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Dear George :
We all wish you well as our one and only President:
After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman
John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: ``We know the race is not to the swift
nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind
and directs this storm?'' What does this mean ?
The better angels speak softly in the biter fights of passions and interests.
The voice of a more suitable wisdom comes from clam reflection on what
really matters in the long run. While the swift and cleaver, the big and
strong may dominate the battle they do not always win the war.
The long
struggle for human dignity, honor and justice goes on.
The Revolution by
the American people was such a battle - they were not the strongest or
swiftest - but had a clearer vision and purpose which substandard the cause
when all seemed lost and hopeless -
The balance is between the "law" and "liberty" , the rights of the individual
and the demands of society, is a continuing history of civilization, the
people of the colonies had a better idea about this balance than the British
Empire at the time.
Where there are no really new beginning - from the tribes in the wilderness
coming out of slavery, with the new covenant and a new Jerusalem, with
the revolutions and civil wars, we pass on but carry on the past with the
vision of the future.
The sins and virtues of the fathers are not interned
in their bones but their children bare the marks and carry the wisdom they
have inherited.
Legitimacy is more than an election BUT ... elections are the foundation
of popular sovereignty and as an "elected" sovereign the reflection of
the popular will is the duty of the President BUT more than a reflection
- a more timeless embodiment of lasting meaning and principles of a free
and orderly society. Leadership is the angel in the in the whirlwind and
directs this storm. A leader knows his better motivations, the longer term
national interests, the hopeful visions for this people and stays the course.
The vision shared for the centuries is of a civic culture, a civilized
society, educated in virtue and knowledge, free of the suppression of ideas,
overcoming superstition and prejudice, becoming enlightened and wise, living
freely by the rule of law and justice, fair to each others and their neighbors,
peaceful and prosperous with a moral purpose beyond their own advantage.
This we can share and work together if we see the whole and not just pieces
- compromise of the small for the large, the petty for the whole, the local
for the national, the temporary for the long term. This vision is what
makes progress and success possible and why leaders have followers, a call
to greater causes, images of a brighter future, a subtended hope, faith
and charity which catches fire in the popular imagination.
The message can not be just through the press, speeches, programs and
proposals but in actions. You must create the image of the reality before
it exists.
The good schools where no child is left behind needs to be in
sound and pictures - the bad school when lives are distorted needs to be
visible and present as a hard reality. You can go to such places - you
can personally work to turn the institutions around. Nothing can be more
important that the message - the reality on the ground - let others carry
the programs and proposals, argue about the details - but if you can sell
the image - the big picture - the rest will come along in time.
The photo
ops is the media and the message - schools, long term care, cost and benefits
in retirement planning, taxes and costs, election reform - etc.
It is not accidental that America has been the home of the brave and
the land of the free — the place where mankind has had the greatest of
all opportunities to approach the potential that God has placed within
us. It has been because we knew that we were endowed not by the king, but
by the Creator with certain inalienable rights.
Rights derived from GOD ? It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy
not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it
be.
At the time of the declaration of independence - the co-conspirators
were declaring an armed rebellion against their king and country. This
was a clear act of treason by British Subjects in their becoming American
Citizens.
The rebellion had to be justified by appeal to a higher authority.
They could not use the language Ashcroft and many conservative Christian
have made an article of faith, that Jesus gave us freedom. Madison did
not justify an armed citizenry as a protection from oppression. Only the
civic doctrine of duty and honor would protect the republic. Christian
doctrine at the time would have required them to be good subjects and loyal
to existing institutions.
The rebellion was against Church and State -
so you could not justify a rebellion against the King based on the Church
by using religion as the reason.
The act of rebellion against an existing government makes you either
a founding fathers or failed members of a rebellion of the American Colonies.
The British loyalist refugees ( in 100,000’s ) who went to Canada and the
West Indies held the view that the political issues with a current administration
did not justify such an extreme act.
The Loyalist were largely right about
the current political issues but the underlining cause of the American
Revolution was not English despotism but was a new passion based on a philosophy
of Government, of Human Rights, and the social contract.
The ideas behind
the Declaration of Independence were derived from humanist, rationalist,
secular ( and Masonic ) ideas from Europe.
The Revolutionaries were not
traditional Christian but Deist - the Church was often associated with
an ancient superstition and a important and fundamental support for the
divine right of kings, against which they were in revolt.
So where do civil liberties come from if they are not the grant from
the government but inherent ? This is the problem discussed in Locke and
the French Philosophies - they derived from a social contract - individuals
negotiate limits on their freedom and pay taxes to support the common good
- the nature of the contract is reflected in elections and the democratic
process. It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it be.
Mr. Ashcroft's words and deeds
ATTORNEY GENERAL THE QUESTION of whether to confirm John D. Ashcroft
boils down to measuring his words against his deeds
Mr. Ashcroft angrily defended his anti-abortion lawsuits in Missouri;
they were not an attempt to subvert the Constitution, he said, but to develop
the law. But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., pointed out that Mr. Ashcroft's
lawsuits were intended to "overturn the law," not develop it.
The record
demonstrates that Mr. Kennedy is right.
The most disturbing part of Mr. Ashcroft's testimony was his misrepresentation
of his opposition to the voluntary school desegregation program in St.
Louis. He said the courts had not found the state guilty of wrongdoing,
that the state had not been a party to the case when it was ordered to
pay for the plan and that he had never defied court orders. In fact, the
federal courts found that the state was the primary constitutional wrongdoer
and the state was a party to the case. And, in 1981 a federal court criticized
the state for deliberately deciding to "defy the authority" of the court.
And he continues to misstate the opinion of Judge Ronnie White in a
death penalty case that Mr. Ashcroft used to kill Mr. White's nomination
to a federal judgeship. Judge White is set to testify today.
Mr. Ashcroft made some progress toward making himself more palatable
as attorney general. But the weight of his record, and the tension between
his beliefs and the laws of the land, are hard to ignore.
J.S. Mill On Liberty said Do no harm.
The first idea of not hurting or making things worse is a basic policy,
medical, political and educational principle - but not so simple - With
the best intention policy often does make the problem worse rather than
better - ( rent control, deregulation in some cases, private vs. Public
enterprises, public housing, the War on Drugs, highways, Arms race, over
use of antibiotics, etc. ) Mills idea was that his freedom extends to the
edge of your nose but - libertarian principle does not deal with the "hard"
problems.
Hard problems have no good solutions only ones that are better or less
bad. Among hard problems are drug abuse and other victimless crime, balanced
growth and population and immigration control, environmental balance and
economic growth, dealing with enemies and defense policy - money and politics
- Israel - Palestine - Retirement benefits and health care - so there are
few "easy" social issues - few that require no brains just slogans - such
as getting rid of the 1960's punch cards ( see below ) - any serious analysis
of complex problems find there are winners and losers - so there are benefits
and harms - very few issues are all to the good, almost every action has
costs.
John Steward Mill's answer was do the most good for the most people
- but benefits and harms are subjective - a small good to many may not
balance a great harm to few - or the other way around.
The way republican
government is to have a fair fight among interests and compromise who wins
and who pays. Since only a small proportion of the people are actively
engaged in the struggle ( about 3 % ) - so only a few get to bargain about
costs and benefits.
The fight over costs and benefits is therefore determined by active
minorities - money and troops. In this sense it can rarely be the greatest
good for the greatest number but the most goods go to those who work harder
or pay more to get or defend their interests. In short democracy is not
perfect but less bad than the alternatives.
The current problem in American Government is how the few battle for
power - the use of modern marketing methods which require lots of money.
Modern marketing is less convincing people that you are right and a good
product and they are wrong and a bad product ( as Tony Blair does in GB
) but finding emotional connections between what people "feel" and the
product. What Bush did was to make people feel that they were associated
with your needs and desires and they are bad, undesirable or evil. Gore
tried the same so it came out even.
Policy is only a weak content to make the all important emotional partisan
connection with feeling not reason. You see very few commercials that have
substantive content - how the product is good value but only images and
emotions - Philip Morris are good people - drugs solve your problems, products
make you joyful and so are very happy after you buy the goods.
All that Jazz, Broadway and commercials are the major cultural contributions
of mass culture in America. American Consumer Industry is based on Images,
attachments to subjective product values - brand names that cost more for
the same product. It is dishonest and deceptive - emotional not rational
- and it works. Cereal is 20 cents of product, 25 cents of packaging, 50
cents of advertising, and good profits for the supermarket - including
payment for shelf space. Politics is 25 % policy and offering benefits
( no costs are discussed ), 25 % the character of the candidate package,
35 % marketing and commercials - including voter research ( focus groups
- what do they want to hear ) and 15 % random noise and events out side
the control of the parties. Cereal is mostly fluffy, sugar loaded junk
food - so is the political process the Captain Crunch of political systems.
Gore won the free benefits case, Bush the likeability, Ads were about equal
- no killer messages but Bush a little more money, Gore had the environment,
peace and prosperity - so again a tie. A few really strong messages ( and
a clear personality package by Gore ) and good ads could have won the election
for either side.
Electoral reform:
The national voter ID card - issued along with driver licenses or tax
returns or by application - a electronic credit card with photo - could
contain a number like on your checks - an account number and a county,
ward, and precinct number.
There would be no need to registrar for national
elections but everyone could have a national card and could vote for national
officers. At the time of election ( should be a holiday such as Nov 11th
and maybe over two days ) polling places would electronically scan the
cards and know who tried to vote.
There would be two ballots - the national
one to anyone with a national card- a local one with local registration.
The national list could be cross checked for citizenship, felony convictions,
residency, and be fairly clean which voter rolls are not now ( millions
of double enrolled, American move a lot - more votes in Alaska than people
) - another quagmire when we get into registration and voter rolls. At
some time the national vote then could be recorded at any ATM machine or
home computer. Once a voter is recorded as voting they can not vote again.
Greater participation should do more good than harm.
The issues of security
and honesty is not hard in the same way ATM and credit cards are safe and
secure even online.
Second, the money to parties is partly good - it just needs the controls
that were originally intended but so poorly written and cut up by court
actions as to be without controlling legal principals.
The federal election
commission needs to be more like a really independent commission such as
the federal reserve and other forth branch "independent" agencies - FDA,
FCC, SEC, etc with wide powers to set standards for election, machines,
money, debates, other free air time, in this complex area ( not more difficult
that drugs, securities, communications etc. ) and make other suggestions
for improvements.
Economic Policy:
What is likely to happen maybe the best policy - giving 2 to 3 % growth
this year and maybe better next year.
Paying down on the debt - reducing the drain from interest ( 15 % of
budget ) and foreign payments ( 1/3 of the public debt is held by foreigners
and a drain in reserves and setting up some correction in Social Security
because the Trust fund will hold most of the debt )
Modest investment in infrastructure - education - research - physical
infrastructure - 100 miles of runway for example -
Modest tax reform - making it simpler - reducing the cost of compliance
- front loaded - incentives for work and investment - supply side
Modest monetary expansion and lower interest rates
Medicare Medicaid Reform
Goals and principles - Tax what you want less of - support what you
want more of
We want more work and investment - savings
We want fewer barriers to entry into markets - jobs - success - includes
education and open markets
The best thing that happened in the last decade was the control of federal
budget - the budget reform act needs to be maintained and reinforced -
So let’s get down to reality:
A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
The American electoral system
is designed by lots of committees - in State Legislatures, Congress and
the political party state and national committees. It is a reflection of
much participation, many interests, and is a multi-headed beast that serves
no one well.
Real reform would be for Congress which has the power to set the dates
for the national elections and regulating Congressional election, setting
a starting date as July 4th, Independence day as the first date available
for primaries ( both for Congress and the Presidential elections ) Run
Off, and Conventions ( not really necessary with primaries ) would be finished
by labor day and all the candidates nominated for office by early September.
Official campaigns would be conducted in late September and October ( six
weeks is clearly enough ) nothing is gained and much is lost in endless
and expensive primary and actual election campaigns.
The national day of
election would begin on first Saturday in November at 9 AM EST and 6 AM
PST and end on Sunday following at 9 PM PST ( 6 PM EST ) - giving everyone
time to vote and correct registration errors, beginning and ending at the
same time in the continental USA. ( Could be Friday and Saturday - or Sunday
and Monday or even Monday and Tuesday )
If some states want to be first ( Iowa and New Hampshire they could
do so in July with area or national primaries in late July or August )
The national election commission made up of retired judges, University
Presidents, Major non-profits, foundations and other NGO’s Ambassadors,
civil servants and other non-political not nonpartisan appointments would
set standards for voting machine standard error at less than ½ of
1 % , registration - including a national federal election registration
to correct errors, facilitate movers and overseas voters, resolve double
registrations, ineligible votes, and providing regulation of money, public
finance, campaign finance and the debates and free air time.
