Unknown American Hero

Increasingly, a measure by which many Independent voters determine whether or not to vote for an incumbent or their challenger, is based on who is funding their campaign and in what amount. One American hero is largely responsible for the public having that ability. His name is Fred Wertheimer.

Fred Wertheimer is a name and face which Independent / Third Party voters, and all voters concerned with responsible, ethical, and accountable government, should get acquainted with.

Change or Democratic Anarchy

Monumental changes are occurring in the span of a single lifetime. Climate, science, demography, environment and human knowledge are all undergoing enormous rapid changes, and no one on earth can escape them. The only way to begin to manage change is to accept that it is here. To deny it, reject it, or refuse it, is to succumb to it, without ever having a say as to what shape or direction it took.

Why Changing Parties Changes Nothing.

Changing parties in the majority of Congress in the election of 2006 changed nothing in our government. Nor did it change America's ever dimming future. The reason is that the Democratic Party is held hostage to the same forces which caused the Republican Party to fail as the one party of majority. The truth is, though Republicans had the majority in government, they were not in control. Just as Democrats will not be in control, even IF they win the Presidency in '08 and acquire a filibuster proof majority in Congress.

It's Not About Imus, Anymore!

Don Imus's reckless, condescending and racially derogatory remarks are losing the spotlight to the reaction to them. One man made foul remarks about good people in a poor and unthinking attempt at street-common humor. He apologized, profusely, and repeatedly. He got fired - he wasn't hired to not think before opening his mouth. It was just. That is all there is to that story. Now the bigger story is unfolding.

Politics Should Not Be A Team Sport

Politics is NOT a team sport. In a team sport, one team wins, many others lose, but, the slate is wiped clean the following season and everyone has another chance. The future of the sport is not at risk.

That is not the case with politics. When one party wins, and the others lose, the nation's future can be jeopardized and the majority of the people lose representation.

Who's the Wisest of Them All?

Below are some quotes I believe are relevant and suited to our time. Some famous, some not. But, all worth healthy debate on their applicability to our current state of government and politics. Which do you believe is most relevant?

Politicians pay to stay in office. The People pay if they do. --V.O.I.D.

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies. --Groucho Marx

Ethics: Congress hasn't any!

Congress passed a sham of a law purported to restore ethics unto the People's branch of government. A little frill cut here, a little frill cut there. But, the mainstay of bribery by wealthy lobbyists and special interests was not touched. Congress reserved the right to be bribed by the wealthy campaign donors, which made this ethics reform anything but.

Ford: Healer or Corrupter?

President Gerald Ford is being remembered today after passing away last night. Much is being said regarding his legacy of healing the nation during a time of great turmoil, inheriting the loss of the Viet Nam War, wrestling with an impeached President Nixon, and riots and demonstrations in America's streets. His legacy is laudable on many fronts. His ill-considered pardon however, damaged America and continues to do so.

Gerald Ford chose Alan Greenspan to fight inflation. Ford was instrumental in making inflation job one for the Federal Reserve. Pres. Ford had the wisdom to refuse the Fed Chairman's appointment every 4 years with each new president; thus removing in part, the political partisanship that would have damaged economic monetary policy far more than it occasionally does. Pres. Ford took the responsibility for removing our troops from the roof tops of Viet Nam and closing down that civil war without end, as long as we remained.

Racism Recedes: Classism Grows

It is no longer publicly acceptable to be racist. Just ask Senator Allen who lost his election bid for a racist remark. As racism recedes from public acts, another deeply entrenched discrimination of very long standing is rising to the fore for attack, belittlement, and reform. Classism, or discrimination based on economic class, is becoming the new politically incorrect behavior to overcome.

From medical care, to education, to housing, to job opportunities, those of the wealthy class get better treatment and favor than others of less affluence. Harvard, one of the costliest universities, has tuition assistance for the non-wealthy. But, the average income of families receiving tuition assistance for Harvard is over $100,000 per year.

Immigration: What's it to you?

Roy Beck, President of NumbersUSA, boasted victory late in the night proclaiming his organization and other Americans beat back all attempts by Republicans and some Democrats to increase immigration in this country for highly sought after, but, very expensive education, type jobs.

