"We need not to be let alone. We need to be really bothered once in a while. How long is it since you were really bothered? About something important, about something real?""
16.4.07
Ray Bradbury
Ray Bradbury: "
Evil Empire
America’s military imperialism may shake domestic democracy to its foundations
Words By Chalmers Johnson
Given the perspective of history, it is clear that there is no less stable political configuration than the one we have in the United States today—a domestic democracy and a foreign empire. A nation can be a democracy or it can be an empire, but it cannot for long be both. It will either succumb to the temptation to keep its empire and thereby lose its democracy or else try to remain a democracy by getting rid of its empire.
The primary example of the first is the Roman Republic, the source of many of America’s constitutional protections against dictatorship and tyranny. Institutions such as federalism; the balance of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government; fixed terms in office and fixed dates for elections; the veto; and many other things were borrowed from Rome. But after the assassination of Julius Cæsar in 44 B.C., the Roman Republic decided to keep its empire and, as a result, declined into a military dictatorship.
The best example of an empire deciding to retain its democracy is the British Empire after World War II. The English people recognized that keeping their “jewel in the crown”—India—could only be achieved through administrative massacres against the Indian people, a tactic the British had often used in the past. But to do so again, after the war against Nazism, would have turned Britain into a domestic tyranny. It chose to abandon its empire and remain a democracy (while, of course, letting the United States step into its old imperial shoes).
Some people question whether what we do abroad as a nation can be called imperialism. The British ruled India, much of Africa, and large swaths of the Middle East through their colonies. They did not dominate these places through consent but through direct military force. Similarly, the Dutch dominated Indonesia, the French Indochina and Algeria, and the Japanese Korea and Taiwan. These, too, we recognize as empires. But what the Russians had in Eastern Europe—a system of satellites from Bulgaria to East Germany, ruled through the Soviet Red Army—was also a form of empire. Moscow dominated these countries through huge military forces stationed on their borders or based in their territories, local pro-Soviet puppets, and economic integration into the Soviet-bloc system.
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“Imperialism is invariably accompanied by militarism. ”
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This is the sort of empire the U.S. has created and is now trying to maintain—by way of its military forces and overseas bases, and threats such as those it issues daily against Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, the Palestinians, and other regimes. We maintain some 737 U.S. military bases around the world. We station more than half a million troops, spies, contractors, and others on military bases located in more than 130 countries, many of which have dictatorial regimes that gave their citizens no voice in the decision to let us in.
These bases do not contribute to the defense of the United States. To the contrary, they are one of the major causes of the rest of the world’s hatred for us. More troubling to our own form of government is that foreign imperialism is invariably accompanied by militarism. Huge and expensive standing armies are required to protect, expand, and police our empire. On February 5, 2007, the Bush administration submitted to Congress a $481.4 billion defense-appropriation budget for fiscal 2008, plus a request for an additional $245 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add the billions spent on nuclear weapons; military aid to our satellites; veterans’ benefits, including care of the wounded; homeland security; the upkeep of our bases; and interest payments on debts incurred in past wars: it comes to an annual figure of around a trillion dollars, larger than all other defense budgets on earth combined.
Most seriously, militarism breaks down our system of checks and balances in favor of an imperial presidency. As our first president, George Washington, warned in his farewell address of 1796, “Overgrown military establishments ... under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty.” In 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower issued his own warning against the “military-industrial complex,” the huge, secret, and often corrupt arms industry that squanders billions on inappropriate weapons. Over time, militarism imbues the executive branch with dictatorial powers, and the main bulwark against tyranny crumbles. That is what is at risk in the United States today.
Taken fromGood Magazine
Words By Chalmers Johnson
Given the perspective of history, it is clear that there is no less stable political configuration than the one we have in the United States today—a domestic democracy and a foreign empire. A nation can be a democracy or it can be an empire, but it cannot for long be both. It will either succumb to the temptation to keep its empire and thereby lose its democracy or else try to remain a democracy by getting rid of its empire.
The primary example of the first is the Roman Republic, the source of many of America’s constitutional protections against dictatorship and tyranny. Institutions such as federalism; the balance of powers among the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government; fixed terms in office and fixed dates for elections; the veto; and many other things were borrowed from Rome. But after the assassination of Julius Cæsar in 44 B.C., the Roman Republic decided to keep its empire and, as a result, declined into a military dictatorship.
