democracy1.1

"empty shirts"

2008-03-21T13:30:00.000-07:00

"fool me once, shame on you, etc" every four years, the jerks line up for 'democracy' drill. "choose a president, you lucky people!" from a selection of two. hmm, maybe not so lucky. still, two is better than one. unless one is dubya, and the other is disqualified by too much education, intelligence and character. too much for the american voter, any way. twice. but then the american voter

“In the valley of elah”..

2008-03-05T21:24:00.000-08:00

.. is a good movie with excellent acting and a reasonable script. It is also a snapshot of where the usa is, in it’s journey through history as the paramount power of the late 2oth century. The story only concerns itself with showing the effects of participating in the iraq war on a few soldiers. Whatever they were when they went, they are

power and legitimacy in oz

2008-02-26T13:23:00.000-08:00

legitimacy is the label put on the acceptance of the forms of governance by the general community. a government without acceptance as legitimate must govern through application of power.governments avoid rule through power, it's expensive and dangerous. traditionally, the king strikes a deal with the high priest: the priest says the king is god's ruler, the king says all must worship in the high

farewell fidel

2008-02-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

'onlineopinion' had some discussion of castro on the occasion of his formal resignation. much was disparaging, but someone took the trouble to get some numbers, rather than just spewing out prejudice:According to the UN Human Development Index, Cuba ranks 51st out of 177 countries. The US ranks 12th.* On GDP per capita (in international dollars) it ranks 94th ($6000 per head). The US is 2nd (

was tet the turn of the tide?

2008-02-11T12:50:00.000-08:00

vietnam was a temporary setback, soon rectified, think of the brilliantly successful campaign against grenada.a better measure of a nation's health is to look at the budget. unlike other large nations, the usa spends more on defense than the rest of the world. combined. this may explain why they spend so little on schools, education, health care, and physical infrastructure.they have been

'democracy' in oz? hardly!

2008-02-07T13:42:00.000-08:00

hard to believe a person educated in law could be so profoundly ignorant of reality. i suppose his mother told him about the emperor's new clothes, but clearly he did not re-visit the idea in philosophy 101.perhaps he didn't do philosophy 101. he certainly never examined '1984' and the application of newspeak to australian english.australia is not a democracy. not even close. it is legally a

tra la la la.

2008-02-06T21:13:00.000-08:00

clinton and obama are having an interesting contest, and both are raising more money than mccain. should be a shoo-in,with the burden of the dubya regime.but a couple of american chatterati have suggested this might be a real contest. the core republicans either don't know bush has been a disaster, or don't care. the middle/independents may be attracted to mccain's supposed reasonable

plus ca change..

2008-01-14T12:16:00.000-08:00

# al loomis Says:January 15th, 2008 at 6:11 ampeople are starting to remark on the fact that obama has so far not stiffened his feel-good rhetoric with any substantive plans. this may be part of his strategy, or more likely that he is only mortal, and a politician, and has no grand plan. if he can’t come up with something significant, there will be disillusionment.the beneficiaries of that will

the horse race

2008-01-10T12:58:00.000-08:00

with one each, obama and clinton have both demonstrated that it's going to be a protracted contest, with time to search out weaknesses. this is bad news for obama, whose record is small, and undistinguished. clinton has nothing new to offer, is not a good speaker, but can reasonably claim to represent a return to the clinton era, which in retrospect was the golden age of the american empire. or

benazir bhutto rip, middle east not so.

2007-12-28T16:16:00.000-08:00

i wonder what the middle east ...would be like if america had not sponsored the zionist invasion of palestine, the assassination of mossadegh and overthrow of parliamentary government in iran, had not supported the violently repressive dictatorships in iraq, iran, and arabia.america has sown that garden with poison seeds, and flowers of death spring up everywhere, even down-town manhattan.perhaps

"look on my works, ye mighty, and despair"

