The true genius of our so-called founding fathers was more luck than wisdom and more about fear than courage. Rich white male industrialist entrepreneur New Englanders in the same room with rich white male planter slave owner Southerners designed a government to protect the best of themselves from the worst of each other. Land owners knowing they would never vote to tax themselves, set it up so only they could vote. Worried that a president could too easily usurp power to become monarch, they balanced the powers not once, but twice, and added the electoral college just to make sure. Worried that a government sponsored religion could force them to tithe and attend church, they mandated separation of church and state. Worried that a central government would trump their regional fiefdoms, they held on to their state powers. Worried that population could trump state standing and regional culture they created the Senate. Our union has succeeded not for what it has done, but for what it has not. And how could it? Ours is a government where bold, decisive action should not be possible except, and temporarily, in time of war.

For example, the “legal basis” of Lincoln’s executive order abolish slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, was the implicit powers given to the President as Commander-in-Chief “as a necessary war measure”. (Same basis for interning the Asian-Americans during WWII and the wiretapping, torture and legalized corruption of the Bush Two presidency, etc.)

No, our founding fathers, wanted our government weak, decentralized and anything but bold and decisive. Where change would come slowly and poorly. Where the best laws and actions from our national government would be the lowest common denominator*. Fear-based, paranoia-based government because they only trusted themselves, but not so much as a group.

So what changed? A lot. Read the rest of this story]]> http://onthewayhere.com/2009/02/striving-for-the-best-lowest-common-denominator/feed/ 0 http://onthewayhere.com/2009/02/flash-to-the-future/ http://onthewayhere.com/2009/02/flash-to-the-future/#comments Thu, 12 Feb 2009 16:35:14 +0000 Martyrdog http://onthewayhere.com/?p=660

What would a successful economic turnaround look like?

Flash forward. Still President Obama lands our helicopter directly in from of the New York Stock Exchange and walks triumphantly onto the floor surrounded by jubilant traders and takes his place on the balcony with a sign behind him reading, “Mission Accomplished.” “The recession is over,” he announces to the cheering throng. Our GDP has grown for two straight quarters (all that is required to claim victory). The markets are bullish. The Dow creeping steadily toward 10,000 again (for those who can afford to be in the market). Loans are being made (to those with good credit). Housing sales are up (for those who have down payments, a good job and unscarred credit). Unemployment down (but many millions are still unemployed). Happy days, again (for the audience of the stock exchange).

Shallow Victory.

When Bush announced victory, all that had happened was we had toppled a government and destroyed or disbanded everything that allowed the Iraqi people to take care of themselves. We replaced self-sufficiency with pallets of cash. Tossed a few seeds of freedom and democracy on the scorched ground and expected the spring would take care of the rest. Shock and awe when the seeds all but died.

This time, the drumbeat of fear are the weapons of mass financial destruction. The smart bombs we are using are being used strategically for maximum effect. Save Wall Street - BOOM. Save the banks - SHABOOM. Prop up the unemployed for a while - TA DA DING DONG. More, but temporary funding for Medicare - LING A LING A LING. OH LIFE COULD BE A DREAM.

Where is our David Petraeus? Read the rest of this story

Doing for oil what they did for homes. Hard as it may be to believe, but Morgan Stanley and Citigroup have taken some of the no strings billions they got from Bush, Croinies & Company and used $80,000,000 of it to speculate on oil prices. Doing as well here as they did with mortgages, the price of oil, of course, has continued to go down. So to store the oil, they have hired a supertanker at $68,000 a day to sit in the Gulf of Mexico waiting for prices to go up. Read the full story.

Obama shoots down Citigroup’s new $50 million jet. There’s no end to the hubris. Upon hearing of Citigroup purchasing a $50 million corporate jet from France with some of the $45 billion they got from TARP, officials of the Obama administration intervened and the jet was cancelled. All hail competent government. Read the full story.

4,600 kids sick with MRSA and we just now found out. A study just released that studied pediatric infections from 2001-2006 shows a dramatic increase that were the aggressive community Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA) going from 12% in 2001 to 28% in 2006. We are just going to have to get our doctors to start washing their hands. Read the full story.

The economy is now so bad that the Pentagon met recruiting goals. The Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps and the Air Force all met their recruiting for December. How else are young people going to make a “living.” Read the full story.

Court stops Utah oil and gas leases. The Bushes held a surprise auction on December 19th as a last minute gift to the energy industry by attempting to sell the drilling rights to 110,000 acres of pristine land abutting the Dinosaur National Monument, Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park. On the Saturday before the inauguration, US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina intervened telling the Bush administration not to cash the checks putting the fate of the land in the hands of the Obama administration who had objected to the sale. Read the full story.

He knew this day would come. He told us he was prepared for it. That he wouldn’t hesitate. This man who has spent his entire adult life in service. Who helped the downtrodden. Picked up the dispirited. Protect the rights and life of all. Didn’t. Whether the decision was active or passive, it was his. Just as if he had held, pointed and fired the gun. Bang. Bang. Twenty-one people dead. Three days into our idealism, surely he broke down in Michelle’s arms. I would have. Video games aren’t real. Predator drones are too real. The CIA surreal.

No comment from the White House. None from the Pentagon. Pakistan officials say the dead were pro-Tailban tribesman and Al-Queda militants. Evil doers and their families. Twenty-one mother’s children were executed by our new president without a trial, just a judge. They had no last wish. No moment to repent or seek forgiveness. No time to say goodbye to those who loved them. Or face bravely their fate in that last instant. Bang. Bang.

We knew this day would come. We should have been prepared for it. We believed he wouldn’t hesitate. It happened so soon that his soul would have to harden to live this life he has won. The blood is on our hands, too. Today, I mourn for all of us.