Beck reports that Sen. Kay Baily Hutchison's (R) last ditch attempt to import 100,000 immigrant nurses next year failed. Sen. Cornyn's (R), also of Texas, attempt to increase immigration of programmers and engineers also failed. Friday's Viet Nam Free Trade agreement finally, was absent free visas for Vietnamese; as Beck says:

If we're right, this represents quite a milestone: A free trade agreement that deals with movement of goods without forcing the movement of foreign workers into U.S. job occupations.

One Conservative Take

Rep. Roy Blunt (R), speaking before a packed room of conservatives at the Heritage Foundation itemized a new agenda and opportunity for Republicans in light of the election results. Main focus: minimize federal government, obstruct programs like No Child Left Behind, the Help America Vote Act (HAVA), and other programs not focused on national security and foreign policy.

Ironically, Rep. Blunt, in contradiction to his minimalist approach, advocated for Republicans moving ahead with social engineering from the Republican Party that seeks to install moral values in America on issues like religious practice in schools, public squares, and further erosion of the separation of church and state doctrine.

Anti-Incumbent Voters Win

After spending 10 hours glued to the TV watching the election results, it became obvious none of the politicians, or the pundits for that matter, understood what was taking place. The change in leadership in the House of Representatives, and likely the Senate, was a result of a growing anti-incumbent movement amongst voters, which decided to hold incumbents responsible for lack of results and solutions to America's growing list of problems.

By 2:15 AM this morning, the spin had already begun. James Carville (D) said this was not an anti-incumbent election, but an anti-Republican one. Halley Barbour (R) said this switching of parties was just part of the cycle, which voters go through every 12 to 16 years. Others said this was all about Iraq. But, they missed the central theme of yesterday's elections.

Don't Vote the Ad

As the election day on Nov. 7 nears, 100's of millions of dollars are being poured into the most non-issue oriented, sleazy, and lying advertising ever in the history of American politics. What is remarkable is how the polls in a slew of races are closing their gaps as these despicable ads from all sides come pouring over our TV's, our radios, our Ipods, on billboards, and handouts.

This closing gap in the polls seems to indicate the ads are working to change people's minds. Think about that for a second. People's most important decision of the year is being changed by lies, sleaze, and Non-Issue advertising. That is a sad commentary on the American electorate.

New Anti-Incumbent Movement

The new anti-incumbent movement is just beginning. It will grow, and there is nothing the Democratic and Republican Parties can do about that. Here are the only 3 scenarios possible, and why the Republocrats will be powerless against Vote Out Incumbents Democracy and a growing number of anti-incumbent voices like Anti-Incumbents.com, No To Incumbents, and Tenure Corrupts.

Republicans No More!

There is a wave of Republicans disavowing those in the White House and Congress leadership, saying they are Republicans no more. Some mean those in power are no more Republicans. Some mean they, themselves, are leaving the Republican Party. Jack Cafferty, a very conservative journalist and consultant for CNN aired a special last night entitled "Broken Government", in which he called for ousting all incumbents and starting over. Bravo!, Mr. Cafferty. Better late than never.

Law Doesn't Apply to Some

Hewlett Packard's former chief and several others face indictments for illegal spying. How is it then, the White House, also known to have engaged in illegal spying using wiretaps outside FISA's requirement for judicial review, is not held to account? Is it true there is one law for those outside government and another law for a few privileged inside government? Is this not the story line of George Orwell's famous Animal Farm about how authoritarians are made?

Republicans say: It's a mess!

Just weeks before the elections, some Republicans are coming forward and saying: On budget management, Iraq, the War on Terror, - It's A Mess!

Fiscal Management: The cost of the War on Terror since 9/11 through fiscal year 2006 is 437 Billion. (PDF). Of that 437 Billion the Iraq War has cost 330.4 billion. The federal cost for Katrina 130 billion, of 200 billion estimated by 2009. Total federal allocation for 9/11 recovery, 20 billion.

A Call for a New U.S. Constitution

Try asking the American people if either the Republican or Democratic party is the answer to America's woes and future needs. They will answer in majority with a clear and stoutly resonated "NO"! Did our Constitution's drafters fail to adequately account for human behavior and foibles?

Polls show confidence in the Republican and Democratic Parties is AWL, Absent With Leave by the actions of the parties. Apparently, the public has two options to address the broken system; vote out incumbents regardless of party, or overthrow the government, and convene a new Continental Congress to draft a new Constitution which starts with the old one, but, removes money and parties from their roles as primary movers of politicians.