2007-12-25T19:39:00.000-08:00

reputed to be an inscription on a block of stone, in middle of an african dessert. in fact, the author of the poem was commenting on the tendency of societies, no matter how puissant, to decay and die in time.the course of the american empire is well advanced, the accoutrements of the republic are less able to disguise the imperial policies and internal repression than was once the case. the

our good friends, the yanks

2007-12-16T12:07:00.000-08:00

here's a link to a survey of american foreign policy that doesn't get enough publicity.http://salon.com/opinion/(you may have to press the 'enter salon' button on upper left corner)in brief, the cia has been in the torture and murder business since the 50's. anyone who opposes american policy in south or central america, in south east asia, or now in the middle east, was/is liable to be connected

mike gravel and democracy

2007-12-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

here's a link to m g explaining about why he's running for president.http://youtube: 2 mikeshe understands the problems that are facing any parliamentary society, and proposes a solution based on 'democratizing' the federal government of the usa. these problems are even more evident in australia, but i pointed out that the solution is even easier for us in an earlier post, "revolution to

stop laughing, this is serious

2007-12-13T12:31:00.000-08:00

global warming is on the agenda, finally. perhaps too late to prevent disaster, but maybe not too late to prevent extinction of the human race. plenty of americans are much more worried than their politicians, here's a post with a useful survey of personal actions to take:"SolutionsWhat can you do?Politically: Tell politicians to remove subsidies for oil and gas companies and increase investment

population

2007-12-11T12:33:00.000-08:00

humanity is in deep trouble. global warming is going to shake the planet, and will disrupt human economy a lot, or worse. it may kill us all. if it doesn't, resource depletion will have similar consequences, in a longer time frame. then there's the four horsemen, who will be riding along with these natural events.all of these problems grow out of a simple fact: there's too many humans on this mud

torture, corruption, and apathy

2007-12-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

the emergence of an admission to destroying visual records by the cia is a new feature of the bush regime. normally, such things are lost. i presume cia officers are trying to preserve their careers by admitting that the documents existed, while trying to preserve their freedom by destroying them. this is a very complex balancing act as some senior officers are on record as saying these

revolution to democracy

2007-12-08T14:43:00.000-08:00

parliamentary societies in prosperous states generate a large middle class that is able to vote for center-left or center-right parties. this is the condition in which transition to democracy becomes possible without violence or great dislocation of society.when a significant minority decides that real democracy is more important than blindly supporting tweedledum-or-dee, they will form a citizen

representative (ain't) democracy

2007-12-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

two parties, "a" and "b" contend for election, "a" wins by 51% to 49% of the vote."b" commences to think. they identify a group that voted for "a" at least large enough to change the result, perhaps only 1% of the electorate . "b" offers this group a special favor. it might be a tax benefit, or support for private schools. the group changes it's voting habit, "b" wins. all tax payers must pay a

religion and politics

2007-12-06T00:29:00.000-08:00

here's a quote from jfk's campaign, which seems like a good description of how a nation should be run, if the national aim is justice and simple fair play."I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute," Kennedy told the Houston ministers, "where no Catholic prelate would tell the President -- should he be Catholic -- how to act, and no Protestant minister would

the children of strangelove

2007-12-05T11:01:00.000-08:00

there is an interesting article on 'managing' nuclear weapons in today's world: http://salon.com/opinion/the author doesn't offer much hope for preventing nuclear proliferation. that cat has left the bag.i believe the only way to minimize the chance of nuclear holocaust is for humans and humanity to grow up and admit that the use of violence on other nations is no longer productive. the

letters to america

2007-12-04T13:25:00.000-08:00

you get the government you deserve don't you think it's time the people of the usa wrested control of their nation away from pollies? leaving people like this in charge of foreign policy is russian roulette. what is the argument against gravel's initiative for democracy? too hard? gotta feed the dog? the baby's crying? if you are frightened of people like podhoretz whispering in the ear of

israel

2007-12-03T20:18:00.000-08:00

for the record... there will be no peace while the zionists defend a religious state of israel. peace will happen when the u n watches the transformation of israel and the occupied territories into the secular state of palestine. i would claim this is obvious to anyone, if justice was the goal. but apparently it is not.

occasional letters to america

2007-12-03T11:53:00.000-08:00

a simple question why is it ok for pakistan to have an atom bomb, but not iran? and india and france, but not iran? and the usa and israel, but not iran? are you living in looking glass land?

democracy and community

2007-12-03T10:43:00.000-08:00

in a highly-evolved democracy, the citizens are the state. there would be no public service, and no politicians, and no army. these functions would be carried out by the two types of social organization that every citizen would participate in.one would be a civic action society based on a central meeting place in a neighborhood. in this hall, public meetings would carry out discussion and

education in a democracy

2007-12-01T16:39:00.000-08:00

citizens owe no allegiance 'upward'. instead, their allegiance is horizontal, to the other members of the society. as they depend on each other, as they subscribe to the ideal of political equality, they have an over-riding interest in maintaining the quality of their fellow citizens.this means that every person must oversee and support the education available to each child. there can not be '