At the same time a constitutional admendment: to make clear there is
popular election of the President and Vice-President, ( still counted by
electoral votes ) making the common practice constitutional -
"
The electoral votes certified by the states and the District of Columbia
in the election of the President and Vice-president; these votes will be
counted in the same manner as the electors in the electoral college and
the votes will be certified and counted in Congress as electoral votes
for President and Vice-President under Art II and the XII admendment
The
states shall determine the method of popular ELECTION by which Presidential
and vice-presidential electoral votes are selected. States shall proportion
their presidential and vice-presidential electoral votes and establish
before the election how voting is conducted and how votes are contested.
The state laws for the election for President and Vice President shall
be consistent with elections for the most populous house in that state
and as in the elections for U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators and
subject to the same constitutional and other federal protections and regulations
as other federal elections."
the rest of the process is left alone ( messy but hard to change the
nature of elector votes )
Removes the electors as persons which have no real function
Make clear Presidents are elected by the people
That federal election laws and Constitutional protections apply to Presidential
elections.
Partisan vs. Political:
What are the real conflicts within American Society that require political
compromises and policies ? Real politics is about - Who gets what, when
and how ? What are the partisans on the other hand fighting about and is
there a connection between the real world of material interests and the
talking heads, political action committees, professional fund raisers,
campaigns, the media and all that jazz ? Electional reform is the critical
issue before much else will happen. If we look around the world there are
lots of models of better systems mainly independent election commissions
and the use of the free national airwaves. Quick, cheap and public elections
would help a lot.
The hard issue is the role of the federal government as a protector
and benefactor of poorer people or as a supporter of private business and
individual enterprise at the state and local level ? In short the Republicans
are traditional conservatives with a strong pro business basis but needing
the religious right to get the numbers they need to win. Democrats are
traditional welfare populist who have become centrist "new" democrats,
more pro growth, supporting global trade - needing the money and support
of the new economy to win.
So the Republicans since Reagan there is a rhetoric "social issues"
but gave substance to their tradition upper class economic base, defense
industries, oil, drugs, tobacco, medical and other "special" interests.
The democrats use populist rhetoric to mobilize their base in the minorities,
the working poor, and organized labor ( with teachers as a critical element
) but serve their business supporters, entertainment, financial services,
trial lawyers, telecommunications, medical services, insurance etc. Many
( most ) big business support both sides and get what they really want
from congressional committees.
The "right wing" Republicans keep talking about the scandals - real
or imagined - and the "social " or cultural issues - which get tied together
with the President Clinton’s bad personal behavior as a marker -
The left
leaning liberals are looked at as less moral, less religious and more relativist,
humanist, feminism, environmentalist, secular where Abortion has become
the code word that "states rights" used to play for racism.
The traditional
pro-business policy remains low taxes, smaller government, local control
but with a strong defense - balanced budgets with a lower priority.
The Democrats seem less clear both on their partisan rhetoric and their
hard policies.
Their symbolic issues are things like hate crimes ( black
and gay communities ) the right of choice ( working women ) and replacement
workers ( organized labor ).
Their environmental policy has waffled - but
run into the western land management policies that invoke a strong response.
The issues become confused because of the need to collect enough voters
and money to win. After winning the two coalitions do not have a substance
base - Republicans with their "right" wing moral extremist - Democrats
with their commercial ties to their sources of money.
Therefore, as John
McCain has said unless there is a really new system of getting the 100’s
of millions required to win, neither party, or even a collection of moderates
in the center can govern.
They are both too tied to their money rather
than their active political membership. We will not get a real choice,
or real policies - either way - lower taxes and less government - or more
benefits and health and retirement reform - or anything else without reforming
the issue of money and politics.
The tie can not be cut but can be weakened.
Republicans would then be free to be real conservatives and democrats would
be liberals and deals would be made - politics would be restored over empty
talk.
A really strong independent ( not bipartisan ) election commission is
needed to reform the voting process and the financing of elections. Elections
should be short and less expensive.
The commission would give out both
the public funds and control private funds used directly in campaigns.
Money will come out of the cracks and has a constitutional right to express
it’s views BUT if the process is shorter, and better regulated it will
be better.
Out of the box:
Today is the real start of the new millennium so we should think
about longer time frames than just a year.
The interesting phenomenon is
the increase in the rate of change - not only is there a pattern of rapid
changes but an acceleration of the rate of change.
This has been the pattern for the last 1,000 years - let’s review -
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
look at the maps !
In the year 1000 there were about 1/3 Gigapersons One third billion
(109) of people distributed very lightly in the Americas ( less than 3
% ) a decline in Europe of about 50/50% from the times of the ancient Empires
to 50 Million or 12 % with the center of population being in China and
south Asia.
The middle east, North Africa and Spain had about the same
population as Europe with the High Civilization of the Moorish empire from
Spain to India and the decline of the west.
By the 18th Century Europe had become the dominate power with Europeans
in the New World and pushing their empires into Africa and the Far East.
Europeans became 20 % of the earth’s population ( more than half in North
America ) then began a relative and absolute decline.
The planet passed
it’s first gigaperson after the end of the 18th Century with the introduction
of the potato, and a slide into the age of reason, science, technology,
industrial engineering, navigation, communications, scientific agriculture,
liberal capitalist political democracy, founded on Newton’s physics, and
rational organizations using systematic problem solving.
Modern ideas of medicine and public health such as cleaning up the water
supply and disease control started in the 19th Century and began to have
a impact on demographics.
The 20th Century went from a less than two gigapersons
to over six with the population mass shifting east and south while wealth
grew in the North and West - and Japan.
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop
http://www.popexpo.net/eMain.html
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
So here we are with a technology that greatly increased productivity
and survival rates but vastly different results. Microbes, MICROORGANISM
have done what they do best - evolve quickly. If you kill 99.9 % of them
the other .1 % reproduce quickly and will replace those under control with
those not under control.
The outbreak of ancient negative feedback systems,
pestilence, famine, and war - are beginning to have demographic effects
in the poorest parts of the world.
The great issue of this century is the connection between biotechnology
and new patterns of life and death on the planet. Without policy rich nations
trend toward an aged population with problems of supporting more and more
old with fewer workers.
The answer is in emigration of the poor to the
richer areas as both highly skilled and unskilled workers.
Europe and North America become more Oriental, Latin, African, and Eastern
and Southern European which have to adjust to each other. Since these are
global issue there needs to be a global population and immigration policy
- but there is none or no way of getting one.
There needs to be global
primary education and higher educational strategy, global health policy,
global development policy, ( water, resources, energy, etc. ) global peace
keeping policy, because global problems will not bend to national interest
power policies.
When the law goes bad:
Pardon my French : J’ suis l’etat - or l’etat son moi ( I am the state
said Louis XIV ) Nous son la droit - ( We are the law -
The U.S. Supreme
court ) C’est tres ennuyeux - ( It is very annoying ) When you have something
taken and you say " I will go to the police " and they say we are the police
! You are told "Report that you were beaten up to the authorities" - and
you say -
They were the authorities ! it is a coup d'état, usurpation,
ARROGATION arbitrary rule, arbitrariness, negation of law, abolition of
law by the highest court in the land !
Don’t bother your sweet little heads about democracy:
You just carry on with Christmas shopping - the republic will take care
of itself without you paying any attention. I had a dream about the U.S.
Supreme court. I was arguing with them. I was saying " Look this is not
about chads, or equal protection, or due process but it’s all about who
gets to be President of the United States. You can say Democracy and elections
are sloppy, recounts lack standards, voting in America is messy and confused
and always has been thus - so we don’t have to do all that recounting and
making hard judgments but just let the high court select the President
for the country.
Hear ye Judges, the court is very wrong to interject itself into the
rough and tumble of democracy and pick winners and losers ". Federal courts
have no constitutional role in Presidential elections.
The Supreme Court
has defied the constitution ( which is only what they say it is ) they
have defiled common sense - they have defied logic and consistency - they
have defrauded tradition - and no longer can we say as a text book I used
claimed "
The people shall Judge " or choice but don't worry your pretty
little head about it, father knows best !
Congress is set up by the constitution to decide election disputes,
not the courts, any strict construction or review of the current law will
read it that the federal courts have NO role in the selection of the electoral
college. Title II makes Presidential elections a function of state legislatures
- who then set up the popular votes and rules governing elections - the
laws are specifically said to be interpreted by state courts given the
widest discretion to see votes counted in the popular votes for President
get counted and the right persons wins.
It is painfully clear that Florida law is a patched up job leaving conflicts
between old and new parts. It was not designed for Presidential elections
at all and badly designed for the short time lines required under federal
law. But that is a state issue which has no federal solution or cause because
electors are state elections under Article II, purely state law not a federal
case - I am sure now that their attention has been called, the Florida
Legislature will draft a better law with clear deadlines and clear up the
conflicts the courts tried to deal with such as " shall " may or could
- "electoral systems" now or latter deadlines et al - including making
contest of state wide election be state wide and under uniform standards
- but did not do so for this election as the law is the law until the Supreme
Court said don't bother with history, the law, tradition, justice, common
sense, we will select the winner for you because we are better than you
are !
The only issue is that one side wanted to count votes because they believed
there were legal votes, the votes could be counted under Florida Law, and
counting would bring them victory. ( As will be proven in the next few
weeks that there were more than enough such votes if they could have counted
them )
The other side did everything it could to obstruct the counting. This
pattern of objection and obstruction including using the Secretary of State
to issue a legally false opinion and obstruct the counting as much as she
could, the use of a rent a mob and direct death threats from the Cuban
Mob in Miami, throwing sand and dust into the air about standards and chads
at the counting tables, calling in the Florida Legislature, and the courts
to STOP the counting of votes because they believed as well, if the votes
were counted they would lose.
They won because of the delays, stalling,
obstruction and finally because of the stay by the U.S. Supreme Court -
finally stopped the counting of legal votes then saying it was too late
to repair the damage done to the democratic process by a pattern of obstruction
which included the federal court.
The federal courts had no role in this fight and the Supreme court never
found a believable cause for even hearing the case. ( due process and equal
protection are really far fetched, blue sky attachments without legal foundation
to over turn a State Supreme court on state election law - such jurisdiction
exists only in clear violation of federal voting rights where such a finding
could be made - Voting rights violation was never even suggested in this
case - Title II of the Constitution, the U.S. Code having to do with electoral
college dates and how Congress shall deal with election disputes, and the
Michigan Case about the powers of legislatures were more than a stretch
they were a leap in legal logic. )
The court said " Because the process is messy, in the future if there
is a close election the Supreme court will decide who wins. Never mind
about federalism, judicial restraint, states rights, that state courts
interpret state law, because democracy is messy and confused - Never worry
your little heads about it - This most undemocratic of all institutions
can make the choice for the country. We are not really concerned with due
process, equal protection ( which we could hear as a civil rights voting
case but refuse to do so ) but only in imposing our final judgment in place
of a popular unruly democracy. " Mainly we like republicans better than
we like democrats ( who have been very nasty to us for years ) and we think
George W. Bush should be President, so THERE !
The conservatives going back to Madison, Mason and Hamilton never believed
in equality or democracy.
There were the "better" class - richer, more
responsible, wiser and they would rule through representatives of their
own type and class.
The masses are only self centered, easily mislead by
false passions, leaders and ideas and clearly need to be controlled and
regulated. It was the popular upraising against taxes, foreclosure, and
"their betters" in the courts and state houses that was the direct motivation
for the federal constitution along with the desire to clear up land titles
in the Northwest Territory so scripts used as payments during the war (
which were based on land grants ) could be redeemed at windfall profits.
Strict construction means defending the minority of rich against the
rapacious but more numerous poor.
The court served its ancient master which
protected slavery, fought against unions, civil rights, social justice
and equality over the bulk of its history. Only in the 1960’s and some
of the 70’s did the court go modern, flexible, and support democracy and
justice. It has returned to form as a center piece of anti-democratic forces.
There is no judicial constraint in shutting down the counting of votes
and picking a President.
The constitution is not a democratic document.
The founders were not
democrats. Democracy did not exist as we now know it.
There were limited
representative republics but popular democracy grew with the 19th and 20th
Century both in Great Britain and in the U.S. - the right to vote for President
became clear in 1845, popular franchise with the growth of the frontier
and Andy Jackson. First most white males, then Black males after the Civil
War for awhile until the political system and the high court turned their
backs on the 14th and 15th admendment.
Then women with the 19th admendment,
and blacks with the Voting Rights act and repeal of poll taxes, a long
slow process of the right to vote. One man one vote was a lon g time coming
and bitterly opposed.
The court has never ruled the sloppy voting systems, where some ( mostly
poor and minorities ) have much higher rates of spoiled or machine unreadable
ballots raises a equal protection issue.
They have always looked for intentional
discrimination not variation in outcomes. Schools still fail to produce
equal results, or does the death penalty, or does equal housing, or employment,
or income, or anything else - we are still very unequal - it is almost
impossible for courts to demand fair outcomes only minimal due process.