What Can Politicians Tell You?

Congress men and women are all back home with their constituents trying to figure out what they can tell you to get your vote. So, what is it you want to hear in order to give them your vote? Or, given swelling anti-incumbent sentiment, is it too late for that?

Sadly, I reiterate, America is Failing

It is painful and with deep regret that I have to reiterate what was obvious to some of us all along. Invading Iraq would lead to civil war and unaffordable American deficits, our national debt and deficits would reach or exceed 11 trillion bankrupting the Social Security and Medicare safety nets, and a one party Republican government would lead to government failure, defined by an inability to solve the nation's most pressing problems.

Iraq - The top Generals sitting beside Donald Rumsfeld, our Secretary of Defense, before a Congressional hearing admitted today Iraq is going badly, and civil war may be in the cards. For a change, they were almost fully truthful. If they had acceded that Iraq is already engaged in civil war between Sunnis and Shiites, they would have scored 100 on truthfullness. But they denied thinking that this civil war was in the cards. So, why is it, I and many others were predicting civil war and the White House and Pentagon couldn't?

Chertoff describes disaster preparations.

USATODAY.com News - Top Stories: "Chertoff told senators he accepts responsibility for "many lapses" during the catastrophe that left 1,300 dead and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage. "

This picture appears to indicate the amount of time, effort, and planning the Homeland Defense Department and FEMA put into preparing for the next natural disaster. Prior to Katrina, there was the fraud, waste and abuse hearings and investigations in the aftermath of Florida's destructive hurricane. But, not a word of it was learned from or taken to heart as the amount of waste, fraud, and abuse in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita dwarfed that in Florida which became a scandal.

In the real world, people get fired for this kind of colossal failure to prepare for and do their job. Of course, we all know, Wa. D.C. is not part of the real world the rest of us live in. Actions such as these are apparently endearing to political leaders calling forth the circling of wagons to defend such ineptitude and incompetence. A few are even promoted - all the way to President. American politics is a very odd beast. A beast that is killing our future by thouands of bites and scratches, resulting in a kind of slow hemorraging death in the form of incompetence, deficits, and national debt.

Corrupting America

The President's State of the Union speech was quaint. But, let's get down to some real facts about where we are. America is corrupted! If the President were to have spoken the truth about the state of our nation, his speech would not have needed to be any longer than those 3 words.

Corruption. The word corrupt means to alter a normal healthy state to one of being putrid, unsound, or debased. Corrupt is probably the most apt description of our government in these times. Take the Abramoff scandal which, certainly paints a picture of wide spread bribery of politicians and their aides in exchange for legislation which harms the nation, but favors the hands that feed the reelection coffers of incumbent political parties and politicians.

Childish Blame Dodging and Spin

CBS News reports "CIA Director Porter Goss said Thursday that the disclosure of President Bush's eavesdropping-without-warrants program and other once-secret projects had undermined U.S. intelligence-gathering abilities."

WRONG! Bypassing the courts, as is required by law, necessitated the whistleblowing to preserve our democracy and Constitutional rule of law. The White House and NSA broke the law and they own the consequences. This is pure political spin folks trying to blame the sibling when the child broke the plate.

Abramoff: Tip of the Ice Berg

Folks over at Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy created their organization knowing Abramoffs and DeLays were at work and that they represent only the tip of the ice berg in regard to bribing elected officials for votes in Congress and policy in the White House. Other organizations too, like Common Cause have been warning Americans of the scandals that would come as a result of our allowing our government to be sold to the highest bidder. But, it is crucial that Americans look past the Justice Department's action, to the underlying problem: the relationship between lobbyists and politicians.

A Political Quotable

While I take some pride in being able to analyze and communicate a perspective of understanding and some objectivity, about American politics, it is rare that I ever come up with a turn of phrase or caption which is memorable or quotable. Probably why I am not on any best seller lists. Tonight however, while in dialogue with Joebagodonuts over at WatchBlog's Third Party/independent blog, I made a comment that may fit the bill for quotable.

On Jan. 5, 2006 at 3:20 AM CST before a sleeping internet audience Remer uttered, "Trying to get others to try to understand our point of view is a very trying exercise indeed. But to quit trying is to become a Republican or Democrat, and that is going too far."

