valued for who they are and not necessarily for what they are.
However, you are describing a depression such as one this country has not seen since the 1930s. My father is a child of the Great Depression and has recounted to me on multiple occasions the hardships that he endured. I went back to his hometown and saw the home that he eventually lived in after his family lost all of their money. I doubt that shack I saw is still standing today. My recollections from that visit even today fill me with fear and respect. I suppose the fear is due to the realization that I had at that time; if my strong father had to live through that, then it could happen to me, and that such a strong, determined man (Dad) was forced into such miserable conditions. Also a respect and admiration that my father not only survived a terribly difficult time, but turned out to be an extremely successful doctor and investor. Like my children, I never grew up to want or need.
I don't want my children to have live through a time that you are predicting, and I will do everything, *no matter how onerous it may seem to others* to keep them from ever having to live through a period like my father did.
I have a different prediction: Corporate America (the Elite) will continue its policies in order to maintain a barely thriving middle class. They need the worker drones. However, people wont be satisfied (even now most of this country is not satisfied) and will hopefully change our government to allow for a more equitable realignment of our society's assets by fairly taxing those who have escaped fair taxation. Also a government of the people will stimulate a focus towards energy independence. With that focus will come new industries, entrepreneurs, and technologies. Just as an economy has evolved from computer sciences, a new type of economy will be born from energy sciences.
If those industries are able to obtain energy from renewable resources, then the Great Depression that you envision, may not come to pass.
Funny thing about that Friedman article that I read this morning before dropping by; I was inwardly chuckling about the same thing as Christy: Friedman just made a prediction that he absolutely will get correct in the next six months (he is only about 18 days off). Last year, I did not know what a Friedman Unit was either and I found it on Wikipedia. Friedman's excuses and defenses (some would even incorrectly use the word appeasement) have been immortalized for all to see. When the topic turns to Bush and Iraq, Friedman is a laughable fraud.
Now, I am not saying if you wear a flag pin you are all fubar. I am just saying if they want to question my patriotism they better have more than a stupid piece of jewlery to come at me with.
Atta Girl
The whole flag pin "issue" is a complete distraction. We all know it. So if wearing a flag pin is all it takes to get those morons on the other side to shut their mouths, I can do that (but that doesn't mean I will). Like you, I love this country just as much as anybody else and am offended that a flag pin has become the test of one's patriotism.
But, personally, I would rather wear an Obama button.
My parents grew up during the Depression. My mother tells me stories of hobos that would come by who had less than they did. My dad went to work on a farm while in his teens, then joined the military in order to get away. All four of my grandparents were homesteaders in South Dakota. I myself lived in a 10 x 50 foot trailer even though my parents were college-educated, since my dad had post traumatic stress. I got three degrees on financial aid and scholarships. To afford a down payment on a house, we moved in with an elderly lady through Intergenerational Homesharing and my son was born while living there. We bought a house when it was still feasible to do so.
Strategies now:
lower overhead further, live within means, keep use of credit minimal, keep fighting
By the way, I just had breakfast with a cool guy named Paul Richmond who is running against an entrenched Congressman named Norm Dicks. Norm may win again on name recognition, but this guy is willing to run again. That takes tenacity. Brian Baird is another guy who deserves to be challenged in our state. Those guys are for US Congress. Darcy Burner will have lunch with us (frequent flyer at DailyKos.) & I met the State Senate guy who introduced our Impeach Bush amendment - he's from same district as Microsoft I think - not exactly the blue part.
I Wanna Be Number Two: Joe Lieberman
In the latest in our on-going series of possible vice presidential candidates, today: Joe Lieberman. He's been attached to John McCain at his (still unbroken, knock on wood) hip, and, as Walter Shapiro wrote in Salon this week, "it is not hard to pick up Republican whispers that the wild-card Lieberman speculation is grounded in reality rather than water-cooler fantasy."
Sure, he used to be a Democrat, but on the other hand he is willing to say anything, and next to John McCain, he's almost charismatic. Plus, in the GOP's southern base, his religion is less despised than Mitt Romney's.
http://www.236.com/news/2008/06/19/i_wanna_be_number_two_joe_lieb_1_7243.php
I love that picture of Lieberman in the helment buying sun glasses. Joe Lieberman, the complete schmuck.
Universal Health Care at long last! is the only thing I think these bad economic times 'might' bring if we can get DC Rodents to give us what THEY GOT.
(Not you Karen. I'm talking about those 'movers and shakers and power hungry sharks.'