The best example of an empire deciding to retain its democracy is the British Empire after World War II. The English people recognized that keeping their “jewel in the crown”—India—could only be achieved through administrative massacres against the Indian people, a tactic the British had often used in the past. But to do so again, after the war against Nazism, would have turned Britain into a domestic tyranny. It chose to abandon its empire and remain a democracy (while, of course, letting the United States step into its old imperial shoes).
Some people question whether what we do abroad as a nation can be called imperialism. The British ruled India, much of Africa, and large swaths of the Middle East through their colonies. They did not dominate these places through consent but through direct military force. Similarly, the Dutch dominated Indonesia, the French Indochina and Algeria, and the Japanese Korea and Taiwan. These, too, we recognize as empires. But what the Russians had in Eastern Europe—a system of satellites from Bulgaria to East Germany, ruled through the Soviet Red Army—was also a form of empire. Moscow dominated these countries through huge military forces stationed on their borders or based in their territories, local pro-Soviet puppets, and economic integration into the Soviet-bloc system.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Imperialism is invariably accompanied by militarism. ”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is the sort of empire the U.S. has created and is now trying to maintain—by way of its military forces and overseas bases, and threats such as those it issues daily against Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, the Palestinians, and other regimes. We maintain some 737 U.S. military bases around the world. We station more than half a million troops, spies, contractors, and others on military bases located in more than 130 countries, many of which have dictatorial regimes that gave their citizens no voice in the decision to let us in.
These bases do not contribute to the defense of the United States. To the contrary, they are one of the major causes of the rest of the world’s hatred for us. More troubling to our own form of government is that foreign imperialism is invariably accompanied by militarism. Huge and expensive standing armies are required to protect, expand, and police our empire. On February 5, 2007, the Bush administration submitted to Congress a $481.4 billion defense-appropriation budget for fiscal 2008, plus a request for an additional $245 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Add the billions spent on nuclear weapons; military aid to our satellites; veterans’ benefits, including care of the wounded; homeland security; the upkeep of our bases; and interest payments on debts incurred in past wars: it comes to an annual figure of around a trillion dollars, larger than all other defense budgets on earth combined.
Most seriously, militarism breaks down our system of checks and balances in favor of an imperial presidency. As our first president, George Washington, warned in his farewell address of 1796, “Overgrown military establishments ... under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty.” In 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower issued his own warning against the “military-industrial complex,” the huge, secret, and often corrupt arms industry that squanders billions on inappropriate weapons. Over time, militarism imbues the executive branch with dictatorial powers, and the main bulwark against tyranny crumbles. That is what is at risk in the United States today.
Taken fromGood Magazine
26.2.07
15.2.07
Get Serious Rick Perry!
Texas orders STD vaccine for all girls
Decision comes after maker of cervical cancer shot doubled lobbying efforts
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents’ rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.
Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.’s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.
Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.
“The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer,” Perry said.
Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Perry tied to MerckPerry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company’s three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff. His current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
The governor also received $6,000 from Merck’s political action committee during his re-election campaign.
The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.
Legislative aides said they are looking for ways around the order for parents who oppose it.
“He’s circumventing the will of the people,” said Dawn Richardson, president of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, a citizens group that fought for the right to opt out of other vaccine requirements. “There are bills filed. There’s no emergency except in the boardrooms of Merck, where this is failing to gain the support that they had expected.”
Opt-out option for parents
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to the vaccine on religious or philosophical reasons. Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say such requirements interfere with parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children.
The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.
The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil — at $360 for the three-shot regimen — were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects.
Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Susan Crosby, the group’s president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.
A top official from Merck’s vaccine division sits on Women in Government’s business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
© 2007 The Associated Press.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16948093/
Decision comes after maker of cervical cancer shot doubled lobbying efforts
The Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - Bypassing the Legislature altogether, Republican Gov. Rick Perry issued an order Friday making Texas the first state to require that schoolgirls get vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer.
By employing an executive order, Perry sidestepped opposition in the Legislature from conservatives and parents’ rights groups who fear such a requirement would condone premarital sex and interfere with the way Texans raise their children.