I may not come up with another gem like this one in this lifetime, so cherish its rarity.

NSA Spying: An Authoritarian America

With the NSA spying on Americans, if Bush committed an impeachable offense in ordering it, and that is a very big IF at this point, it is pretty damn certain the House of Republicans would never conduct impeachment hearings against him. And that is how corrupt our political parties and government have become. The laws are increasingly for the rest of us, not the leadership in government.

Culture Of Bribery

The Christian Science Monitor has an outstanding article on "A Culture of Bribery in Congress" in today's edition. This articles strikes one of the most important themes held, and written about, by myself and staff of the Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy organization. The Monitor opens their article with the following two paragraphs:

Almost every US lawmaker takes big money aimed at helping private interests win favorable government action. If they stash the cash for themselves, it's illegal. If they use it to get reelected, keep their job, and help the private interests, it's generally legal.

WSJ Poll: Confidence in Gov't. Drops Further

The Wall Street Journal's Nov. 17 poll shows public confidence in our political parties and government continue lower. With ratings in the 30% and less range, it appears all time lows in confidence are at hand. The sentiment for an anti-incumbency groundswell is there for 2006. What is missing is a focus for action by Americans entering 2006 voting booths.

Vote Out Incumbents for Democracy is a start up organization hoping to provide that focus of action in 2006. VOID, as they call themselves, are even rumbling about a coalition effort among third parties toward a concerted anti-incumbency focus to force the Democratic and Republican Parties to negotiate lower ballot barriers to third party candidates in exchange for backing off an anti-incumbency focus by their constituents, which could threaten majority status and aspirations in Congress.

On GOP Judgement Day

Listening and watching C-Span this morning, Republican Senators were out in force this week spreading the gospel. Not the biblical gospel; the fiscal gospel. They reminded me of the moral degenerate who sees the train just a few feet from his stalled car on the tracks, and yells in prayer, "Lord, I repent, I am a good soul NOW!" After years of plundering the next generation's wages with spending and massive tax cuts for workers and wealthy today, the Republican politicians in control of the budgetary process for years now, are entering a new election cycle, and the voters are not happy. Suddenly, Republican politicians are professing to voters, "I repent, I am a good fiscal conservative, NOW! "

Going Wrong in America

The President is looking to Congress to grant the Pentagon the authority to determine if it should move in on natural disasters taking over from the beginning on their own authority if warranted. This is reported by CBS News:

White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters on Air Force One Sunday that Bush talked about whether "there is a trigger that comes into play in the event of a catastrophic event where the Department of Defense would need to come in and help really to help stabilize the situation."

That trigger, he said, would only be considered in a catastrophic event.

Rehnquist is Dead. What Does It Mean?

It is a sad day for Chief Justice Rehnquist's family and friends, and all who knew and respected him and his long and distinguished career. May he rest in peace.

When I heard the news last night, a picture came to mind of Bush and company convening for celebration. The picture was of celebration not over the Justice's death, but over Pres. Bush's opportunity to name the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court for the next 3, 4 or more decades. Of course, tomorrow the President will come out subdued and somber over the death of Justice Rehnquist, and he will attempt to help the country celebrate Justice Rehnquist's life and contribution to our nation. If President Bush holds Justice Rehnquist up as a symbol of the kind of service and dedication which all hard-working, law-abiding citizens contribute to our society, it will be a great speech and touching moment.

Iraq, Terrorism: A Fistful of Questions

Hosts of millions supported the Nobel Peace Prizes awarded to convicted terrorist Nelson Mendella of S. Africa, and Menachem Begin of Israel who helped blow up the Hotel King David in 1946. Both began their adult lives engaged in activities we regard today as terrorist, blowing up, or otherwise conspiring to kill bystanders at their designated targets. Are these men heroes or terrorists? Or, were they terrorists who later became heroes of Peace? Each was engaged in a struggle they deemed worthy of killing for. In the minds of supporters of al-Queda, perhaps Osama bin Laden may be a Nobel Peace Prize candidate in 20 years.

Lysistrata and Mrs. Sheehan

The Greeks wrote a play called Lysistrata. Mrs. Sheehan, camped out on our President's doorstep in Crawford, Texas is a shining example of Lysistrata's playwright's intent centuries ago. Lysistrata speaks of what the world could be if women simply refused to give men their penis measuring wars by withholding their sublime pleasures until men listened to the wisdom of motherhood.