JUSTICE, WHAT JUSTICE?
"Right now I feel hatred that will not fade," said Ahmed. "It grows every day."
Haditha victims' kin outraged as Marines go free
Leila Fadel McClatchy Newspapers
HADITHA, Iraq — Khadija Hassan still shrouds her body in black, nearly three years after the deaths of her four sons. They were killed on Nov. 19, 2005, along with 20 other people in the deadliest documented case of U.S. troops killing civilians since the Vietnam War.
Eight Marines were charged in the case, but in the intervening years, criminal charges have been dismissed against six. A seventh Marine was acquitted. The residents of Haditha, after being told they could depend on U.S. justice, feel betrayed.
"We put our hopes in the law and in the courts and one after another they are found innocent," said Yousef Aid Ahmed, the lone surviving brother in the family. "This is an organized crime."
No one disputes that Marines killed 24 men, women and children in this town in four separate shootings that morning. Relatives said the attack was a massacre of innocent civilians that followed a roadside bomb that killed one Marine and injured two. Marines say they came under fire following the bomb.
Nonetheless, military prosecutors filed charges that ranged from murder to covering up a crime. Three Marines were relieved of their duties then, and U.S. Rep. John Murtha, a former Marine, famously called the incident "murder" on television.
One by one, the cases fell apart. American and Iraqi witnesses provided conflicting accounts. The investigation began months after the incident, and many Iraqis who could have testified were unable to travel to the United States. Furthermore, several Marines were granted immunity.
Last week, a judge dismissed charges of dereliction of duty and failure to investigate filed against the highest ranking officer implicated, Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani. The Marine Corps plans to appeal.
The dismissals have deepened the victims' relatives' grief. Many say they feel deceived after having collaborated with U.S. investigators who came into their homes, collected evidence, took testimony, and ultimately failed to hold the Marines accountable.
"Right now I feel hatred that will not fade," said Ahmed. "It grows every day." Charges against two Marines who allegedly killed his brothers were dropped in August 2007.
All charges of murder in this case were dropped and at least seven Marines were given immunity to allow them to testify against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich, the squad leader. His charges now include voluntary manslaughter of at least nine people. >>>cont
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/41817.html
Torture from the Top Down
By Scott Horton
In a series of hearings, Congressional leaders are trying to get to the bottom of a few simple questions: Who initiated the use of torture techniques in the “war on terror”? What was the process by which it was done? On whose authority was it done? The use of torture techniques became a matter of public knowledge four years ago. In response to the initial disclosures, the Bush Administration first decided to spin the fable of a handful of “rotten apples” inside of a company of military police from Appalachia and scapegoated a handful of examples in carefully managed and staged show trials. When further disclosures out of Bagram and Guantánamo made this untenable, they spun a new myth, this time suggesting that the administration had responded to a plea from below for wider latitude.
In fact at this point the evidence is clear and convincing, and it points to a top-down process. Figures near the top of the administration decided that they wanted brutal techniques and they hammered them through, usually over strong opposition from the ranks of professionals.
Yesterday’s hearings in the Senate Armed Services Committee helped make that point, and brought a new focus on a figure who has been lurking in the shadows of the controversy for some time: William J. Haynes II, Rumsfeld’s lawyer and now a lawyer for Chevron. Two things emerge from the hearing. First, that Haynes was effectively a stationmaster when it came to introducing torture techniques in the “war on terror,” circumventing opposition from career military and pushing through a policy of brutality and cruelty, by stealth when necessary. And second, that Haynes lacks the courage of his convictions, a willingness to stand up and testify honesty about what he did.
So frequent in fact were Haynes’s failures of recollection that he appears ready to challenge the former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales for the distinction of having the most comprehensive and convenient memory loss of any recent government official. And, as is the case with Gonzales, speculation is starting to build over whether Haynes will be the subject of a probe over his statements to Congress which cannot be squared with the extrinsic evidence or recollections of others.