Cubans Worried by Bush Election Win
The Associated Press Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000; 12:34 p.m. EST
HAVANA –– A Cuban newspaper expressed concern Thursday at George W.
Bush's presidential win, asking how much Cuban exiles in Florida would
influence the new administration.
"How much power will he give the Mafia of Miami?" asked a lengthy article
in Juventud Rebelde, the daily of Cuba's Union of Young Communists. "What
will happen to foreign policy?"
Miami - Nov 22 Wed who shut down the count that would have put Gore
over the top and changed everything ?
.
The "bourgeois riot" celebrated by Wall Street Journal columnist Paul
Gigot helped stop the announced manual recount of the 10,750 undervote
in Miami-Dade County. Instigated by an order from New York congressman
John Sweeney to "shut it down," dozens of screaming GOP demonstrators pounded
on doors and a picture window at elections headquarters.
The canvassing
board, which had already found a net Al Gore gain of 168 votes, reversed
a decision it had made a couple of hours earlier to begin a tally of the
undervote.
The mob gang-rushed a local Democrat carrying a blank sample ballot.
They threatened that a thousand Cubans were on their way to the headquarters
to stop the count. Several people were "trampled, punched or kicked," according
to
The New York Times.
The canvassing board chair at first conceded that
mob pressures played a role in the shutdown—which cost Gore the 168 votes
as well—but later reversed his position.
The high success rate in the partial recount triggered a "mandatory"
obligation under state law to count the rest of the ballots, but it also
triggered a GOP mania to block it. Sweeney, who was coordinating the assault
with a local Cuban congressman, branded Dade "ground zero" in the ballot
battle and called the attempted count "theft," though his own representatives
were in the room where it was scheduled to begin.
Instead of condemning the Dade tactics, W. himself called the victory
party that night to praise them, and Republicans invoked the specter of
Jesse Jackson, who'd merely led peaceful protests outside election offices.
Unlike Sweeney's mob, Jackson was, of course, protesting real voter theft—the
massive Duval County disenfranchising of black voters—a cause all but ignored
by Gore for fear the GOP would turn the Florida fight into a Race Thing,
their favorite consensus-building gimmick.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001214/aponline123456_001.htm
If more than half your revenues come from Cubans - and they can boycott
your advertising - and customers to those who do advertise - you see how
"they" can intimidate the "media" - Knight newspapers have pulled off the
exile ( Foundation ) and violence, political corruption, and intimidation
story - in the face of violence against them and bankruptcy of their Miami
newspaper and TV stations. Politicians are even more cowardly - getting
votes however they can and clearly afraid of the power of the mob.
http://www.americas.org/country/index.asp?country=Cuba
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Dear George :
We all wish you well as our one and only President:
After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman
John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: ``We know the race is not to the swift
nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind
and directs this storm?'' What does this mean ?
The better angels speak softly in the biter fights of passions and interests.
The voice of a more suitable wisdom comes from clam reflection on what
really matters in the long run. While the swift and cleaver, the big and
strong may dominate the battle they do not always win the war.
The long
struggle for human dignity, honor and justice goes on.
The Revolution by
the American people was such a battle - they were not the strongest or
swiftest - but had a clearer vision and purpose which substandard the cause
when all seemed lost and hopeless -
The balance is between the "law" and "liberty" , the rights of the individual
and the demands of society, is a continuing history of civilization, the
people of the colonies had a better idea about this balance than the British
Empire at the time.
Where there are no really new beginning - from the tribes in the wilderness
coming out of slavery, with the new covenant and a new Jerusalem, with
the revolutions and civil wars, we pass on but carry on the past with the
vision of the future.
The sins and virtues of the fathers are not interned
in their bones but their children bare the marks and carry the wisdom they
have inherited.
Legitimacy is more than an election BUT ... elections are the foundation
of popular sovereignty and as an "elected" sovereign the reflection of
the popular will is the duty of the President BUT more than a reflection
- a more timeless embodiment of lasting meaning and principles of a free
and orderly society. Leadership is the angel in the in the whirlwind and
directs this storm. A leader knows his better motivations, the longer term
national interests, the hopeful visions for this people and stays the course.
The vision shared for the centuries is of a civic culture, a civilized
society, educated in virtue and knowledge, free of the suppression of ideas,
overcoming superstition and prejudice, becoming enlightened and wise, living
freely by the rule of law and justice, fair to each others and their neighbors,
peaceful and prosperous with a moral purpose beyond their own advantage.
This we can share and work together if we see the whole and not just pieces
- compromise of the small for the large, the petty for the whole, the local
for the national, the temporary for the long term. This vision is what
makes progress and success possible and why leaders have followers, a call
to greater causes, images of a brighter future, a subtended hope, faith
and charity which catches fire in the popular imagination.
The message can not be just through the press, speeches, programs and
proposals but in actions. You must create the image of the reality before
it exists.
The good schools where no child is left behind needs to be in
sound and pictures - the bad school when lives are distorted needs to be
visible and present as a hard reality. You can go to such places - you
can personally work to turn the institutions around. Nothing can be more
important that the message - the reality on the ground - let others carry
the programs and proposals, argue about the details - but if you can sell
the image - the big picture - the rest will come along in time.
The photo
ops is the media and the message - schools, long term care, cost and benefits
in retirement planning, taxes and costs, election reform - etc.
It is not accidental that America has been the home of the brave and
the land of the free — the place where mankind has had the greatest of
all opportunities to approach the potential that God has placed within
us. It has been because we knew that we were endowed not by the king, but
by the Creator with certain inalienable rights.
Rights derived from GOD ? It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy
not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it
be.
At the time of the declaration of independence - the co-conspirators
were declaring an armed rebellion against their king and country. This
was a clear act of treason by British Subjects in their becoming American
Citizens.
The rebellion had to be justified by appeal to a higher authority.
They could not use the language Ashcroft and many conservative Christian
have made an article of faith, that Jesus gave us freedom. Madison did
not justify an armed citizenry as a protection from oppression. Only the
civic doctrine of duty and honor would protect the republic. Christian
doctrine at the time would have required them to be good subjects and loyal
to existing institutions.
The rebellion was against Church and State -
so you could not justify a rebellion against the King based on the Church
by using religion as the reason.
The act of rebellion against an existing government makes you either
a founding fathers or failed members of a rebellion of the American Colonies.
The British loyalist refugees ( in 100,000’s ) who went to Canada and the
West Indies held the view that the political issues with a current administration
did not justify such an extreme act.
The Loyalist were largely right about
the current political issues but the underlining cause of the American
Revolution was not English despotism but was a new passion based on a philosophy
of Government, of Human Rights, and the social contract.
The ideas behind
the Declaration of Independence were derived from humanist, rationalist,
secular ( and Masonic ) ideas from Europe.
The Revolutionaries were not
traditional Christian but Deist - the Church was often associated with
an ancient superstition and a important and fundamental support for the
divine right of kings, against which they were in revolt.
So where do civil liberties come from if they are not the grant from
the government but inherent ? This is the problem discussed in Locke and
the French Philosophies - they derived from a social contract - individuals
negotiate limits on their freedom and pay taxes to support the common good
- the nature of the contract is reflected in elections and the democratic
process. It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it be.
Mr. Ashcroft's words and deeds
ATTORNEY GENERAL THE QUESTION of whether to confirm John D. Ashcroft
boils down to measuring his words against his deeds
Mr. Ashcroft angrily defended his anti-abortion lawsuits in Missouri;
they were not an attempt to subvert the Constitution, he said, but to develop
the law. But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., pointed out that Mr. Ashcroft's
lawsuits were intended to "overturn the law," not develop it.
The record
demonstrates that Mr. Kennedy is right.
The most disturbing part of Mr. Ashcroft's testimony was his misrepresentation
of his opposition to the voluntary school desegregation program in St.
Louis. He said the courts had not found the state guilty of wrongdoing,
that the state had not been a party to the case when it was ordered to
pay for the plan and that he had never defied court orders. In fact, the
federal courts found that the state was the primary constitutional wrongdoer
and the state was a party to the case. And, in 1981 a federal court criticized
the state for deliberately deciding to "defy the authority" of the court.
And he continues to misstate the opinion of Judge Ronnie White in a
death penalty case that Mr. Ashcroft used to kill Mr. White's nomination
to a federal judgeship. Judge White is set to testify today.
Mr. Ashcroft made some progress toward making himself more palatable
as attorney general. But the weight of his record, and the tension between
his beliefs and the laws of the land, are hard to ignore.
J.S. Mill On Liberty said Do no harm.
The first idea of not hurting or making things worse is a basic policy,
medical, political and educational principle - but not so simple - With
the best intention policy often does make the problem worse rather than
better - ( rent control, deregulation in some cases, private vs. Public
enterprises, public housing, the War on Drugs, highways, Arms race, over
use of antibiotics, etc. ) Mills idea was that his freedom extends to the
edge of your nose but - libertarian principle does not deal with the "hard"
problems.
Hard problems have no good solutions only ones that are better or less
bad. Among hard problems are drug abuse and other victimless crime, balanced
growth and population and immigration control, environmental balance and
economic growth, dealing with enemies and defense policy - money and politics
- Israel - Palestine - Retirement benefits and health care - so there are
few "easy" social issues - few that require no brains just slogans - such
as getting rid of the 1960's punch cards ( see below ) - any serious analysis
of complex problems find there are winners and losers - so there are benefits
and harms - very few issues are all to the good, almost every action has
costs.
John Steward Mill's answer was do the most good for the most people
- but benefits and harms are subjective - a small good to many may not
balance a great harm to few - or the other way around.
The way republican
government is to have a fair fight among interests and compromise who wins
and who pays. Since only a small proportion of the people are actively
engaged in the struggle ( about 3 % ) - so only a few get to bargain about
costs and benefits.
The fight over costs and benefits is therefore determined by active
minorities - money and troops. In this sense it can rarely be the greatest
good for the greatest number but the most goods go to those who work harder
or pay more to get or defend their interests. In short democracy is not
perfect but less bad than the alternatives.
The current problem in American Government is how the few battle for
power - the use of modern marketing methods which require lots of money.
Modern marketing is less convincing people that you are right and a good
product and they are wrong and a bad product ( as Tony Blair does in GB
) but finding emotional connections between what people "feel" and the
product. What Bush did was to make people feel that they were associated
with your needs and desires and they are bad, undesirable or evil. Gore
tried the same so it came out even.
Policy is only a weak content to make the all important emotional partisan
connection with feeling not reason. You see very few commercials that have
substantive content - how the product is good value but only images and
emotions - Philip Morris are good people - drugs solve your problems, products
make you joyful and so are very happy after you buy the goods.
All that Jazz, Broadway and commercials are the major cultural contributions
of mass culture in America. American Consumer Industry is based on Images,
attachments to subjective product values - brand names that cost more for
the same product. It is dishonest and deceptive - emotional not rational
- and it works. Cereal is 20 cents of product, 25 cents of packaging, 50
cents of advertising, and good profits for the supermarket - including
payment for shelf space. Politics is 25 % policy and offering benefits
( no costs are discussed ), 25 % the character of the candidate package,
35 % marketing and commercials - including voter research ( focus groups
- what do they want to hear ) and 15 % random noise and events out side
the control of the parties. Cereal is mostly fluffy, sugar loaded junk
food - so is the political process the Captain Crunch of political systems.
Gore won the free benefits case, Bush the likeability, Ads were about equal
- no killer messages but Bush a little more money, Gore had the environment,
peace and prosperity - so again a tie. A few really strong messages ( and
a clear personality package by Gore ) and good ads could have won the election
for either side.
Electoral reform:
The national voter ID card - issued along with driver licenses or tax
returns or by application - a electronic credit card with photo - could
contain a number like on your checks - an account number and a county,
ward, and precinct number.
There would be no need to registrar for national
elections but everyone could have a national card and could vote for national
officers. At the time of election ( should be a holiday such as Nov 11th
and maybe over two days ) polling places would electronically scan the
cards and know who tried to vote.
There would be two ballots - the national
one to anyone with a national card- a local one with local registration.
The national list could be cross checked for citizenship, felony convictions,
residency, and be fairly clean which voter rolls are not now ( millions
of double enrolled, American move a lot - more votes in Alaska than people
) - another quagmire when we get into registration and voter rolls. At
some time the national vote then could be recorded at any ATM machine or
home computer. Once a voter is recorded as voting they can not vote again.
Greater participation should do more good than harm.
The issues of security
and honesty is not hard in the same way ATM and credit cards are safe and
secure even online.
Second, the money to parties is partly good - it just needs the controls
that were originally intended but so poorly written and cut up by court
actions as to be without controlling legal principals.