Sacrifice is Good: Freedom is Not

Pres. Bush said we would not allow thugs and terrorists to frighten us away from our great love of freedom. I believe he is right, our love of freedom will only grow as we continue to give more and more of it away to legislation like the Patriot Act which comes straight out of the Nazi play book. Our willingness to live free is unquestionably being given away to the President's and Republican's fears and insatiable desire for control.

Judge Roberts: Tempest in a Teapot?

President Bush chose conservative appeals court judge John Roberts on Tuesday as his first nominee to the Supreme Court. Will this choice invoke a filibuster by the Democrats? Should it? Judge Roberts is a conservative. It is not like Bush was going to nominate Bill Clinton. I see no surprise here. I also see no reason for a filibuster given the reality of the situation.

Damn Fools: Democratic Party!

I have never heard anything so politically bereft of intelligence as some Democrats on the hill calling for a filibuster or Senatorial 'Custer's Last Stand' on the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Does the Democratic Party have any clue as to how politics can be played to win for a change? I don't think so.

Look, unless Bush's nominee is so malicious toward the public good that it is transparent to the public at large, Democrat's filibuster of O'Connor's replacement will miss and immense opportunity to win voters over. But do they see it? Apparently not.

Supreme Court Says: You Don't have Property Rights!

There is an excellent discussion which I participated in over at Watchblog.com regarding the Supreme Court's ruling that state and local governments may force the sale of your home or any real estate holdings if either 1) the general public interest would benefit or 2) wealthy individuals or businesses can demonstrate their use of the property would provide a greater benefit than your use of it. Eminent domain has lost its last ounce of constraint and has negated all notions of private property rights. The idea that you own your home and land it sits on is now an illusion you maintain at the pleasure of the government.

Perspective Vindicated

A high profile person in the last week said about the rich getting richer and the rest not, "this is not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."

Who said this?: 1) Howard Dean(D), - 2) John Kerry(D), - 3) Alan Greenspan(R).

Affluence Destroying America's Future?

We have become the most prosperous nation in the world. There is however, evidence pervading our society supporting the argument that this very prosperity is sowing the seeds of discontent, which could destroy the integrity of this unified nation of hope. The 20th century saw America exert the immense power of its one people, one nation, integrity toward victory in two world wars. It saw an historically unprecedented rise in prosperity for all Americans, and the rise of an unparalleled middle class whose prosperity began to look like heaven on earth in the 1950's and early 1960's.

The 20th century saw an uplifting of government toward noble ends like women's suffrage, destroying organized crime, putting human beings on another celestial body, and the most radical advances in medical science ever witnessed; eradicating epidemic diseases and prolonging average life expectancy for Americans by decades. The visible remnants of slavery were discarded; new American Indian laws permitted even them some meaure of prosperity with legalized gambling opening the doors to some of their people to realize opportunities, to dream, and work for fulfillment of those dreams previously denied them.

Dobson Republicans: Hope for 3rd Parties

Dr. James Dobson is a spokesperson for 7 million Fundamentalist Right-wing Evangelical Christian (FREC) radio listeners. He told them before the 2004 election that not voting could be a sin. He and his followers are splitting the GOP's unity and could be weakening the GOP's future election potential.

Some Dobson Republicans are now calling the venerated Senators Warner and McCain traitors to their party because of the compromise of seven Republican Senators with seven Democrats to avert the nuclear option over judicial nominees before the Senate. Further, they are casting their traitor net over house Republicans who yesterday voted for a bill to grant federal tax dollars on discarded embryonic stem cell research.

Religion - America's 2nd Civil War

America may be marching headlong toward another civil war. Many of the descendant players are the same. Many of the strategies are the same. The motivations are the same. Even the flags are symbolically similar. Only a date of commencement and outcome of this second civil war remain unknowable.

The Players: In 1860, the Southern states stated a demand or they would secede from the Union. It was to preserve slavery and extend it into the new territories using the argument that blacks were inherently inferior to whites, and more akin to oxen or mules which justified using them for labor. The Northerners, largely not depending upon slavery for their economic base, were opposed to seeing slavery extended into the new territories, and would have eventual designs on eradicating slavery everywhere.