In some areas Haynes’s memory lapses follow a familiar pattern. He doesn’t want to recall having seen, discussed, or drawn upon the celebrated “torture” memorandum of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. That’s curious, particularly since the language and reasoning of that memorandum pervade virtually everything he did. Moreover, one witness has described in hushed tones how Haynes kept a copy of this memorandum in a vault in his office, removing it to examine like Torquemada’s Holy Grail whenever he needed nourishment in his quest for official cruelty. This man appears to be feverishly covering something up, wary all the while that he may be fated to be the target of a criminal investigation. Memory lapses were, alas, the sole tactical option available to him. “Abu Ghraib? Don’t remember that” quipped Dana Milbank this morning in the Washington Post. That sums up the Haynes testimony nicely. And the ironies were not lost on Milbank:
In two hours of testimony, Haynes managed to get off no fewer than 23 don’t recalls, 22 don’t remembers, 16 don’t knows, and various other protestations of memory loss. It was an impressive performance, to be sure. But let’s see him try to do that with a hood over his head, standing on a crate with wires attached to his arms.
Torquemada would have called that “putting the question” to Haynes. I don’t approve of that tactic, so let’s help Haynes out. What is he forgetting? >>>cont
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/06/hbc-90003099
Mora: Abu Ghraib and Gitmo Lead To U.S. Deaths In Iraq
George Bush's latest powers, courtesy of the Democratic Congress
CQ reports (sub. req.) that "a final deal has been reached" on FISA and telecom amnesty and "the House is likely to take up the legislation Friday." I've now just read a copy of the final "compromise" bill. It's even worse than expected. When you read it, it's actually hard to believe that the Congress is about to make this into our law. Then again, this is the same Congress that abolished habeas corpus with the Military Commissions Act, and legalized George Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program with the "Protect America Act," so it shouldn't be hard to believe at all. Seeing the words in print, though, adds a new dimension to appreciating just how corrupt and repugnant this is: >>>cont
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/19/telecom/index.html
Law School Wants to Hang Bush — Literally
Insider Report from Newsmax.com
The Massachusetts School of Law at Andover is holding a conference in September to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other administration officials for war crimes.
“This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred,” Lawrence Velvel, dean of the school, said in remarks reported by the OpEdNews Web site.
“It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the earth.”
Velvel goes on to say, even more outrageously, “We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice. And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war criminals in the 1940s.”
He asserted that following the prosecution of German and Japanese leaders after World War II, those nation’s leaders changed their countries’ “aggressor cultures,” and said: “For Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Yoo to spend years in jail or go to the gallows for their crimes would be a powerful lesson to future American leaders.”
Yoo served from 2001 to 2003 in the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. He contributed to the Patriot Act and wrote memos in which he advocated the possible legality of torture.
The conference will explore such issues as which high-level officials are chargeable with war crimes, and which foreign and domestic tribunals can prosecute them, according to OpEdNews.
The Massachusetts School of Law at Andover was established in 1988 to provide a legal education to minorities, immigrants and students from low-income families.
Oncall, I swear that Friedman article that Matthew posted is just DRIPPING in irony. It is so ironic, it is almost pure satire.
Funny how this guy, who is not an overt bushevik to look at, is one of the most shameless propagandists of our time.
It really did make me giggle just to read that headline, with his name under it. What a total fraud and such a complete coward he is.
Lead or Leave. How very clever to say now. That would have been useful 4 FUs ago.
And, am I trippin, or does Friedman sound like he is describing his own experiences with tokin on a pipe?
I mean, that is one VERY vivid description. He sounds like a very articulate crackhead.
'One more pop...from that...drill'.... Errrmm.. Uhhh. Alrighty then.
Thanks for sharing this submission, V, and for bringing optimism into this very pessimistic time.
I agree that if there is anything to be gained from our current experience, it will be that Americans will understand what makes themselves what they are (and strong). Instead of phony reliance on gun rights that won't defend anything in real life, they will rediscover the pioneering American spirit that had sustained the country for so long.
(All you Alaskan welfare queens with your oil dividend money, you ESPECIALLY need to get the bit on pioneering spirit.)
If America can't get to that point, it truly deserves to go the way of Rome.
oncall
Good viewpoint. It is in the best interests of Corporate America to reinstate some of the perks of middle class, if it wants to survive at all.
Disgruntled workers are not productive workers - and American workers (especially in auto and airline sectors) are as disgruntled as ever. And this is NOT good for national security either, especially when we have a "WAR ON TERROR" going on!
As someone who's making good money off of government contracts right now (and mostly immune to the economic downturn myself as a result), I need to say one more thing.
Instead of vilifying government as evil (as every Republican since Reagan has done), someone needs to take a stand and show what a good government can do, either on its own or in cooperation with the private sector.
Time to bring a program similar to New Deal back. This will bring down unemployment, support small businesses, and rebuild the economy (and the tax base) as well.
Barack Obama, you better be listening!