The federal election
commission needs to be more like a really independent commission such as
the federal reserve and other forth branch "independent" agencies - FDA,
FCC, SEC, etc with wide powers to set standards for election, machines,
money, debates, other free air time, in this complex area ( not more difficult
that drugs, securities, communications etc. ) and make other suggestions
for improvements.
Economic Policy:
What is likely to happen maybe the best policy - giving 2 to 3 % growth
this year and maybe better next year.
Paying down on the debt - reducing the drain from interest ( 15 % of
budget ) and foreign payments ( 1/3 of the public debt is held by foreigners
and a drain in reserves and setting up some correction in Social Security
because the Trust fund will hold most of the debt )
Modest investment in infrastructure - education - research - physical
infrastructure - 100 miles of runway for example -
Modest tax reform - making it simpler - reducing the cost of compliance
- front loaded - incentives for work and investment - supply side
Modest monetary expansion and lower interest rates
Medicare Medicaid Reform
Goals and principles - Tax what you want less of - support what you
want more of
We want more work and investment - savings
We want fewer barriers to entry into markets - jobs - success - includes
education and open markets
The best thing that happened in the last decade was the control of federal
budget - the budget reform act needs to be maintained and reinforced -
So let’s get down to reality:
A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
The American electoral system
is designed by lots of committees - in State Legislatures, Congress and
the political party state and national committees. It is a reflection of
much participation, many interests, and is a multi-headed beast that serves
no one well.
Real reform would be for Congress which has the power to set the dates
for the national elections and regulating Congressional election, setting
a starting date as July 4th, Independence day as the first date available
for primaries ( both for Congress and the Presidential elections ) Run
Off, and Conventions ( not really necessary with primaries ) would be finished
by labor day and all the candidates nominated for office by early September.
Official campaigns would be conducted in late September and October ( six
weeks is clearly enough ) nothing is gained and much is lost in endless
and expensive primary and actual election campaigns.
The national day of
election would begin on first Saturday in November at 9 AM EST and 6 AM
PST and end on Sunday following at 9 PM PST ( 6 PM EST ) - giving everyone
time to vote and correct registration errors, beginning and ending at the
same time in the continental USA. ( Could be Friday and Saturday - or Sunday
and Monday or even Monday and Tuesday )
If some states want to be first ( Iowa and New Hampshire they could
do so in July with area or national primaries in late July or August )
The national election commission made up of retired judges, University
Presidents, Major non-profits, foundations and other NGO’s Ambassadors,
civil servants and other non-political not nonpartisan appointments would
set standards for voting machine standard error at less than ½ of
1 % , registration - including a national federal election registration
to correct errors, facilitate movers and overseas voters, resolve double
registrations, ineligible votes, and providing regulation of money, public
finance, campaign finance and the debates and free air time.
At the same time a constitutional admendment: to make clear there is
popular election of the President and Vice-President, ( still counted by
electoral votes ) making the common practice constitutional -
"
The electoral votes certified by the states and the District of Columbia
in the election of the President and Vice-president; these votes will be
counted in the same manner as the electors in the electoral college and
the votes will be certified and counted in Congress as electoral votes
for President and Vice-President under Art II and the XII admendment
The
states shall determine the method of popular ELECTION by which Presidential
and vice-presidential electoral votes are selected. States shall proportion
their presidential and vice-presidential electoral votes and establish
before the election how voting is conducted and how votes are contested.
The state laws for the election for President and Vice President shall
be consistent with elections for the most populous house in that state
and as in the elections for U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators and
subject to the same constitutional and other federal protections and regulations
as other federal elections."
the rest of the process is left alone ( messy but hard to change the
nature of elector votes )
Removes the electors as persons which have no real function
Make clear Presidents are elected by the people
That federal election laws and Constitutional protections apply to Presidential
elections.
Partisan vs. Political:
What are the real conflicts within American Society that require political
compromises and policies ? Real politics is about - Who gets what, when
and how ? What are the partisans on the other hand fighting about and is
there a connection between the real world of material interests and the
talking heads, political action committees, professional fund raisers,
campaigns, the media and all that jazz ? Electional reform is the critical
issue before much else will happen. If we look around the world there are
lots of models of better systems mainly independent election commissions
and the use of the free national airwaves. Quick, cheap and public elections
would help a lot.
The hard issue is the role of the federal government as a protector
and benefactor of poorer people or as a supporter of private business and
individual enterprise at the state and local level ? In short the Republicans
are traditional conservatives with a strong pro business basis but needing
the religious right to get the numbers they need to win. Democrats are
traditional welfare populist who have become centrist "new" democrats,
more pro growth, supporting global trade - needing the money and support
of the new economy to win.
So the Republicans since Reagan there is a rhetoric "social issues"
but gave substance to their tradition upper class economic base, defense
industries, oil, drugs, tobacco, medical and other "special" interests.
The democrats use populist rhetoric to mobilize their base in the minorities,
the working poor, and organized labor ( with teachers as a critical element
) but serve their business supporters, entertainment, financial services,
trial lawyers, telecommunications, medical services, insurance etc. Many
( most ) big business support both sides and get what they really want
from congressional committees.
The "right wing" Republicans keep talking about the scandals - real
or imagined - and the "social " or cultural issues - which get tied together
with the President Clinton’s bad personal behavior as a marker -
The left
leaning liberals are looked at as less moral, less religious and more relativist,
humanist, feminism, environmentalist, secular where Abortion has become
the code word that "states rights" used to play for racism.
The traditional
pro-business policy remains low taxes, smaller government, local control
but with a strong defense - balanced budgets with a lower priority.
The Democrats seem less clear both on their partisan rhetoric and their
hard policies.
Their symbolic issues are things like hate crimes ( black
and gay communities ) the right of choice ( working women ) and replacement
workers ( organized labor ).
Their environmental policy has waffled - but
run into the western land management policies that invoke a strong response.
The issues become confused because of the need to collect enough voters
and money to win. After winning the two coalitions do not have a substance
base - Republicans with their "right" wing moral extremist - Democrats
with their commercial ties to their sources of money.
Therefore, as John
McCain has said unless there is a really new system of getting the 100’s
of millions required to win, neither party, or even a collection of moderates
in the center can govern.
They are both too tied to their money rather
than their active political membership. We will not get a real choice,
or real policies - either way - lower taxes and less government - or more
benefits and health and retirement reform - or anything else without reforming
the issue of money and politics.
The tie can not be cut but can be weakened.
Republicans would then be free to be real conservatives and democrats would
be liberals and deals would be made - politics would be restored over empty
talk.
A really strong independent ( not bipartisan ) election commission is
needed to reform the voting process and the financing of elections. Elections
should be short and less expensive.
The commission would give out both
the public funds and control private funds used directly in campaigns.
Money will come out of the cracks and has a constitutional right to express
it’s views BUT if the process is shorter, and better regulated it will
be better.
Out of the box:
Today is the real start of the new millennium so we should think
about longer time frames than just a year.
The interesting phenomenon is
the increase in the rate of change - not only is there a pattern of rapid
changes but an acceleration of the rate of change.
This has been the pattern for the last 1,000 years - let’s review -
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
look at the maps !
In the year 1000 there were about 1/3 Gigapersons One third billion
(109) of people distributed very lightly in the Americas ( less than 3
% ) a decline in Europe of about 50/50% from the times of the ancient Empires
to 50 Million or 12 % with the center of population being in China and
south Asia.
The middle east, North Africa and Spain had about the same
population as Europe with the High Civilization of the Moorish empire from
Spain to India and the decline of the west.
By the 18th Century Europe had become the dominate power with Europeans
in the New World and pushing their empires into Africa and the Far East.
Europeans became 20 % of the earth’s population ( more than half in North
America ) then began a relative and absolute decline.
The planet passed
it’s first gigaperson after the end of the 18th Century with the introduction
of the potato, and a slide into the age of reason, science, technology,
industrial engineering, navigation, communications, scientific agriculture,
liberal capitalist political democracy, founded on Newton’s physics, and
rational organizations using systematic problem solving.
Modern ideas of medicine and public health such as cleaning up the water
supply and disease control started in the 19th Century and began to have
a impact on demographics.
The 20th Century went from a less than two gigapersons
to over six with the population mass shifting east and south while wealth
grew in the North and West - and Japan.
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop
http://www.popexpo.net/eMain.html
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
So here we are with a technology that greatly increased productivity
and survival rates but vastly different results. Microbes, MICROORGANISM
have done what they do best - evolve quickly. If you kill 99.9 % of them
the other .1 % reproduce quickly and will replace those under control with
those not under control.
The outbreak of ancient negative feedback systems,
pestilence, famine, and war - are beginning to have demographic effects
in the poorest parts of the world.
The great issue of this century is the connection between biotechnology
and new patterns of life and death on the planet. Without policy rich nations
trend toward an aged population with problems of supporting more and more
old with fewer workers.
The answer is in emigration of the poor to the
richer areas as both highly skilled and unskilled workers.
Europe and North America become more Oriental, Latin, African, and Eastern
and Southern European which have to adjust to each other. Since these are
global issue there needs to be a global population and immigration policy
- but there is none or no way of getting one.
There needs to be global
primary education and higher educational strategy, global health policy,
global development policy, ( water, resources, energy, etc. ) global peace
keeping policy, because global problems will not bend to national interest
power policies.
When the law goes bad:
Pardon my French : J’ suis l’etat - or l’etat son moi ( I am the state
said Louis XIV ) Nous son la droit - ( We are the law -
The U.S. Supreme
court ) C’est tres ennuyeux - ( It is very annoying ) When you have something
taken and you say " I will go to the police " and they say we are the police
! You are told "Report that you were beaten up to the authorities" - and
you say -
They were the authorities ! it is a coup d'état, usurpation,
ARROGATION arbitrary rule, arbitrariness, negation of law, abolition of
law by the highest court in the land !
Don’t bother your sweet little heads about democracy:
You just carry on with Christmas shopping - the republic will take care
of itself without you paying any attention. I had a dream about the U.S.
Supreme court. I was arguing with them. I was saying " Look this is not
about chads, or equal protection, or due process but it’s all about who
gets to be President of the United States. You can say Democracy and elections
are sloppy, recounts lack standards, voting in America is messy and confused
and always has been thus - so we don’t have to do all that recounting and
making hard judgments but just let the high court select the President
for the country.
Hear ye Judges, the court is very wrong to interject itself into the
rough and tumble of democracy and pick winners and losers ". Federal courts
have no constitutional role in Presidential elections.
The Supreme Court
has defied the constitution ( which is only what they say it is ) they
have defiled common sense - they have defied logic and consistency - they
have defrauded tradition - and no longer can we say as a text book I used
claimed "
The people shall Judge " or choice but don't worry your pretty
little head about it, father knows best !
Congress is set up by the constitution to decide election disputes,
not the courts, any strict construction or review of the current law will
read it that the federal courts have NO role in the selection of the electoral
college. Title II makes Presidential elections a function of state legislatures
- who then set up the popular votes and rules governing elections - the
laws are specifically said to be interpreted by state courts given the
widest discretion to see votes counted in the popular votes for President
get counted and the right persons wins.
It is painfully clear that Florida law is a patched up job leaving conflicts
between old and new parts. It was not designed for Presidential elections
at all and badly designed for the short time lines required under federal
law. But that is a state issue which has no federal solution or cause because
electors are state elections under Article II, purely state law not a federal
case - I am sure now that their attention has been called, the Florida
Legislature will draft a better law with clear deadlines and clear up the
conflicts the courts tried to deal with such as " shall " may or could
- "electoral systems" now or latter deadlines et al - including making
contest of state wide election be state wide and under uniform standards
- but did not do so for this election as the law is the law until the Supreme
Court said don't bother with history, the law, tradition, justice, common
sense, we will select the winner for you because we are better than you
are !
The only issue is that one side wanted to count votes because they believed
there were legal votes, the votes could be counted under Florida Law, and
counting would bring them victory. ( As will be proven in the next few
weeks that there were more than enough such votes if they could have counted
them )
The other side did everything it could to obstruct the counting. This
pattern of objection and obstruction including using the Secretary of State
to issue a legally false opinion and obstruct the counting as much as she
could, the use of a rent a mob and direct death threats from the Cuban
Mob in Miami, throwing sand and dust into the air about standards and chads
at the counting tables, calling in the Florida Legislature, and the courts
to STOP the counting of votes because they believed as well, if the votes
were counted they would lose.
They won because of the delays, stalling,
obstruction and finally because of the stay by the U.S. Supreme Court -
finally stopped the counting of legal votes then saying it was too late
to repair the damage done to the democratic process by a pattern of obstruction
which included the federal court.