The We - Me Debate

Politically speaking, according to the polls, Pres. Bush should drop pushing privatizing of Social Security. The more he pushes it, the worse his and the GOP congress' polls become. ABC News has two polls, one reported on the 8th and another on the 25th of April, showing the GOP may be in trouble in 2006 on domestic policy. Even Alan Greenspan, the Republican Chairman of the Federal Reserve has recommended saving Social Security in order to save the economy in the future.

Orwell and Huxley: Prophets still.

In the middle of the last century a pair of writers wrote monumental novels about government's worst potential. The author's were George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. Their novels respectively were "1984" and "Brave New World". These two books were required reading in elementary and high school social studies classes in a large number of schools around the country in the early 1960's. At the time, given the conclusion of WWII and the Cold War with Russia already underway with its dictatorial type of government, the books were viewed as indictments of authoritarian regimes.

America: Government and the Christian Right.

Given the history and immense strides the religious right have made in politics since being invited into the Whitehouse in the Reagan Administration as advisors to policy, American government is at a turning point and her future will have much less in common with her past.

What candidate running for President or Senator can now afford to alienate the religious right? Virtually none! If they are running with an intent to win, they cannot alienate the religious right with their campaign platform (which the Democrats have just discovered). And if they seek reelection, they cannot afford to alienate the religious right in policy and law making.

The War at Home

The wars abroad, the elections, the economy, and fears of threats to our Constitutional liberties, are all coming together to create a war amongst Americans here at home in the U.S.A. CNN News today has video clips of folks punching others in the face at political rallies, threatening gestures with vehicles, acts of vandalism toward others who post a political support sign, and even the use of those signs as weapons against political opposites at demonstrations and rallies.

State of the Election

One helluva mess appears to be on the way. This election is going to be unprecedented in many ways. Dirty tricks, hostile and distorted rhetoric have been commonplace in American elections since we began having them. Even splits between the Electoral College and the popular vote have occurred in our history. But this election will be unique as it builds upon the 2000 election in its inclusion of the courts, and the general public awareness of voting irregularities which went largely unnoticed by the national electorate in the past.

GOP and Democratic Party Extinction?

The dinosaurs reached a zenith just prior to their extinction. It occurred to me we may be witnessing the same pattern with the Republican Party. As a minority party during the last part of the last century, Republican conservative views served our nation well on a host of issues. They acted as American conscience regarding debt and deficit spending. They acted as an ethical check on runaway cultural norms moving toward "anything goes". And they served as a check on encroachment of state’s rights by the federal government and bloating federal beauracracy.

9/11 Report: Bi-Partisanship at its Worst?

There are organizations focusing on intense criticism of the 9/11 Report's process and conclusions. The greatest of these criticisms implies that a bi-partisan (Democrats and Republicans) commission, set as a ground rule, to exempt both Pres.' Clinton and Bush from criticism, blame or responsibility. Given that the President is the Commander in Chief of our military and intel agencies, the Commission has built a protective wall around their respective presidents in this election year. On the opposite side of the debate, praise is being heaped upon the Commission for not delving into partisan criticism and debate over who is responsible for not preventing the 9/11 atrocities from occurring. There is merit to the argument that placing blame anywhere else but on the intel community, would do little to strengthen our nation against future attacks.

John & Joe - Meet the Press

Meet the Press host Tim Russert, brought Senators Joe Biden (D) and John McCain (R) together for a dialogue. It was a preeminently respectful, thoughtful, good natured, and intelligent exchange of thoughts and ideas. I was truly impressed to find two politicians, on either side of the aisle, able and willing to engage in civil discourse over the issues of the day. You can find the transcript here.

Let Political Feelings Be Known

My aunt says she will never discuss her politics with anyone else. I suspect we differ on a number of issues. This has not been a good political morning for me, but, I managed to find some relief from it all - more on that in a moment.

My aunt also won't discuss religion with others in public. It would appear she fears differences should her feelings be known. I have always thought there was nothing to fear in America for disagreeing with someone politically, or religiously. Today was one where I simply had to make my feelings be known. First, a little about this political morning.