I think if the economy truly crashes, and true hunger becomes overwhelming.... this country will fracture into a second Civil War faster than you can say 'Who took my ham sandwitch?'.
And, once 300 million start killing each other, there is no going back. We will fracture as certainly as Rome, but it will look more like Bosnia. From Sea, to Shining Sea.
I think it is time to face the undeniable. The United States as an empire, has fallen. And unless george bush literally is hanged as a war criminal, than the rule of law no longer exists, not even in theory.
The best we can do now is try to stop the inevitable civil war that will ensue, not over there, right here. History says it is coming as certainly as the sun rises.
I also believe that US Citizens deserve a comeuppance for our arrogance, but, we are not talking about times where everyone is worried so we will all just sit around and sing songs till we feel better.
Even if our economy does not tip the scale, Nature, herself, will. How many states are running out of clean water? Have you ever considered what a war for water would look like?
When you say 'hard times ahead' we are talking about the mass starvation of our own. More desperation than hope, desperate people do desperate things. There will be nothing noble about killing your nieghbor for a loaf of bread.
If you ask me, THIS is what the neocons planned all along. The powers that be LITERALLY WANT US to starve enough/fracture enough to start killing each other. Why? Because they are war profiteers and if there is no war, there is no profit. They are setting us up for ETERNAL WAR. Right here.
Do you really think the powers that be really really really care about the other 300 million of us when they are already literally profiting from our DEATHS?
There will be no 'pulling together'. There will be 300 million people desperately fighting each other for what is left.
If history is clear about anything, it is that civil war is about to ensue and ALL great empires turn on themselves.
The only way we can stop it, is to try george w bush and his entire cabal as war criminals, and let the reassertion of LAW repair the balance.
Do any of you really trust Barak Obama? I mean... really? Because every great dictator in history was spoke of at first in the exact terms they talk about him. And like him, some of them were truly good people. They were ALL 'saviors' of their people.
And then they were handed absolute power.
Those who never learn from history, are doomed to repeat it, and I will be damned if it doesn't seem like we are reading off a familiar script.
I am all for hoping for the best, but it would probably be more prudent to prepare for war.
NMP,
I remember ho-bo's coming by our house when I was little, too. They didn't seem like ner' do wells, they just seemed out of their luck at the time, and mostly all they wanted was a warm meal, period.
Sounds like you have had a really wonderful experience this weekend, good for you.
Oncall, good to see you back posting. I know there are some exceptions, some people (probably quite a few) who maintained their morals while prospering from hard work and dedication to their schooling, jobs, and families. I know you are one of those cases, and that there are others. Unfortunately, all the years I worked in Corporate America, I mostly met the other kind. The kind that would not hesitate to sell their grandmother if it would turn them a profit. I met, oh, so many of those. Cheat, lie and steal to get ahead. Of course the years I am specifically talking about, my job was the equivelant to a Wall St. job, I worked with many stockbrokers. I am still amazed at the callousness many in Corporate America have. To me, after 30 years in it, I saw it as the rule, rather than the exception. I know there are very good people who were raised good, who worked hard and got their education, and went on to be professional people, who don't have the dog-eat-dog standards I saw continuously in Corporate America. They have a moral standard of hard work, application, and accountability. I don't think for one minute you guys need to apologize for having secured your future a bit more than the average American. But see it, I did.
Selma Voting Rights March Commemoration
Watch the Complete Speech.
http://www.barackobama.com/2007/03/04/selma_voting_rights_march_comm.php
For an excellent introduction to why the economy is likely headed for a large scale economic downturn - and why segments of both parties share responsibility for that downturn, see Kevin Phillips' Bad Money
http://www.amazon.com/Bad-Money-Reckless-Politics-Capitalism/dp/0670019070/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1214223287&sr=8-1
George Carlin passed away
Anyone thinking about voting for McCain instead of Obama (due to how Hillary was treated), here's McCain on the subject of Hillary.
Not a good story for our side...coming on the heels of Obama's endorsement of that terrible telecommunications bill, and his decision to forgo public financing.
I'm not totally clear where the facts lie vis-a-vis the push to biofuels and the simultaneous rise in food prices - but I'm sure that corn based ethanol is bad idea whose idea whose time should never come.
June 23, 2008
Obama Camp Closely Linked With Ethanol
By LARRY ROHTER
When VeraSun Energy inaugurated a new ethanol processing plant last summer in Charles City, Iowa, some of that industry’s most prominent boosters showed up. Leaders of the National Corn Growers Association and the Renewable Fuels Association, for instance, came to help cut the ribbon — and so did Senator Barack Obama.