The federal courts had no role in this fight and the Supreme court never
found a believable cause for even hearing the case. ( due process and equal
protection are really far fetched, blue sky attachments without legal foundation
to over turn a State Supreme court on state election law - such jurisdiction
exists only in clear violation of federal voting rights where such a finding
could be made - Voting rights violation was never even suggested in this
case - Title II of the Constitution, the U.S. Code having to do with electoral
college dates and how Congress shall deal with election disputes, and the
Michigan Case about the powers of legislatures were more than a stretch
they were a leap in legal logic. )
The court said " Because the process is messy, in the future if there
is a close election the Supreme court will decide who wins. Never mind
about federalism, judicial restraint, states rights, that state courts
interpret state law, because democracy is messy and confused - Never worry
your little heads about it - This most undemocratic of all institutions
can make the choice for the country. We are not really concerned with due
process, equal protection ( which we could hear as a civil rights voting
case but refuse to do so ) but only in imposing our final judgment in place
of a popular unruly democracy. " Mainly we like republicans better than
we like democrats ( who have been very nasty to us for years ) and we think
George W. Bush should be President, so THERE !
The conservatives going back to Madison, Mason and Hamilton never believed
in equality or democracy.
There were the "better" class - richer, more
responsible, wiser and they would rule through representatives of their
own type and class.
The masses are only self centered, easily mislead by
false passions, leaders and ideas and clearly need to be controlled and
regulated. It was the popular upraising against taxes, foreclosure, and
"their betters" in the courts and state houses that was the direct motivation
for the federal constitution along with the desire to clear up land titles
in the Northwest Territory so scripts used as payments during the war (
which were based on land grants ) could be redeemed at windfall profits.
Strict construction means defending the minority of rich against the
rapacious but more numerous poor.
The court served its ancient master which
protected slavery, fought against unions, civil rights, social justice
and equality over the bulk of its history. Only in the 1960’s and some
of the 70’s did the court go modern, flexible, and support democracy and
justice. It has returned to form as a center piece of anti-democratic forces.
There is no judicial constraint in shutting down the counting of votes
and picking a President.
The constitution is not a democratic document.
The founders were not
democrats. Democracy did not exist as we now know it.
There were limited
representative republics but popular democracy grew with the 19th and 20th
Century both in Great Britain and in the U.S. - the right to vote for President
became clear in 1845, popular franchise with the growth of the frontier
and Andy Jackson. First most white males, then Black males after the Civil
War for awhile until the political system and the high court turned their
backs on the 14th and 15th admendment.
Then women with the 19th admendment,
and blacks with the Voting Rights act and repeal of poll taxes, a long
slow process of the right to vote. One man one vote was a lon g time coming
and bitterly opposed.
The court has never ruled the sloppy voting systems, where some ( mostly
poor and minorities ) have much higher rates of spoiled or machine unreadable
ballots raises a equal protection issue.
They have always looked for intentional
discrimination not variation in outcomes. Schools still fail to produce
equal results, or does the death penalty, or does equal housing, or employment,
or income, or anything else - we are still very unequal - it is almost
impossible for courts to demand fair outcomes only minimal due process.
Cubans Worried by Bush Election Win
The Associated Press Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000; 12:34 p.m. EST
HAVANA –– A Cuban newspaper expressed concern Thursday at George W.
Bush's presidential win, asking how much Cuban exiles in Florida would
influence the new administration.
"How much power will he give the Mafia of Miami?" asked a lengthy article
in Juventud Rebelde, the daily of Cuba's Union of Young Communists. "What
will happen to foreign policy?"
Miami - Nov 22 Wed who shut down the count that would have put Gore
over the top and changed everything ?
.
The "bourgeois riot" celebrated by Wall Street Journal columnist Paul
Gigot helped stop the announced manual recount of the 10,750 undervote
in Miami-Dade County. Instigated by an order from New York congressman
John Sweeney to "shut it down," dozens of screaming GOP demonstrators pounded
on doors and a picture window at elections headquarters.
The canvassing
board, which had already found a net Al Gore gain of 168 votes, reversed
a decision it had made a couple of hours earlier to begin a tally of the
undervote.
The mob gang-rushed a local Democrat carrying a blank sample ballot.
They threatened that a thousand Cubans were on their way to the headquarters
to stop the count. Several people were "trampled, punched or kicked," according
to
The New York Times.
The canvassing board chair at first conceded that
mob pressures played a role in the shutdown—which cost Gore the 168 votes
as well—but later reversed his position.
The high success rate in the partial recount triggered a "mandatory"
obligation under state law to count the rest of the ballots, but it also
triggered a GOP mania to block it. Sweeney, who was coordinating the assault
with a local Cuban congressman, branded Dade "ground zero" in the ballot
battle and called the attempted count "theft," though his own representatives
were in the room where it was scheduled to begin.
Instead of condemning the Dade tactics, W. himself called the victory
party that night to praise them, and Republicans invoked the specter of
Jesse Jackson, who'd merely led peaceful protests outside election offices.
Unlike Sweeney's mob, Jackson was, of course, protesting real voter theft—the
massive Duval County disenfranchising of black voters—a cause all but ignored
by Gore for fear the GOP would turn the Florida fight into a Race Thing,
their favorite consensus-building gimmick.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001214/aponline123456_001.htm
If more than half your revenues come from Cubans - and they can boycott
your advertising - and customers to those who do advertise - you see how
"they" can intimidate the "media" - Knight newspapers have pulled off the
exile ( Foundation ) and violence, political corruption, and intimidation
story - in the face of violence against them and bankruptcy of their Miami
newspaper and TV stations. Politicians are even more cowardly - getting
votes however they can and clearly afraid of the power of the mob.
http://www.americas.org/country/index.asp?country=Cuba
GO
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Dear George :
We all wish you well as our one and only President:
After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman
John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: ``We know the race is not to the swift
nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind
and directs this storm?'' What does this mean ?
The better angels speak softly in the biter fights of passions and interests.
The voice of a more suitable wisdom comes from clam reflection on what
really matters in the long run. While the swift and cleaver, the big and
strong may dominate the battle they do not always win the war.
The long
struggle for human dignity, honor and justice goes on.
The Revolution by
the American people was such a battle - they were not the strongest or
swiftest - but had a clearer vision and purpose which substandard the cause
when all seemed lost and hopeless -
The balance is between the "law" and "liberty" , the rights of the individual
and the demands of society, is a continuing history of civilization, the
people of the colonies had a better idea about this balance than the British
Empire at the time.
Where there are no really new beginning - from the tribes in the wilderness
coming out of slavery, with the new covenant and a new Jerusalem, with
the revolutions and civil wars, we pass on but carry on the past with the
vision of the future.
The sins and virtues of the fathers are not interned
in their bones but their children bare the marks and carry the wisdom they
have inherited.
Legitimacy is more than an election BUT ... elections are the foundation
of popular sovereignty and as an "elected" sovereign the reflection of
the popular will is the duty of the President BUT more than a reflection
- a more timeless embodiment of lasting meaning and principles of a free
and orderly society. Leadership is the angel in the in the whirlwind and
directs this storm. A leader knows his better motivations, the longer term
national interests, the hopeful visions for this people and stays the course.
The vision shared for the centuries is of a civic culture, a civilized
society, educated in virtue and knowledge, free of the suppression of ideas,
overcoming superstition and prejudice, becoming enlightened and wise, living
freely by the rule of law and justice, fair to each others and their neighbors,
peaceful and prosperous with a moral purpose beyond their own advantage.
This we can share and work together if we see the whole and not just pieces
- compromise of the small for the large, the petty for the whole, the local
for the national, the temporary for the long term. This vision is what
makes progress and success possible and why leaders have followers, a call
to greater causes, images of a brighter future, a subtended hope, faith
and charity which catches fire in the popular imagination.
The message can not be just through the press, speeches, programs and
proposals but in actions. You must create the image of the reality before
it exists.
The good schools where no child is left behind needs to be in
sound and pictures - the bad school when lives are distorted needs to be
visible and present as a hard reality. You can go to such places - you
can personally work to turn the institutions around. Nothing can be more
important that the message - the reality on the ground - let others carry
the programs and proposals, argue about the details - but if you can sell
the image - the big picture - the rest will come along in time.
The photo
ops is the media and the message - schools, long term care, cost and benefits
in retirement planning, taxes and costs, election reform - etc.
It is not accidental that America has been the home of the brave and
the land of the free — the place where mankind has had the greatest of
all opportunities to approach the potential that God has placed within
us. It has been because we knew that we were endowed not by the king, but
by the Creator with certain inalienable rights.
Rights derived from GOD ? It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy
not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it
be.
At the time of the declaration of independence - the co-conspirators
were declaring an armed rebellion against their king and country. This
was a clear act of treason by British Subjects in their becoming American
Citizens.
The rebellion had to be justified by appeal to a higher authority.
They could not use the language Ashcroft and many conservative Christian
have made an article of faith, that Jesus gave us freedom. Madison did
not justify an armed citizenry as a protection from oppression. Only the
civic doctrine of duty and honor would protect the republic. Christian
doctrine at the time would have required them to be good subjects and loyal
to existing institutions.
The rebellion was against Church and State -
so you could not justify a rebellion against the King based on the Church
by using religion as the reason.
The act of rebellion against an existing government makes you either
a founding fathers or failed members of a rebellion of the American Colonies.
The British loyalist refugees ( in 100,000’s ) who went to Canada and the
West Indies held the view that the political issues with a current administration
did not justify such an extreme act.
The Loyalist were largely right about
the current political issues but the underlining cause of the American
Revolution was not English despotism but was a new passion based on a philosophy
of Government, of Human Rights, and the social contract.
The ideas behind
the Declaration of Independence were derived from humanist, rationalist,
secular ( and Masonic ) ideas from Europe.
The Revolutionaries were not
traditional Christian but Deist - the Church was often associated with
an ancient superstition and a important and fundamental support for the
divine right of kings, against which they were in revolt.
So where do civil liberties come from if they are not the grant from
the government but inherent ? This is the problem discussed in Locke and
the French Philosophies - they derived from a social contract - individuals
negotiate limits on their freedom and pay taxes to support the common good
- the nature of the contract is reflected in elections and the democratic
process. It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it be.
Mr. Ashcroft's words and deeds
ATTORNEY GENERAL THE QUESTION of whether to confirm John D. Ashcroft
boils down to measuring his words against his deeds
Mr. Ashcroft angrily defended his anti-abortion lawsuits in Missouri;
they were not an attempt to subvert the Constitution, he said, but to develop
the law. But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., pointed out that Mr. Ashcroft's
lawsuits were intended to "overturn the law," not develop it.
The record
demonstrates that Mr. Kennedy is right.
The most disturbing part of Mr. Ashcroft's testimony was his misrepresentation
of his opposition to the voluntary school desegregation program in St.
Louis. He said the courts had not found the state guilty of wrongdoing,
that the state had not been a party to the case when it was ordered to
pay for the plan and that he had never defied court orders. In fact, the
federal courts found that the state was the primary constitutional wrongdoer
and the state was a party to the case. And, in 1981 a federal court criticized
the state for deliberately deciding to "defy the authority" of the court.
And he continues to misstate the opinion of Judge Ronnie White in a
death penalty case that Mr. Ashcroft used to kill Mr. White's nomination
to a federal judgeship. Judge White is set to testify today.
Mr. Ashcroft made some progress toward making himself more palatable
as attorney general. But the weight of his record, and the tension between
his beliefs and the laws of the land, are hard to ignore.
J.S. Mill On Liberty said Do no harm.
The first idea of not hurting or making things worse is a basic policy,
medical, political and educational principle - but not so simple - With
the best intention policy often does make the problem worse rather than
better - ( rent control, deregulation in some cases, private vs. Public
enterprises, public housing, the War on Drugs, highways, Arms race, over
use of antibiotics, etc. ) Mills idea was that his freedom extends to the
edge of your nose but - libertarian principle does not deal with the "hard"
problems.
Hard problems have no good solutions only ones that are better or less
bad. Among hard problems are drug abuse and other victimless crime, balanced
growth and population and immigration control, environmental balance and
economic growth, dealing with enemies and defense policy - money and politics
- Israel - Palestine - Retirement benefits and health care - so there are
few "easy" social issues - few that require no brains just slogans - such
as getting rid of the 1960's punch cards ( see below ) - any serious analysis
of complex problems find there are winners and losers - so there are benefits
and harms - very few issues are all to the good, almost every action has
costs.
John Steward Mill's answer was do the most good for the most people
- but benefits and harms are subjective - a small good to many may not
balance a great harm to few - or the other way around.
The way republican
government is to have a fair fight among interests and compromise who wins
and who pays. Since only a small proportion of the people are actively
engaged in the struggle ( about 3 % ) - so only a few get to bargain about
costs and benefits.
The fight over costs and benefits is therefore determined by active
minorities - money and troops. In this sense it can rarely be the greatest
good for the greatest number but the most goods go to those who work harder
or pay more to get or defend their interests. In short democracy is not
perfect but less bad than the alternatives.
