Access To Democracy

      I just read an article about a criminal prosecution where the defendant is being charged with inciting a crime for his words.  You know, sort of the thing that a first year lawyer learns in Torts, that you can’t yell “Fire” in a crowded theater and escape the consequences of the results.

     That said, why haven’t the Bill O’Reillys of the world (he who did over two dozen segments on the late, slain Dr. Tiller, often referring to him as “Tiller the Killer” and worse) be held responsible for inciting the conduct which led to the crime.  Notwithstanding the freedom of speech arguments, inciting the weaker minded to wreak havoc on someone, you cannot stand back and disclaim responsibility for your conduct, as O’Reilly has

     It reminds me of two books — “Hitler’s Silent Partners” and “Hitler’s Willing Executioners,” where the thrust was that those who carried out the horrendous conduct during the Holocaust – and those who incited it — should not  escape liability for their conduct.

     Hate speech, which may get someone a media following, appeals to those people who are easily led, and who can be provoked into action based on the vitriol which is emblazoned into their minds.  The purveyors should not go unpunished.            

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     Isn’t it about time somebody either takes Cheney — who should be in jail — to task, or at least gives him a good psychological exam.  It’s clear that he’s gone around the corner, and his latest rantings (obviously made in self defense because of his fear of prosecution, coward that he is) verge on treason..

     The other question is why anyone would offer him a forum (except perhaps Fox) or listen to the vitriol spewing from his Darth Vader lips.  He is, after all, one of the architects of the Iraq war, who lied about every aspect, who suggested waterboarding to reinforce the falsehood of an Iraq-Al Queda connection, who dealt in stealth, secrecy, classified documents, non-disclosure, Halliburton, KBR, the fiasco over oil prices, who is so tainted as to be unworthy of belief even if he’s commenting on the weather.

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     Sen. Max Baucus should be drummed out of the Democratic party…or, at the least, someone in power should have the cullions to remove him from the chairmanship of his committee.  The man, who has taken upwards of half a million dollars from lobbyists for health care companies and big pharma, holds a meeting on health care, parades 41 speakers forward, but won’t even let representatives of single payer — the most popular solution to alleviate our crisis — testify.  Worse, he had 13 arrested for merely trying to speak.  Max Baucus, shake hands with Josef Stalin, Vladimir Putin, etc.  This is the U.S., we have a Constitution, and just because you’ve sold your soul, you are a disgrace to the Senate.

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     DEFLECTION, INC. — Nancy Pelosi did not start an illegal war, did not waterboard, did not commit any crimes, and the attack which she is enduring by a rabid and vapid GOP attack machine is unconscionable (which should surprise no one).  The unprincipaled attack on her is par for the sleazy course of a party and its minions who have nothing positive — the minions of NO! — to add to any intelligent discussion.  So it’s back, into the gutter!

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     What ever happened to that Bush  “journalist” Jeff Gannon?  Gannon sleepovers in the White House in W’s days?  Strange bedfellows.

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     There has been much too much space devoted here to Gov. Tim Pawlenty in recent weeks, plus an article in the Politics in Minnesota blog in which Sarah Janecek compared TPaw to George Patton (a  dreamscape which I hope was dissected with a review of the 90% of Patton which wasn’t the warrior) but this week’s shenanigans by the Governor compel response.

     The Legislature has Constitutionally disbanded for this term (save a call from the Governor for a Special Session), and managed, under Democratic leaders, to pass a host of valuable legislation, plus send a budget to Pawlenty which he vetoed, and then passed another at the last minute, which he’ll veto shortly. 

     Those budgets had modest tax increases for the wealthiest (who statistics show pay less than middle and lower income taxpayers) and preserved education and healthcare benefits without overwhelming homeowners and property taxes.  The use of medicinal marijuana who ease the pain of dying people is merely one of the “compassionate” bills that have fallen under the veto pen, with cuts in health care, local government aid, and education surely slated to follow shortly.