Then running far behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in name recognition and in the polls, Mr. Obama was in the midst of a campaign swing through the state where he would eventually register his first caucus victory. And as befits a senator from Illinois, the country’s second largest corn-producing state, he delivered a ringing endorsement of ethanol as an alternative fuel.
Mr. Obama is running as a reformer who is seeking to reduce the influence of special interests. But like any other politician, he has powerful constituencies that help shape his views. And when it comes to domestic ethanol, almost all of which is made from corn, he also has advisers and prominent supporters with close ties to the industry at a time when energy policy is a point of sharp contrast between the parties and their presidential candidates.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/us/politics/23ethanol.html?hp
Obviously, that phrase should have read:
... corn based ethanol is a bad idea whose time should never come.
June 23, 2008
Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner
By BRIAN STELTER
Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network.
“Generally what I say is, ‘I’m holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,’ ” she said last week in an appearance on “The Daily Show,” referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. “ ‘It’s aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don’t put my story on the air, I’m going to pull the trigger.’ ”
Ms. Logan let a sly just-kidding smile sneak through as she spoke, but her point was serious. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever.
“If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said.
- more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/23/business/media/23logan.html?dpc
Matthew,
Ethanol is still a better alternative than Saudi oil. So I don't think this is such a big deal. For one thing, it's not the corn that is contributing to the higher cost of food. It's the transportation of corn and ALL food, all domestic goods, using foreign oil.
Are there other alternatives to corn? Probably. And I haven't seen proof anywhere that Obama isn't for encouraging exploration of alternative fuels outside of corn.
This is one of the problems that I see existing in all discussions of political issues. Not everything is 100% bad or 100% good. (Some issues are--such as torture--but only because that is always going to revert to humanity and the Geneva Conventions.) But in the instance of exploring biodegradable fuels, you don't chuck-out the one most likely to give immediate relief in order to hold off for the one that might come up years after the fact! So you use the corn while you can. Because if we can get biodegradable fuels right away, that will lower prices of food and it will lower prices of oil and it will help the environment.
Then you explore alternative ways simultaneously.
Regarding the FISA thing, maybe people should read the Daily Kos Diary "You are falling for the right-wings Trap"
new thread
Christy
I do trust Barack Obama, as much as I trusted some other politicians who went on to public service. I think probably the most well-meaning of politicians are ambitious, and power has to be something that humans are easily addicted to. I intend to work for his election from now until November, but have always considered him a frail mortal like the rest of us. That's why Nyc and I have a site called Barack Like Me.
Matthew
Corn in the northern hemisphere and cane in the southern hemisphere have gone to ethanol rather too quickly. The governments need to step in and put a lid on how much can be used for fuel source vs food source.
With corn, the floods will cut down the amount available for either food or fuel. With cane, I've been reading articles about high-fructose corn syrup and we have started to refuse to eat or drink products which contain it. It doesn't register for satiety and correlates with the rise in obesity. It's in everything.
Congressman Jay Inslee from here has really been pushing energy from algae. I thought it was still pie in the sky but New Zealand Air will be flying a jet with it soon. If petrol can be made from corn and cane, why not algae?
Meanwhile, other factors. China and India have upped their usage and are becoming, like us, addicted to oil. If they have ins with places like Iran and Nigeria and Venezuela, they have potentially more sources and can just keep on driving!
Then there is the price fixing. Every week or so we hear that Saudi Arabia or OPEC in general are adjusting the number of barrels pumped. Bush has to go over there to suck up. & then in case of political turmoil, like riots in Nigeria or impending blockade of Iran, that affects price. Or maybe we are too slow to refine. Or maybe it's driving season (summer.) Or maybe we haven't enough in our strategic reserves, another place manipulation can occur for rate of "flow."
Food prices go up with oil prices but I think it's very very complex. Obama has been talking about energy all week and so has McCain, who was up in Ottawa.
I noticed talk about NAFTA and telecoms all over the internet for several days but MSM (newspapers) seem to talk mostly about campaign finance reform. & as you alerted us, no one is talking about the war. Is it possible all these years of war can be affecting our food and oil prices? In WW2, our parents were told to sacrifice. Now they don't dare tell us that.