The current problem in American Government is how the few battle for
power - the use of modern marketing methods which require lots of money.
Modern marketing is less convincing people that you are right and a good
product and they are wrong and a bad product ( as Tony Blair does in GB
) but finding emotional connections between what people "feel" and the
product. What Bush did was to make people feel that they were associated
with your needs and desires and they are bad, undesirable or evil. Gore
tried the same so it came out even.
Policy is only a weak content to make the all important emotional partisan
connection with feeling not reason. You see very few commercials that have
substantive content - how the product is good value but only images and
emotions - Philip Morris are good people - drugs solve your problems, products
make you joyful and so are very happy after you buy the goods.
All that Jazz, Broadway and commercials are the major cultural contributions
of mass culture in America. American Consumer Industry is based on Images,
attachments to subjective product values - brand names that cost more for
the same product. It is dishonest and deceptive - emotional not rational
- and it works. Cereal is 20 cents of product, 25 cents of packaging, 50
cents of advertising, and good profits for the supermarket - including
payment for shelf space. Politics is 25 % policy and offering benefits
( no costs are discussed ), 25 % the character of the candidate package,
35 % marketing and commercials - including voter research ( focus groups
- what do they want to hear ) and 15 % random noise and events out side
the control of the parties. Cereal is mostly fluffy, sugar loaded junk
food - so is the political process the Captain Crunch of political systems.
Gore won the free benefits case, Bush the likeability, Ads were about equal
- no killer messages but Bush a little more money, Gore had the environment,
peace and prosperity - so again a tie. A few really strong messages ( and
a clear personality package by Gore ) and good ads could have won the election
for either side.
Electoral reform:
The national voter ID card - issued along with driver licenses or tax
returns or by application - a electronic credit card with photo - could
contain a number like on your checks - an account number and a county,
ward, and precinct number.
There would be no need to registrar for national
elections but everyone could have a national card and could vote for national
officers. At the time of election ( should be a holiday such as Nov 11th
and maybe over two days ) polling places would electronically scan the
cards and know who tried to vote.
There would be two ballots - the national
one to anyone with a national card- a local one with local registration.
The national list could be cross checked for citizenship, felony convictions,
residency, and be fairly clean which voter rolls are not now ( millions
of double enrolled, American move a lot - more votes in Alaska than people
) - another quagmire when we get into registration and voter rolls. At
some time the national vote then could be recorded at any ATM machine or
home computer. Once a voter is recorded as voting they can not vote again.
Greater participation should do more good than harm.
The issues of security
and honesty is not hard in the same way ATM and credit cards are safe and
secure even online.
Second, the money to parties is partly good - it just needs the controls
that were originally intended but so poorly written and cut up by court
actions as to be without controlling legal principals.
The federal election
commission needs to be more like a really independent commission such as
the federal reserve and other forth branch "independent" agencies - FDA,
FCC, SEC, etc with wide powers to set standards for election, machines,
money, debates, other free air time, in this complex area ( not more difficult
that drugs, securities, communications etc. ) and make other suggestions
for improvements.
Economic Policy:
What is likely to happen maybe the best policy - giving 2 to 3 % growth
this year and maybe better next year.
Paying down on the debt - reducing the drain from interest ( 15 % of
budget ) and foreign payments ( 1/3 of the public debt is held by foreigners
and a drain in reserves and setting up some correction in Social Security
because the Trust fund will hold most of the debt )
Modest investment in infrastructure - education - research - physical
infrastructure - 100 miles of runway for example -
Modest tax reform - making it simpler - reducing the cost of compliance
- front loaded - incentives for work and investment - supply side
Modest monetary expansion and lower interest rates
Medicare Medicaid Reform
Goals and principles - Tax what you want less of - support what you
want more of
We want more work and investment - savings
We want fewer barriers to entry into markets - jobs - success - includes
education and open markets
The best thing that happened in the last decade was the control of federal
budget - the budget reform act needs to be maintained and reinforced -
So let’s get down to reality:
A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
The American electoral system
is designed by lots of committees - in State Legislatures, Congress and
the political party state and national committees. It is a reflection of
much participation, many interests, and is a multi-headed beast that serves
no one well.
Real reform would be for Congress which has the power to set the dates
for the national elections and regulating Congressional election, setting
a starting date as July 4th, Independence day as the first date available
for primaries ( both for Congress and the Presidential elections ) Run
Off, and Conventions ( not really necessary with primaries ) would be finished
by labor day and all the candidates nominated for office by early September.
Official campaigns would be conducted in late September and October ( six
weeks is clearly enough ) nothing is gained and much is lost in endless
and expensive primary and actual election campaigns.
The national day of
election would begin on first Saturday in November at 9 AM EST and 6 AM
PST and end on Sunday following at 9 PM PST ( 6 PM EST ) - giving everyone
time to vote and correct registration errors, beginning and ending at the
same time in the continental USA. ( Could be Friday and Saturday - or Sunday
and Monday or even Monday and Tuesday )
If some states want to be first ( Iowa and New Hampshire they could
do so in July with area or national primaries in late July or August )
The national election commission made up of retired judges, University
Presidents, Major non-profits, foundations and other NGO’s Ambassadors,
civil servants and other non-political not nonpartisan appointments would
set standards for voting machine standard error at less than ½ of
1 % , registration - including a national federal election registration
to correct errors, facilitate movers and overseas voters, resolve double
registrations, ineligible votes, and providing regulation of money, public
finance, campaign finance and the debates and free air time.
At the same time a constitutional admendment: to make clear there is
popular election of the President and Vice-President, ( still counted by
electoral votes ) making the common practice constitutional -
"
The electoral votes certified by the states and the District of Columbia
in the election of the President and Vice-president; these votes will be
counted in the same manner as the electors in the electoral college and
the votes will be certified and counted in Congress as electoral votes
for President and Vice-President under Art II and the XII admendment
The
states shall determine the method of popular ELECTION by which Presidential
and vice-presidential electoral votes are selected. States shall proportion
their presidential and vice-presidential electoral votes and establish
before the election how voting is conducted and how votes are contested.
The state laws for the election for President and Vice President shall
be consistent with elections for the most populous house in that state
and as in the elections for U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators and
subject to the same constitutional and other federal protections and regulations
as other federal elections."
the rest of the process is left alone ( messy but hard to change the
nature of elector votes )
Removes the electors as persons which have no real function
Make clear Presidents are elected by the people
That federal election laws and Constitutional protections apply to Presidential
elections.
Partisan vs. Political:
What are the real conflicts within American Society that require political
compromises and policies ? Real politics is about - Who gets what, when
and how ? What are the partisans on the other hand fighting about and is
there a connection between the real world of material interests and the
talking heads, political action committees, professional fund raisers,
campaigns, the media and all that jazz ? Electional reform is the critical
issue before much else will happen. If we look around the world there are
lots of models of better systems mainly independent election commissions
and the use of the free national airwaves. Quick, cheap and public elections
would help a lot.
The hard issue is the role of the federal government as a protector
and benefactor of poorer people or as a supporter of private business and
individual enterprise at the state and local level ? In short the Republicans
are traditional conservatives with a strong pro business basis but needing
the religious right to get the numbers they need to win. Democrats are
traditional welfare populist who have become centrist "new" democrats,
more pro growth, supporting global trade - needing the money and support
of the new economy to win.
So the Republicans since Reagan there is a rhetoric "social issues"
but gave substance to their tradition upper class economic base, defense
industries, oil, drugs, tobacco, medical and other "special" interests.
The democrats use populist rhetoric to mobilize their base in the minorities,
the working poor, and organized labor ( with teachers as a critical element
) but serve their business supporters, entertainment, financial services,
trial lawyers, telecommunications, medical services, insurance etc. Many
( most ) big business support both sides and get what they really want
from congressional committees.
The "right wing" Republicans keep talking about the scandals - real
or imagined - and the "social " or cultural issues - which get tied together
with the President Clinton’s bad personal behavior as a marker -
The left
leaning liberals are looked at as less moral, less religious and more relativist,
humanist, feminism, environmentalist, secular where Abortion has become
the code word that "states rights" used to play for racism.
The traditional
pro-business policy remains low taxes, smaller government, local control
but with a strong defense - balanced budgets with a lower priority.
The Democrats seem less clear both on their partisan rhetoric and their
hard policies.
Their symbolic issues are things like hate crimes ( black
and gay communities ) the right of choice ( working women ) and replacement
workers ( organized labor ).
Their environmental policy has waffled - but
run into the western land management policies that invoke a strong response.
The issues become confused because of the need to collect enough voters
and money to win. After winning the two coalitions do not have a substance
base - Republicans with their "right" wing moral extremist - Democrats
with their commercial ties to their sources of money.
Therefore, as John
McCain has said unless there is a really new system of getting the 100’s
of millions required to win, neither party, or even a collection of moderates
in the center can govern.
They are both too tied to their money rather
than their active political membership. We will not get a real choice,
or real policies - either way - lower taxes and less government - or more
benefits and health and retirement reform - or anything else without reforming
the issue of money and politics.
The tie can not be cut but can be weakened.
Republicans would then be free to be real conservatives and democrats would
be liberals and deals would be made - politics would be restored over empty
talk.
A really strong independent ( not bipartisan ) election commission is
needed to reform the voting process and the financing of elections. Elections
should be short and less expensive.
The commission would give out both
the public funds and control private funds used directly in campaigns.
Money will come out of the cracks and has a constitutional right to express
it’s views BUT if the process is shorter, and better regulated it will
be better.
Out of the box:
Today is the real start of the new millennium so we should think
about longer time frames than just a year.
The interesting phenomenon is
the increase in the rate of change - not only is there a pattern of rapid
changes but an acceleration of the rate of change.
This has been the pattern for the last 1,000 years - let’s review -
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
look at the maps !
In the year 1000 there were about 1/3 Gigapersons One third billion
(109) of people distributed very lightly in the Americas ( less than 3
% ) a decline in Europe of about 50/50% from the times of the ancient Empires
to 50 Million or 12 % with the center of population being in China and
south Asia.
The middle east, North Africa and Spain had about the same
population as Europe with the High Civilization of the Moorish empire from
Spain to India and the decline of the west.
By the 18th Century Europe had become the dominate power with Europeans
in the New World and pushing their empires into Africa and the Far East.
Europeans became 20 % of the earth’s population ( more than half in North
America ) then began a relative and absolute decline.
The planet passed
it’s first gigaperson after the end of the 18th Century with the introduction
of the potato, and a slide into the age of reason, science, technology,
industrial engineering, navigation, communications, scientific agriculture,
liberal capitalist political democracy, founded on Newton’s physics, and
rational organizations using systematic problem solving.
Modern ideas of medicine and public health such as cleaning up the water
supply and disease control started in the 19th Century and began to have
a impact on demographics.
The 20th Century went from a less than two gigapersons
to over six with the population mass shifting east and south while wealth
grew in the North and West - and Japan.
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop
http://www.popexpo.net/eMain.html
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
So here we are with a technology that greatly increased productivity
and survival rates but vastly different results. Microbes, MICROORGANISM
have done what they do best - evolve quickly. If you kill 99.9 % of them
the other .1 % reproduce quickly and will replace those under control with
those not under control.
The outbreak of ancient negative feedback systems,
pestilence, famine, and war - are beginning to have demographic effects
in the poorest parts of the world.
The great issue of this century is the connection between biotechnology
and new patterns of life and death on the planet. Without policy rich nations
trend toward an aged population with problems of supporting more and more
old with fewer workers.
The answer is in emigration of the poor to the
richer areas as both highly skilled and unskilled workers.
Europe and North America become more Oriental, Latin, African, and Eastern
and Southern European which have to adjust to each other. Since these are
global issue there needs to be a global population and immigration policy
- but there is none or no way of getting one.
There needs to be global
primary education and higher educational strategy, global health policy,
global development policy, ( water, resources, energy, etc. ) global peace
keeping policy, because global problems will not bend to national interest
power policies.
When the law goes bad:
Pardon my French : J’ suis l’etat - or l’etat son moi ( I am the state
said Louis XIV ) Nous son la droit - ( We are the law -
The U.S. Supreme
court ) C’est tres ennuyeux - ( It is very annoying ) When you have something
taken and you say " I will go to the police " and they say we are the police
! You are told "Report that you were beaten up to the authorities" - and
you say -
They were the authorities ! it is a coup d'état, usurpation,
ARROGATION arbitrary rule, arbitrariness, negation of law, abolition of
law by the highest court in the land !
Don’t bother your sweet little heads about democracy:
You just carry on with Christmas shopping - the republic will take care
of itself without you paying any attention. I had a dream about the U.S.
Supreme court. I was arguing with them. I was saying " Look this is not
about chads, or equal protection, or due process but it’s all about who
gets to be President of the United States. You can say Democracy and elections
are sloppy, recounts lack standards, voting in America is messy and confused
and always has been thus - so we don’t have to do all that recounting and
making hard judgments but just let the high court select the President
for the country.