     Several days before the session ended, Pawlenty threatened that there would be no special session, nor would there be any tax increases, in effecting telling the legislators, as Rep. Tarryl Clark so aptly put it, “You’ll do it my way or I’ll do it my way.”  No compromise, no negotiations.  His way is line item vetoes of appropriations, plus “unallotments” a system unique to Minnesota, intended for emergencies, where a Governor can stop in when Legislators are unavailable.  Thus, Pawlenty manuevered the fate of Minnesotans into his own hands, skillfully yet deviously.

     Pawlenty has basked in the accolades of Conservatives and Libertarians as he fashioned his dismantling of a democratic process, with his dreams of the White House dancing in his head.  But those accolades can be short-lived, and the reactions of Minnesotans, as he ignored the State House and the needs of his constituents, may very well be the fatal flaw in his manuevering.

     In two terms, TPaw has never garnered a majority at the polls, while during his seven years, the ranks of the Democrats in both legislative houses have swelled to the point that the Senate has a veto-proof majority, and the House is only three votes shy.  That may be the controlling factor this year, but at the same time his own poll standings have dropped below 50%.  Obviously the voters of Minnesota have spoken loudly, in several different ways, which is why it becomes unlikely that Pawlenty — always politically savvy — will run again for Governor.  Should he lose, his national aspirations are over, which, in all probabilty is probably true in any case.

     Thus, for the moment he reigns supreme — he has  become Minnesota’s sole “Decider” — but let’s not forget what happened to the last man who wore that crown, and let’s not forget that we have a system of government, of checks and balances, of majority rule which he as eschewed, and which can unseat a king on a shaky throne just as fast as a novice on a bucking bronco.

     Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who still harbors Presidential aspirations even after a last-place finish at a recent GOP caucus and popularity contest (is that an oxymoron?), faces a no win situation when the results of the tedious Franken/Coleman Senatorial race are finally decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court.  The GOP wants Coleman to seek an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, or use any other device to keep Franken out of the Senate, assuming he wins.

     I have yet to hear a pundit opine that Coleman stands a chance;  if that’s the case, then Pawlenty will be called upon to sign the certificate of election.  If he does, he faces undying enmity from his Republican cohorts;  if he doesn’t, his waning popularity in Minnesota will take another big hit from people who are fed up with the waiting, the endless appeals, the delaying of what is apparently, the inevitable (although you never know what a Court will do, even one primarily staffed by T-Paw appointees and former Republicans).  However, the Minnesota Supreme Court, with one of the finest reputations in the nation, is expected to do no less than call it as they see the law, for a fair, well-reasoned and final determination.

     T-Paw has never won a gubernatorial election with a majority, and sits in the Governor’s Mansion courtesy of third party votes (and rather poor Democratic campaigns).  If he bucks the party, he can forget the White House, and had better start looking for a dog house.  If he goes against the Minnesota Supreme Court, he is virtually burning all his bridges in the home state, and placing himself as the final arbiter, over the opinions of ten judges — two on the canvassing board, three on the initial appeals process, and another five Supreme Court members. There are a lot of folks who haven’t forgotten the last Bush administration, where the law took second place to conduct which shredded the Constitution.

     So Pawlenty is between the proverbial rock and a hard place.  My guess, if Franken is declared the winner –  T-Paw will follow the dictates of his GOP mentors (just as he’s done with his ludicrous ‘no new taxes’ pledge in the face of spiraling deficits and an unequal tax base, willing to turn his  back on educational needs and a health care fiasco and toss the poor off the health rolls) and announce that he has decided not to seek re-election but will devote his time to the Presidential campaign.  Then he, or whomever, can take on Barack Obama and co., who, if he keeps rising in popularity, stands to reach unprecented heights down the road.  But it’s a long road, and so much can happen.  Who knows, but that’s how I see it — with Al Franken ultimately in the seat he has earned, the U.S. Senate.

     Banks are owned by their shareholders (usually a few monied interests controlling the vast majority of stock) while credit unions are, in effect, cooperatives owned by their depositors.