We should cut our carbon footprints but the damn war should never have happened. Even Jimmy Carter told us to put our sweaters on. As late as Gore's run, people were running around talking about "environmental wackos" and when Kerry ran in 2004, "the environment" was still considered a side issue besides "the economy" and "the war" - even though the environment (oil depletion) is probably the reason for the war (we are run by oilmen.) & to think that Carter was a nuclear engineer, and Gore and Kerry were long time environmentalists.
I'm going to read Obama's energy policy and find out who his advisors are. I don't think the story above would make much dent - these politicians "flip flop" every day of their lives. It's become so common it becomes background noise. That's why I want to find out who is advising these guys and what their records are, as well as the candidates. People don't vote on the issues, in general, but for those of us who do more so, we aren't going to find out where the candidates stand from the press or one talk.
What I just read on Obama and energy correlated with what I heard on NPR and wasn't connecting this all with.
The government virtually doesn't regular energy speculation. People can buy/manipulate energy futures to get rich. It's called the "Enron loophole."
We're using too much energy, but alot of the "shortage" of energy and other things are manipulated so we the consumer suffer, and someone else is getting filthy rich, Cheney style.
"doesn't regular" was supposed to read "doesn't regulate"
energy plan http://www.barackobama.com/issues/energy/
Here's the new thread on the Home Page. Please comment over there on it.
Here is the real conflict of interest:
The reason why the loophole got dubbed the "Enron Loophole" is because soon after the Act's passage, the lack of regulation and oversight over Enron's electronic energy trading market led to Enron (on whose board Phil Gramm's wife sat) bilking California out of $40 billion and causing a summer full of rolling blackouts.
Guess what McCain's position on the Enron Loophole is?
Yep, he's all for keeping it, on the advice of Phil Gramm.
I saw a car the other day, that was powered by water. And then I remembered when I was a kid, I read all about space travel and I remembered something important.
Did you know that all space flights store extra water,,, in case they need jet fuel?
Apparrently, the molecules of water can be manipulated to produce... jet fuel.
And after I saw the water powered car, now I get it. And that little sucker produces ZERO pollution.
If they can do this, and have been doing this for decades... if they can do it here and in space... then this whole argument about ethanol vs. oil vs. coal vs. whatever... is all MOOT. If you can fuel up a jet with water... then what in the hell are we all arguing about?
As far as trusting Obama goes... I trust him enough to vote for him.
But I swear, from a historical context, laying current events up against history... it just seems like if we really had learned from history, we should all be in a panic right now and having a much different conversation.
I am not sure about yall, but it is very hard for me now, on a day to day basis, NOT to feel the panic.
Even if we do elect Obama and he can be trusted... as soon as he is elected georgie will most likely bomb Iran. We are damned if we do, and damned if we don't.
History is rife with those who knew it well, yet still refused to believe it could happen to them, in their time. Even as history repeats it is so hard to recognize a true repetition or just the posturing of what could be.
I do not really think Obama is a tyrant wannabe.. But we are about to hand off absolute power along with another totally screwed up fraud of a war. Not even an Obama can contain such a three front conflict.
If Obama is not a good man in every way and at all times, if he can be corrupted... then we could still be in as much trouble under him as we are right now. We could be in MORE trouble in a year than we ever could have believed was possible.
I trust Obama enough to vote for him, as for the rest, I am no longer willing to trust anyone that much, except my mother and my lover. But even they should never be given unchecked power.
Usually, history makes you uncomfortable and you are ok with the future. Or, the future scares you and the past is irrelevent.
This is the first time in my life I am scared of both the past, and the future. And I really do not know how to deal with it.
Sparrow, as far as I know, there is no credible evidence available to support the idea that corn-based ethanol offers much of an advantage over Saudi oil. I agree that energy costs are impacting the prices of goods that need to be trucked to markets - and those same costs may well put several airlines out of business - but the proper response to these higher prices has to be a dramatic push for conservation, via human innovation, not some fantasy of a magic bullet about to appear that will make this problem just go away, especially when it isn't a magic bullet at all!
As for Obama and the telecom bill, I read a couple of blog pieces this morning of Glenn Greenwald's, and I'm hard pressed to understand why anyone who understands this nation's history would support either the House or the Senate bill. The American executive has too power as is - and this is an issue that both liberals and conservatives agree upon. Every scholar that I've read or heard on the Constitutal Convention says that we would have an even weaker executive than the Constitution created if everyone in the room didn't already know that Washington would be the first President. Every one.