Hear ye Judges, the court is very wrong to interject itself into the
rough and tumble of democracy and pick winners and losers ". Federal courts
have no constitutional role in Presidential elections.
The Supreme Court
has defied the constitution ( which is only what they say it is ) they
have defiled common sense - they have defied logic and consistency - they
have defrauded tradition - and no longer can we say as a text book I used
claimed "
The people shall Judge " or choice but don't worry your pretty
little head about it, father knows best !
Congress is set up by the constitution to decide election disputes,
not the courts, any strict construction or review of the current law will
read it that the federal courts have NO role in the selection of the electoral
college. Title II makes Presidential elections a function of state legislatures
- who then set up the popular votes and rules governing elections - the
laws are specifically said to be interpreted by state courts given the
widest discretion to see votes counted in the popular votes for President
get counted and the right persons wins.
It is painfully clear that Florida law is a patched up job leaving conflicts
between old and new parts. It was not designed for Presidential elections
at all and badly designed for the short time lines required under federal
law. But that is a state issue which has no federal solution or cause because
electors are state elections under Article II, purely state law not a federal
case - I am sure now that their attention has been called, the Florida
Legislature will draft a better law with clear deadlines and clear up the
conflicts the courts tried to deal with such as " shall " may or could
- "electoral systems" now or latter deadlines et al - including making
contest of state wide election be state wide and under uniform standards
- but did not do so for this election as the law is the law until the Supreme
Court said don't bother with history, the law, tradition, justice, common
sense, we will select the winner for you because we are better than you
are !
The only issue is that one side wanted to count votes because they believed
there were legal votes, the votes could be counted under Florida Law, and
counting would bring them victory. ( As will be proven in the next few
weeks that there were more than enough such votes if they could have counted
them )
The other side did everything it could to obstruct the counting. This
pattern of objection and obstruction including using the Secretary of State
to issue a legally false opinion and obstruct the counting as much as she
could, the use of a rent a mob and direct death threats from the Cuban
Mob in Miami, throwing sand and dust into the air about standards and chads
at the counting tables, calling in the Florida Legislature, and the courts
to STOP the counting of votes because they believed as well, if the votes
were counted they would lose.
They won because of the delays, stalling,
obstruction and finally because of the stay by the U.S. Supreme Court -
finally stopped the counting of legal votes then saying it was too late
to repair the damage done to the democratic process by a pattern of obstruction
which included the federal court.
The federal courts had no role in this fight and the Supreme court never
found a believable cause for even hearing the case. ( due process and equal
protection are really far fetched, blue sky attachments without legal foundation
to over turn a State Supreme court on state election law - such jurisdiction
exists only in clear violation of federal voting rights where such a finding
could be made - Voting rights violation was never even suggested in this
case - Title II of the Constitution, the U.S. Code having to do with electoral
college dates and how Congress shall deal with election disputes, and the
Michigan Case about the powers of legislatures were more than a stretch
they were a leap in legal logic. )
The court said " Because the process is messy, in the future if there
is a close election the Supreme court will decide who wins. Never mind
about federalism, judicial restraint, states rights, that state courts
interpret state law, because democracy is messy and confused - Never worry
your little heads about it - This most undemocratic of all institutions
can make the choice for the country. We are not really concerned with due
process, equal protection ( which we could hear as a civil rights voting
case but refuse to do so ) but only in imposing our final judgment in place
of a popular unruly democracy. " Mainly we like republicans better than
we like democrats ( who have been very nasty to us for years ) and we think
George W. Bush should be President, so THERE !
The conservatives going back to Madison, Mason and Hamilton never believed
in equality or democracy.
There were the "better" class - richer, more
responsible, wiser and they would rule through representatives of their
own type and class.
The masses are only self centered, easily mislead by
false passions, leaders and ideas and clearly need to be controlled and
regulated. It was the popular upraising against taxes, foreclosure, and
"their betters" in the courts and state houses that was the direct motivation
for the federal constitution along with the desire to clear up land titles
in the Northwest Territory so scripts used as payments during the war (
which were based on land grants ) could be redeemed at windfall profits.
Strict construction means defending the minority of rich against the
rapacious but more numerous poor.
The court served its ancient master which
protected slavery, fought against unions, civil rights, social justice
and equality over the bulk of its history. Only in the 1960’s and some
of the 70’s did the court go modern, flexible, and support democracy and
justice. It has returned to form as a center piece of anti-democratic forces.
There is no judicial constraint in shutting down the counting of votes
and picking a President.
The constitution is not a democratic document.
The founders were not
democrats. Democracy did not exist as we now know it.
There were limited
representative republics but popular democracy grew with the 19th and 20th
Century both in Great Britain and in the U.S. - the right to vote for President
became clear in 1845, popular franchise with the growth of the frontier
and Andy Jackson. First most white males, then Black males after the Civil
War for awhile until the political system and the high court turned their
backs on the 14th and 15th admendment.
Then women with the 19th admendment,
and blacks with the Voting Rights act and repeal of poll taxes, a long
slow process of the right to vote. One man one vote was a lon g time coming
and bitterly opposed.
The court has never ruled the sloppy voting systems, where some ( mostly
poor and minorities ) have much higher rates of spoiled or machine unreadable
ballots raises a equal protection issue.
They have always looked for intentional
discrimination not variation in outcomes. Schools still fail to produce
equal results, or does the death penalty, or does equal housing, or employment,
or income, or anything else - we are still very unequal - it is almost
impossible for courts to demand fair outcomes only minimal due process.
Cubans Worried by Bush Election Win
The Associated Press Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000; 12:34 p.m. EST
HAVANA –– A Cuban newspaper expressed concern Thursday at George W.
Bush's presidential win, asking how much Cuban exiles in Florida would
influence the new administration.
"How much power will he give the Mafia of Miami?" asked a lengthy article
in Juventud Rebelde, the daily of Cuba's Union of Young Communists. "What
will happen to foreign policy?"
Miami - Nov 22 Wed who shut down the count that would have put Gore
over the top and changed everything ?
.
The "bourgeois riot" celebrated by Wall Street Journal columnist Paul
Gigot helped stop the announced manual recount of the 10,750 undervote
in Miami-Dade County. Instigated by an order from New York congressman
John Sweeney to "shut it down," dozens of screaming GOP demonstrators pounded
on doors and a picture window at elections headquarters.
The canvassing
board, which had already found a net Al Gore gain of 168 votes, reversed
a decision it had made a couple of hours earlier to begin a tally of the
undervote.
The mob gang-rushed a local Democrat carrying a blank sample ballot.
They threatened that a thousand Cubans were on their way to the headquarters
to stop the count. Several people were "trampled, punched or kicked," according
to
The New York Times.
The canvassing board chair at first conceded that
mob pressures played a role in the shutdown—which cost Gore the 168 votes
as well—but later reversed his position.
The high success rate in the partial recount triggered a "mandatory"
obligation under state law to count the rest of the ballots, but it also
triggered a GOP mania to block it. Sweeney, who was coordinating the assault
with a local Cuban congressman, branded Dade "ground zero" in the ballot
battle and called the attempted count "theft," though his own representatives
were in the room where it was scheduled to begin.
Instead of condemning the Dade tactics, W. himself called the victory
party that night to praise them, and Republicans invoked the specter of
Jesse Jackson, who'd merely led peaceful protests outside election offices.
Unlike Sweeney's mob, Jackson was, of course, protesting real voter theft—the
massive Duval County disenfranchising of black voters—a cause all but ignored
by Gore for fear the GOP would turn the Florida fight into a Race Thing,
their favorite consensus-building gimmick.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001214/aponline123456_001.htm
If more than half your revenues come from Cubans - and they can boycott
your advertising - and customers to those who do advertise - you see how
"they" can intimidate the "media" - Knight newspapers have pulled off the
exile ( Foundation ) and violence, political corruption, and intimidation
story - in the face of violence against them and bankruptcy of their Miami
newspaper and TV stations. Politicians are even more cowardly - getting
votes however they can and clearly afraid of the power of the mob.
http://www.americas.org/country/index.asp?country=Cuba
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What will happen tomorrow that effects your life today. News about what's happening and for updates use GlobalVillage Excite NewsSearch ????
The Stock Market Game
The
new tech search
on hot companies for updates use GlobalVillage Excite NewsSearch
suggestions: FIRST:
The list of companies in tele-communications
http://telecom.tbi.net/network1.htm
Wiredbrain Future new news and private research service by GlobalVillages
provides research on and the future ???
Don't be blind to what others are doing and what they know about what you
are up to AT FROM:
pfpfpfpflaump@cfl.rr.com>
Who will keep you informed on the events just around the next
bend. In the past it was OK to let others forge the way. You could wait
to see how it turned out then buy your way in after the bugs had been removed.
Pioneers got arrows in their backs. BUT now we are all on the frontier
and can't wait until the dust settles. For example:
Dr. Pflaum ( for a fee ) will research the events and technologies
that will effect your future and give you reports and advice.
www.multicrawl.com
for synergy site: use wiredbrain and "any topic"
Example:
Wonders of the Mind. GlobalVillage
Excite NewsSearch
http://www.spaceports.com/~sparkg/wavs/pinky/battle.wav
http://www.spaceports.com/~sparkg/
http://www.zdnet.com/ferret/images/ferret3.gif
Ferret finds 1500 Wiredbrain "pflaump"
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COPERNIC searches all the main engines very quickly
Make
PORTALS
your home page and use "wiredbrain" password "synergy" for set-up start
pages.
Alltheweb does as it claims to be fast and large
Most search engines now find about 30 % of the 350 million pages. So
you need to check many engines.
What
science knows
MSN
now does the best search
OUR
Social ergonomics
Web
Hosting
Individual development, organizational
change, and In the computer industry, power comes not from the barrel of
a gun but from the interface of a
Protocol:
He who controls the
interface controls the system.
Continued on - please let me know about errors ! Some of these pages date back up to 10 years ( 1992 ) and have been through many editors and transfers. News about what's happening and for updates use GlobalVillage Excite NewsSearch -
ppppflaump@cfl.rr.com - http://www.wiredbrain.net/
post.htm
VAT
initiative.htm
issues.htm
symbian.htm
salestax.htm
educational reform.htm
Dear George :
We all wish you well as our one and only President:
After the Declaration of Independence was signed, Virginia statesman
John Page wrote to Thomas Jefferson: ``We know the race is not to the swift
nor the battle to the strong. Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind
and directs this storm?'' What does this mean ?
The better angels speak softly in the biter fights of passions and interests.
The voice of a more suitable wisdom comes from clam reflection on what
really matters in the long run. While the swift and cleaver, the big and
strong may dominate the battle they do not always win the war.
The long
struggle for human dignity, honor and justice goes on.
The Revolution by
the American people was such a battle - they were not the strongest or
swiftest - but had a clearer vision and purpose which substandard the cause
when all seemed lost and hopeless -
The balance is between the "law" and "liberty" , the rights of the individual
and the demands of society, is a continuing history of civilization, the
people of the colonies had a better idea about this balance than the British
Empire at the time.
Where there are no really new beginning - from the tribes in the wilderness
coming out of slavery, with the new covenant and a new Jerusalem, with
the revolutions and civil wars, we pass on but carry on the past with the
vision of the future.
The sins and virtues of the fathers are not interned
in their bones but their children bare the marks and carry the wisdom they
have inherited.
Legitimacy is more than an election BUT ... elections are the foundation
of popular sovereignty and as an "elected" sovereign the reflection of
the popular will is the duty of the President BUT more than a reflection
- a more timeless embodiment of lasting meaning and principles of a free
and orderly society. Leadership is the angel in the in the whirlwind and
directs this storm. A leader knows his better motivations, the longer term
national interests, the hopeful visions for this people and stays the course.
The vision shared for the centuries is of a civic culture, a civilized
society, educated in virtue and knowledge, free of the suppression of ideas,
overcoming superstition and prejudice, becoming enlightened and wise, living
freely by the rule of law and justice, fair to each others and their neighbors,
peaceful and prosperous with a moral purpose beyond their own advantage.
This we can share and work together if we see the whole and not just pieces
- compromise of the small for the large, the petty for the whole, the local
for the national, the temporary for the long term. This vision is what
makes progress and success possible and why leaders have followers, a call
to greater causes, images of a brighter future, a subtended hope, faith
and charity which catches fire in the popular imagination.
The message can not be just through the press, speeches, programs and
proposals but in actions. You must create the image of the reality before
it exists.
The good schools where no child is left behind needs to be in
sound and pictures - the bad school when lives are distorted needs to be
visible and present as a hard reality. You can go to such places - you
can personally work to turn the institutions around. Nothing can be more
important that the message - the reality on the ground - let others carry
the programs and proposals, argue about the details - but if you can sell
the image - the big picture - the rest will come along in time.