Beginning in September 2008, girls entering the sixth grade — meaning, generally, girls ages 11 and 12 — will have to receive Gardasil, Merck & Co.’s new vaccine against strains of the human papillomavirus, or HPV.
Perry also directed state health authorities to make the vaccine available free to girls 9 to 18 who are uninsured or whose insurance does not cover vaccines. In addition, he ordered that Medicaid offer Gardasil to women ages 19 to 21.
Perry, a conservative Christian who opposes abortion and stem-cell research using embryonic cells, counts on the religious right for his political base. But he has said the cervical cancer vaccine is no different from the one that protects children against polio.
“The HPV vaccine provides us with an incredible opportunity to effectively target and prevent cervical cancer,” Perry said.
Merck is bankrolling efforts to pass state laws across the country mandating Gardasil for girls as young as 11 or 12. It doubled its lobbying budget in Texas and has funneled money through Women in Government, an advocacy group made up of female state legislators around the country.
Perry tied to MerckPerry has ties to Merck and Women in Government. One of the drug company’s three lobbyists in Texas is Mike Toomey, Perry’s former chief of staff. His current chief of staff’s mother-in-law, Texas Republican state Rep. Dianne White Delisi, is a state director for Women in Government.
The governor also received $6,000 from Merck’s political action committee during his re-election campaign.
The order is effective until Perry or a successor changes it, and the Legislature has no authority to repeal it, said Perry spokeswoman Krista Moody. Moody said the Texas Constitution permits the governor, as head of the executive branch, to order other members of the executive branch to adopt rules like this one.
Legislative aides said they are looking for ways around the order for parents who oppose it.
“He’s circumventing the will of the people,” said Dawn Richardson, president of Parents Requesting Open Vaccine Education, a citizens group that fought for the right to opt out of other vaccine requirements. “There are bills filed. There’s no emergency except in the boardrooms of Merck, where this is failing to gain the support that they had expected.”
Opt-out option for parents
Texas allows parents to opt out of inoculations by filing an affidavit objecting to the vaccine on religious or philosophical reasons. Even with such provisions, however, conservative groups say such requirements interfere with parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children.
The federal government approved Gardasil in June, and a government advisory panel has recommended that all girls get the shots at 11 and 12, before they are likely to be sexually active.
The New Jersey-based drug company could generate billions in sales if Gardasil — at $360 for the three-shot regimen — were made mandatory across the country. Most insurance companies now cover the vaccine, which has been shown to have no serious side effects.
Merck spokeswoman Janet Skidmore would not say how much the company is spending on lobbyists or how much it has donated to Women in Government. Susan Crosby, the group’s president, also declined to specify how much the drug company gave.
A top official from Merck’s vaccine division sits on Women in Government’s business council, and many of the bills around the country have been introduced by members of Women in Government.
© 2007 The Associated Press.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16948093/
8.9.06
Muddy Hymnal
We found your name across the chapel door
Carved in cursive with a table fork
Muddy hymnals and some boot marks where you'd been
The shaking preacher told the captain's man
The righteous suffer in a fallen land
Then pulled the shade to keep the crowd from peeking in
We found your children by the tavern door
With wooden buttons and an apple core
Playing house and telling everyone you'd drowned
The begging choir told the captain's man
We all assume the worst the best we can
And for a round or two they gladly drag you down
We found you sleeping by your lover's stone
A ream of paper and a telephone
A broken bow across a long lost violin
Your lover's angel told the captain's man
It never ends the way we had it planned
And kissed her palm and placed it on your dreaming head
- Iron and Wine from The Creek Drank the Cradle
Carved in cursive with a table fork
Muddy hymnals and some boot marks where you'd been
The shaking preacher told the captain's man
The righteous suffer in a fallen land
Then pulled the shade to keep the crowd from peeking in
We found your children by the tavern door
With wooden buttons and an apple core
Playing house and telling everyone you'd drowned
The begging choir told the captain's man
We all assume the worst the best we can
And for a round or two they gladly drag you down
We found you sleeping by your lover's stone
A ream of paper and a telephone
A broken bow across a long lost violin
Your lover's angel told the captain's man
It never ends the way we had it planned
And kissed her palm and placed it on your dreaming head
- Iron and Wine from The Creek Drank the Cradle
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