I can't understand why this damn Congress refuses to challenge this massively unpopular President on an issue where there is significant conservative support - and why the cowardly politics ultimately has overule both common sense and civic responsibility time and again.
This President, and indeed any President, does not need more authority to keep Americans safe. They already have all the authority they need. Checks and balances are our friend. An Imperial Presidency is the enemy.
Did George Washington turn down being a King, or was it Emperor? In all of history, he is probably the ONLY man who flat out turned down absolute and unchecked power. That is why he was unanimiously picked to lead that is why he is still highly regarded to this day universally. The only man in history to refuse a crown for himself.
Will Obama literally turn down absolute power, when only one other guy in history is known to have done so willingly? I like Obama, I really do. But...damn. We are in a bad bad spot.
Matthew, I call it 'The Three B's'.
Bullied. Blackmailed. Bought. That is why they can never confront him. Most are bought outright, the rest are being blackmailed or are otherwise too bullied to make waves. Just think of the goods he got on house members by wiretapping them.
I totally believe Pelosi is being blackmailed. Maybe Conyers too. It would not just explain a few things, it would explain EVERYTHING.
Christy
I think there is blackmail going on too.
Petition yes but I'm good for labor and money.
Anyway,
John McCain has raised over $1 million from his Big Oil friends. And now he's returning the favor. Standing before a room of oil company executives, McCain reversed his position and called for drilling off America's coasts.
Drilling won't help with high gas prices, but it will endanger our beaches, estuaries and fisheries—and line the pockets of Exxon Mobil, Shell, and Chevron. No surprise since McCain's campaign is run by former oil lobbyists like Charlie Black.
Hours after McCain's announcement, President Bush—the Texas oilman himself—followed suit with the exact same call.
Congress is under immense pressure from Bush and McCain to let Big Oil pollute our coasts for a few drops of oil and with all the furor over gas prices, anything is possible. The Sierra Club is sounding the alarm—they've asked MoveOn members to sign this petition against drilling.
Click here to add your name and stop coastal oil drilling:
http://pol.moveon.org/oildrilling/o.pl?id=12958-3132966-c5gZTdx&t=3
Matthew,
I never said anything about a magic bullet. I never said it was appropriate for the long term either. However, as a temporary measure, yes, it is viable.
And it's not just about airplanes. It's about the trucks that carry food back and forth across our country daily. We have to eat? Eat something other than corn... We have to do whatever is necessary to keep our infrastructure or people will starve. Using corn and ethanol for a few short years is just a stop-gap measure while something else is done.
Frankly, it's not just about consumption either. People HAVE made changes in their daily life-styles to cut their use of fuels. If only to save money. However, when we can't truck food and goods across this nation, then people starve. Our rails are falling apart. Our planes can only go so far...
I don't believe anyone ever said that ethanol was the only way to go. And I don't believe Obama or anyone is hurt by this. Frankly, exploring new fuels, not just corn fuels, should have been done long ago, but since it wasn't, we don't have a choice to wait for the perfect solution. Drilling isn't the perfect solution and neither is ethanol. However, ethanol is not as destructive to our world as new drilling in the oceans or the ANWAR would be.
To me...stop gap..simply means that. A temporary measure so that hoards of people in this nation don't starve.
Rest In Peace George Carlin, always one of my favorites...
There was a freak accident on the highway. Six freaks in a van hit two freaks in a Volkswagen.
How come wrong numbers are never busy?
Do people in Australia call the rest of the world "up over"?
Can a stupid person be a smart-ass?
Does killing time damage eternity?
Why is it that night falls but day breaks?
Why is the third hand on the watch called a second hand?
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Are part-time band leaders semi-conductors?
Can you buy an entire chess set in a pawn-shop?
Daylight savings time. Why are they saving it and where do they keep it?
Did Noah keep his bees in ArcHives?
Do pilots take crash-courses?
Do stars clean themselves with meteor showers?
Do you think that when they asked George Washington for ID that he just whipped out a quarter?
Have you ever imagined a world with no hypothetical situations?
Have you ever seen a toad on a toadstool?
How can there be self-help "groups"?
How do you get off a non-stop flight?
How do you write zero in Roman numerals?
How many weeks are there in a light year?
If Barbie's so popular, why do you have to buy all her friends?
If blind people wear dark glasses, why don't deaf people wear earmuffs?
If space is a vacuum, who changes the bags?
If tin whistles are made out of tin, what do they make fog horns out of?
If you shouldn't drink and drive, why do bars have parking lots?