     There is little that a bank can do for the average depositor that a credit union can’t do — deposits, checks, credit cards, mortgages, car loans, boat loans, certificates of deposit (usually at a higher interest rate than your bank), and so on.

     In the recent banking scandal, where banks have been shown to be terribly mismanaged, and where the government has been forced to restructure, take over, or bail out numerous banks to save our financial system from collapsing — to the tune of trillions of taxpayer dollars — don’t you find it interesting that credit unions were not a part of the greed, mismanagement, and customer disregard which was rampant in the banking industry.  I don’t, because credit unions are answerable to their members while banks are answerable to their stockholders, and have a much freer hand to take unconscionable risks tailored in greed.

     This is not to say that there are not a vast majority of banks which are honest, responsible, and safe for investors.  But in a time when conservatives are calling for the freedom of the open market, and less regulation, we ought to look at the model credit unions present — a long, studied look.

     AT&T just sent my father an offer for two free cell phones, and he’s pre-approved to boot.  This would come as news to my father, who died in New York 34 years ago.  He never even knew what a cell phone was, because they didn’t exist in his lifetime.

     Moreover, he didn’t live at my address (where the mail arrived) and had lived in New York for decades at the time of his death. Where do these marketing vultures get this information?  Curious, I wasted an hour calling AT&T.   After going through several layers of sales people, I ended up in customer relations with a young man who kept me on hold while he researched the offer.  No clue.

     Bottom Line — my father is not going to get any more mail from AT&T at my address.  On the other hand, if he gets a check from the government…nah, I better not.

     There are times when I wish someone in Washington could throw civility out the window, and just stand up and tell it like it is.

     Today’s news tells of another 600,000 jobs lost — in January, 2009 alone — bringing the national unemployment level to 7.6%, the worst since the great depression, and yet the Senate is bogged down by GOP Senators who want to grandstand and play politics, secure in their incomes, their healthcare, their homes, while the middle class and those even less fortunate watch their lives, their security go up in smoke.  It is, to me, treasonous, and I wish there was someone to stand up and scream out their names.

     Obama’s proposed solution is not a “stimulus” package — it is a survival package.  It is reaching out to get people back to work, to take an infrastructure which is crumbling, to offer a tiny crumb to a nation which needs loaves of bread, and to put breadwinners back to work.  In the past few weeks, I have seen those both close and dear, and others I know, get hit with layoffs in seemingly secure jobs, and I don’t see the end unless Congress accepts its responsibility and passes this one first step to restoring this nation.

     Treason is defined as “the betrayal of a trust,” and these elected officials, who took an oath, spit on that oath and our flag — together with all it stands for — when they engage in spurious and disingenuous conduct as they have been doing, grandstanding before television cameras for a moment in the limelight, when, not unlike Marie Antoinette, they in effect say “Let them eat cake” to citizens who need bread, who want to work but can’t find jobs.  Healthcare dries up, but they could care less.

     What is particularly grating, as I listen to them spout, is the fact that most of them are the same people who gave a blank check to the former administration as it ran up over a trillion dollar debt in a war which should never have been started, as they accepted the lies foisted on the nation by that administration, as they condoned the breakdown of regulations which allowed their greedy compatriots to run the financial world into ruin, as they looked the other way as the Constitution and its safeguards were gutted, as they accepted the largesse of lobbyists to the detriment of the vast majority of citizens.

      And now they postulate — pompous assess like monkeys in a zoo — when Rome is burning.  They are crass, they are insensitive, they are arrogrant, they are remiss in their responsibility to their oath — they are treasonous.  They don’t care that they lost an election overwhelmingly, that the majority of the nation cried out for change — and now that the beginning of that change is offered — they would rather have their Quisling moment in the sun.  Traitors, guilty of treason.  Why can’t someone have the courage to stand before Congress and call out their names?

     The time for political niceties are past;  it’s time to stand up and be counted.  In the words of our worst ever President — you’re either for us (the American people) or you’re against us.  Which is it?