A squeaky revolving door

In recent weeks we've seen two egregious examples of how oligopolies use their clout to get government favors that small companies could never get. This kind of influence is pervasive in a country where political contributions buy favors and where access means you get to "help" lawmakers write legislation or draw up contracts. In these cases what's remarkable is the billions and billions of dollars involved.

It's rare that the one aspect of that influence, revolving-door hiring practices, is as nakedly revealed as it was last week. The revolving door involves the hiring of key government employees who have been in charge of negotiations with a key industry group, so that they get an exorbitant non-government salary as a reward for their compliance. Of course, this is always denied by the companies who "just want to hire the best man or woman for the job."

Case one is the bidding war to hire Thomas A. Scully, the head administrator of Medicare. This comes a week after the passage of ambitious new Medicare legislation, in which Scully had a major role. According to an article in the New York Times, ("Health Industry Bidding to Hire Medicare Chief,' 12/3/2003)

Mr. Scully has made no secret of the fact that he has been looking for jobs
outside the government for more than six months -- even as he spent hundreds
of hours in closed sessions with House and Senate negotiators working out
countless details of the legislation, which makes the biggest changes in
Medicare since creation of the program in 1965.

Scully is reported to makes $134,000 a year in his government post; he could earn five times that in the private sector. Five companies are bidding for his services, three law firms with extensive practices related to the health care industry and two investment firms with large health industry holdings. All of these firms are closely allied with companies that stand to make a big pile of money through the new Medicare rules.

According to the Times article:

A summary of ethics rules issued by the Department of Health and Human
Services says employees who have begun seeking jobs in the private sector
must immediately recuse themselves from "any official matter" that involves
the prospective employer. This covers legislative initiatives and proposed
rules, the document says.

But he received a waiver from another administration bureaucrat, allowing him to go on with negotiations. Despite the protests, Scully may wel get away with it.

But even more scandalous was the Boeing revelations. Here the scandal is in its crisis, with the CEO and CFO out the door and a big shakeup underway along with Congressional inquiries. It all happened when CFO Mike Sears, hired a Pentagon procurement officer (Darleen Druyun) who was instrumentally involved in a dubious contract for leasing air-tankers. Note that unlike the health industry, who look set to reward Scully for his helpfulness through third parties, Boeing made the blunder of hiring direct.

The attempt to lease 100 air tanker refuelers had already been attacked by congressional Republicans and Democrats long before. It turns out that leasing the planes would cost the government more than buying them. Senator John McCain, a Republican form Arizona, protested loudly so the Pentagon re-negotiated a compromise where the government would lease only 20 planes, and buy the rest, resulting in billions of dollars of savings off the original contract.

According to an article from military analysis site Jane's News Online (12/5/2003)

The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), an ethics watchdog group,,, had filed a complaint with the Defense Department Inspector General on 6 October alleging improper ties between Boeing and Druyun who was then in US Air Force acquisitions. The complaint disclosed that Druyun's daughter was hired by Boeing under suspicious circumstances and that a Boeing executive offered to buy the Druyun home while she was still overseeing billions of dollars in Boeing contracts. Druyun was subsequently hired as a vice president at Boeing. The complaint explicitly raised the question of when Boeing offered Druyun the job.

The revelations about the quid pro quo for the contract ahs caused new investigations and a threat to cancel the deal. But here's where the virtues of oligopoly come in, a trend that has been growing in the defense industry. Only one other country is capable of supplying the contract, Anglo-French Airbus. Boeing has steadily acquired or driven off all American competitors in this area. So, in spite of Boeing's continuing recent history of illegal practices, and unfair dealing, the Bush administration has nowhere else to go. It's unlikely to hire airbus when national security is on the line, thousands of US jobs are in danger, and the company is half-French. The result is likely to be a slap on the wrist, a few execs out of a job, and then business as usual.

Money Talks Campaign Finance Reform to Death

by David Remer PoliWatch.Org 11/23/03

An excellent article entitled Money Talks at MotherJones.com depicts the dilemma of campaign finance reform and how it hasn't a prayer of meeting tax payer's and citizen's expectations. President Bush's reelection strategy is pure and simple, outspend the critics and dominate the media with his own message and campaign finance reform be damned. This strategy has forced chief proponents of campaign finance reform to forego abiding by the reforms they talked and fought so hard to implement. For they cannot protect and further campaign finance reform if they cannot be elected.

Report Links Iraq Deals to Bush Donations