If you jog backwards, will you gain weight?
Why do the signs that say "Slow Children" have a picture of a running child?
Why do they call it "chili" if it's hot?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor.
The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.
I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.
Could it be that all those trick-or-treaters wearing sheets aren't going as ghosts but as mattresses?
If a mute swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
If a man is standing in the middle of the forest speaking and there is no woman around to hear him...is he still wrong?
If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill himself, is it considered a hostage situation?
Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice?"
Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all?"
Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?
If the police arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain silent?
Why do they put Braille on the drive-through bank machines?
How do blind people know when they are done wiping?
How do they get the deer to cross at that yellow road sign?
Is it true that cannibals don't eat clowns because they taste funny?
One nice thing about egotists: they don't talk about other people.
Does the Little Mermaid wear an algebra?
Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?
If you try to fail, and succeed, which have you done?
Why is it called tourist season if we can't shoot at them?
If the "black box" flight recorder is never damaged during a plane crash, why isn't the whole damn airplane made out of that stuff?
If you spin an oriental man in a circle three times, does he become disoriented?
This is a reprint of George Carlin in War and Peace, which was on this site:
http://www.democracycellproject.net/blog/archives/2007/11/euphemisms_in_w.html
George Carlin on War and Peace
Congress taking WH to court over subpoena roadblock
Lawyers for the White House and Congress are headed to court Monday in a dispute over whether top aides to President Bush must provide evidence in a House investigation.
The Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee is demanding documents and testimony from the president’s chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former lawyer, Harriet Miers, about the firing of federal prosecutors. The White House says Congress can’t do that because of the separation-of-powers doctrine.
A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m.
http://rawstory.com/news08/2008/06/23/congress-taking-wh-to-court-over-subpoena-roadblock/
What we know with certainty about Washington is that elements of the Continental Army wanted to rebel against Congress (largely because they hadn't been paid, and had been miserably supplied during the course of the war) - but once GW made it clear that he would have no part in this, and that his firm intention was to return to Mt. Vernon, and civilian life, the effort collapsed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newburgh_conspiracy
There's no specific instance that I know of where he was formally offered to a throne, but historians do suggest that had he asked for one, Congress would likely have agreed. When George III heard that Washington had simply walked away from the Presidency, without attempting to cease power, he is said to have remarked, that if this were true, then Washington must be the greatest man of the age. And years later, Napoleon pondered his exile on Elba, he is said to have complained "they expected me to be a Washington".
"seize", not cease
What I remember hearing, being told, read it somewhere...
Was that George Washington was offered Imperial Powers, when his men started rebelling. And he 'decimated' his own men.
You know... count off 1-4 and all the 3s step out to be shot.
From what I was taught, it was during this intense scene he was offered up a crown and he refused. They offered it to him in a desperate attempt to simplify things I guess, because it was the multi-loyalties of our 'militias' that was spurring the dissent in the ranks. It would have been easier if he were a king.
I can not even think of George Washington without thinking about that moment, what it must have been like to even consider decimating your own men. To know everything you fought for is falling apart, and on top of it all having absolute power offered to you only for it to be the ultimate insult. It must a been a real nightmare scenario.
He truly was one hell of a man. For sure.
How many gaffes a day does Mumbles McCrazy make? This is becoming completely painful to even try to keep up. I don't even want to hurt him anymore I just want him to seek the psychological help he so obviously desperately needs!
It is hard to believe he is SERIOUSLY a candidate for the US Presidency. It is like a bad, surreal nightmare.
It has already began
The chaos that erupted outside Milwaukee County's main welfare office Monday over disaster-related food aid had more to do with a weak economy and crushing poverty in parts of this community than the devastating floods that swept through the state earlier this month, local government and food relief officials said.
About 3,000 people turned out for the assistance beginning at 3 a.m. Monday, creating a line that stretched several blocks around the Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Center at 1220 W. Vliet St. At least one woman said she was trampled when a crowd rushed the doors as they opened around 7:30 a.m., and dozens of Milwaukee police officers and sheriff's deputies were called to quell the scene.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=764962
Hunger is not 'adversity'. It is something else. Entirely.
Would you all be willing to take just five minutes out of your day and watch the video on the front page and let me know your impressions?
It's hard to convey "how many" have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. I want to know if you think a very concrete visual way such as this or putting out pairs of combat boots on a field is powerful.
Or why do we never see the flag-draped coffins (they're hidden, of course)?
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