The photo
ops is the media and the message - schools, long term care, cost and benefits
in retirement planning, taxes and costs, election reform - etc.
It is not accidental that America has been the home of the brave and
the land of the free — the place where mankind has had the greatest of
all opportunities to approach the potential that God has placed within
us. It has been because we knew that we were endowed not by the king, but
by the Creator with certain inalienable rights.
Rights derived from GOD ? It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy
not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it
be.
At the time of the declaration of independence - the co-conspirators
were declaring an armed rebellion against their king and country. This
was a clear act of treason by British Subjects in their becoming American
Citizens.
The rebellion had to be justified by appeal to a higher authority.
They could not use the language Ashcroft and many conservative Christian
have made an article of faith, that Jesus gave us freedom. Madison did
not justify an armed citizenry as a protection from oppression. Only the
civic doctrine of duty and honor would protect the republic. Christian
doctrine at the time would have required them to be good subjects and loyal
to existing institutions.
The rebellion was against Church and State -
so you could not justify a rebellion against the King based on the Church
by using religion as the reason.
The act of rebellion against an existing government makes you either
a founding fathers or failed members of a rebellion of the American Colonies.
The British loyalist refugees ( in 100,000’s ) who went to Canada and the
West Indies held the view that the political issues with a current administration
did not justify such an extreme act.
The Loyalist were largely right about
the current political issues but the underlining cause of the American
Revolution was not English despotism but was a new passion based on a philosophy
of Government, of Human Rights, and the social contract.
The ideas behind
the Declaration of Independence were derived from humanist, rationalist,
secular ( and Masonic ) ideas from Europe.
The Revolutionaries were not
traditional Christian but Deist - the Church was often associated with
an ancient superstition and a important and fundamental support for the
divine right of kings, against which they were in revolt.
So where do civil liberties come from if they are not the grant from
the government but inherent ? This is the problem discussed in Locke and
the French Philosophies - they derived from a social contract - individuals
negotiate limits on their freedom and pay taxes to support the common good
- the nature of the contract is reflected in elections and the democratic
process. It is democracy which grants Government legitimacy not Jesus.
The King is popular sovereignty - not a religion or could it be.
Mr. Ashcroft's words and deeds
ATTORNEY GENERAL THE QUESTION of whether to confirm John D. Ashcroft
boils down to measuring his words against his deeds
Mr. Ashcroft angrily defended his anti-abortion lawsuits in Missouri;
they were not an attempt to subvert the Constitution, he said, but to develop
the law. But Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., pointed out that Mr. Ashcroft's
lawsuits were intended to "overturn the law," not develop it.
The record
demonstrates that Mr. Kennedy is right.
The most disturbing part of Mr. Ashcroft's testimony was his misrepresentation
of his opposition to the voluntary school desegregation program in St.
Louis. He said the courts had not found the state guilty of wrongdoing,
that the state had not been a party to the case when it was ordered to
pay for the plan and that he had never defied court orders. In fact, the
federal courts found that the state was the primary constitutional wrongdoer
and the state was a party to the case. And, in 1981 a federal court criticized
the state for deliberately deciding to "defy the authority" of the court.
And he continues to misstate the opinion of Judge Ronnie White in a
death penalty case that Mr. Ashcroft used to kill Mr. White's nomination
to a federal judgeship. Judge White is set to testify today.
Mr. Ashcroft made some progress toward making himself more palatable
as attorney general. But the weight of his record, and the tension between
his beliefs and the laws of the land, are hard to ignore.
J.S. Mill On Liberty said Do no harm.
The first idea of not hurting or making things worse is a basic policy,
medical, political and educational principle - but not so simple - With
the best intention policy often does make the problem worse rather than
better - ( rent control, deregulation in some cases, private vs. Public
enterprises, public housing, the War on Drugs, highways, Arms race, over
use of antibiotics, etc. ) Mills idea was that his freedom extends to the
edge of your nose but - libertarian principle does not deal with the "hard"
problems.
Hard problems have no good solutions only ones that are better or less
bad. Among hard problems are drug abuse and other victimless crime, balanced
growth and population and immigration control, environmental balance and
economic growth, dealing with enemies and defense policy - money and politics
- Israel - Palestine - Retirement benefits and health care - so there are
few "easy" social issues - few that require no brains just slogans - such
as getting rid of the 1960's punch cards ( see below ) - any serious analysis
of complex problems find there are winners and losers - so there are benefits
and harms - very few issues are all to the good, almost every action has
costs.
John Steward Mill's answer was do the most good for the most people
- but benefits and harms are subjective - a small good to many may not
balance a great harm to few - or the other way around.
The way republican
government is to have a fair fight among interests and compromise who wins
and who pays. Since only a small proportion of the people are actively
engaged in the struggle ( about 3 % ) - so only a few get to bargain about
costs and benefits.
The fight over costs and benefits is therefore determined by active
minorities - money and troops. In this sense it can rarely be the greatest
good for the greatest number but the most goods go to those who work harder
or pay more to get or defend their interests. In short democracy is not
perfect but less bad than the alternatives.
The current problem in American Government is how the few battle for
power - the use of modern marketing methods which require lots of money.
Modern marketing is less convincing people that you are right and a good
product and they are wrong and a bad product ( as Tony Blair does in GB
) but finding emotional connections between what people "feel" and the
product. What Bush did was to make people feel that they were associated
with your needs and desires and they are bad, undesirable or evil. Gore
tried the same so it came out even.
Policy is only a weak content to make the all important emotional partisan
connection with feeling not reason. You see very few commercials that have
substantive content - how the product is good value but only images and
emotions - Philip Morris are good people - drugs solve your problems, products
make you joyful and so are very happy after you buy the goods.
All that Jazz, Broadway and commercials are the major cultural contributions
of mass culture in America. American Consumer Industry is based on Images,
attachments to subjective product values - brand names that cost more for
the same product. It is dishonest and deceptive - emotional not rational
- and it works. Cereal is 20 cents of product, 25 cents of packaging, 50
cents of advertising, and good profits for the supermarket - including
payment for shelf space. Politics is 25 % policy and offering benefits
( no costs are discussed ), 25 % the character of the candidate package,
35 % marketing and commercials - including voter research ( focus groups
- what do they want to hear ) and 15 % random noise and events out side
the control of the parties. Cereal is mostly fluffy, sugar loaded junk
food - so is the political process the Captain Crunch of political systems.
Gore won the free benefits case, Bush the likeability, Ads were about equal
- no killer messages but Bush a little more money, Gore had the environment,
peace and prosperity - so again a tie. A few really strong messages ( and
a clear personality package by Gore ) and good ads could have won the election
for either side.
Electoral reform:
The national voter ID card - issued along with driver licenses or tax
returns or by application - a electronic credit card with photo - could
contain a number like on your checks - an account number and a county,
ward, and precinct number.
There would be no need to registrar for national
elections but everyone could have a national card and could vote for national
officers. At the time of election ( should be a holiday such as Nov 11th
and maybe over two days ) polling places would electronically scan the
cards and know who tried to vote.
There would be two ballots - the national
one to anyone with a national card- a local one with local registration.
The national list could be cross checked for citizenship, felony convictions,
residency, and be fairly clean which voter rolls are not now ( millions
of double enrolled, American move a lot - more votes in Alaska than people
) - another quagmire when we get into registration and voter rolls. At
some time the national vote then could be recorded at any ATM machine or
home computer. Once a voter is recorded as voting they can not vote again.
Greater participation should do more good than harm.
The issues of security
and honesty is not hard in the same way ATM and credit cards are safe and
secure even online.
Second, the money to parties is partly good - it just needs the controls
that were originally intended but so poorly written and cut up by court
actions as to be without controlling legal principals.
The federal election
commission needs to be more like a really independent commission such as
the federal reserve and other forth branch "independent" agencies - FDA,
FCC, SEC, etc with wide powers to set standards for election, machines,
money, debates, other free air time, in this complex area ( not more difficult
that drugs, securities, communications etc. ) and make other suggestions
for improvements.
Economic Policy:
What is likely to happen maybe the best policy - giving 2 to 3 % growth
this year and maybe better next year.
Paying down on the debt - reducing the drain from interest ( 15 % of
budget ) and foreign payments ( 1/3 of the public debt is held by foreigners
and a drain in reserves and setting up some correction in Social Security
because the Trust fund will hold most of the debt )
Modest investment in infrastructure - education - research - physical
infrastructure - 100 miles of runway for example -
Modest tax reform - making it simpler - reducing the cost of compliance
- front loaded - incentives for work and investment - supply side
Modest monetary expansion and lower interest rates
Medicare Medicaid Reform
Goals and principles - Tax what you want less of - support what you
want more of
We want more work and investment - savings
We want fewer barriers to entry into markets - jobs - success - includes
education and open markets
The best thing that happened in the last decade was the control of federal
budget - the budget reform act needs to be maintained and reinforced -
So let’s get down to reality:
A camel is a horse designed by a committee.
The American electoral system
is designed by lots of committees - in State Legislatures, Congress and
the political party state and national committees. It is a reflection of
much participation, many interests, and is a multi-headed beast that serves
no one well.
Real reform would be for Congress which has the power to set the dates
for the national elections and regulating Congressional election, setting
a starting date as July 4th, Independence day as the first date available
for primaries ( both for Congress and the Presidential elections ) Run
Off, and Conventions ( not really necessary with primaries ) would be finished
by labor day and all the candidates nominated for office by early September.
Official campaigns would be conducted in late September and October ( six
weeks is clearly enough ) nothing is gained and much is lost in endless
and expensive primary and actual election campaigns.
The national day of
election would begin on first Saturday in November at 9 AM EST and 6 AM
PST and end on Sunday following at 9 PM PST ( 6 PM EST ) - giving everyone
time to vote and correct registration errors, beginning and ending at the
same time in the continental USA. ( Could be Friday and Saturday - or Sunday
and Monday or even Monday and Tuesday )
If some states want to be first ( Iowa and New Hampshire they could
do so in July with area or national primaries in late July or August )
The national election commission made up of retired judges, University
Presidents, Major non-profits, foundations and other NGO’s Ambassadors,
civil servants and other non-political not nonpartisan appointments would
set standards for voting machine standard error at less than ½ of
1 % , registration - including a national federal election registration
to correct errors, facilitate movers and overseas voters, resolve double
registrations, ineligible votes, and providing regulation of money, public
finance, campaign finance and the debates and free air time.
At the same time a constitutional admendment: to make clear there is
popular election of the President and Vice-President, ( still counted by
electoral votes ) making the common practice constitutional -
"
The electoral votes certified by the states and the District of Columbia
in the election of the President and Vice-president; these votes will be
counted in the same manner as the electors in the electoral college and
the votes will be certified and counted in Congress as electoral votes
for President and Vice-President under Art II and the XII admendment
The
states shall determine the method of popular ELECTION by which Presidential
and vice-presidential electoral votes are selected. States shall proportion
their presidential and vice-presidential electoral votes and establish
before the election how voting is conducted and how votes are contested.
The state laws for the election for President and Vice President shall
be consistent with elections for the most populous house in that state
and as in the elections for U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators and
subject to the same constitutional and other federal protections and regulations
as other federal elections."
the rest of the process is left alone ( messy but hard to change the
nature of elector votes )
Removes the electors as persons which have no real function
Make clear Presidents are elected by the people
That federal election laws and Constitutional protections apply to Presidential
elections.
Partisan vs. Political:
What are the real conflicts within American Society that require political
compromises and policies ? Real politics is about - Who gets what, when
and how ? What are the partisans on the other hand fighting about and is
there a connection between the real world of material interests and the
talking heads, political action committees, professional fund raisers,
campaigns, the media and all that jazz ? Electional reform is the critical
issue before much else will happen. If we look around the world there are
lots of models of better systems mainly independent election commissions
and the use of the free national airwaves. Quick, cheap and public elections
would help a lot.
The hard issue is the role of the federal government as a protector
and benefactor of poorer people or as a supporter of private business and
individual enterprise at the state and local level ? In short the Republicans
are traditional conservatives with a strong pro business basis but needing
the religious right to get the numbers they need to win. Democrats are
traditional welfare populist who have become centrist "new" democrats,
more pro growth, supporting global trade - needing the money and support
of the new economy to win.
So the Republicans since Reagan there is a rhetoric "social issues"
but gave substance to their tradition upper class economic base, defense
industries, oil, drugs, tobacco, medical and other "special" interests.
The democrats use populist rhetoric to mobilize their base in the minorities,
the working poor, and organized labor ( with teachers as a critical element
) but serve their business supporters, entertainment, financial services,
trial lawyers, telecommunications, medical services, insurance etc. Many
( most ) big business support both sides and get what they really want
from congressional committees.
The "right wing" Republicans keep talking about the scandals - real
or imagined - and the "social " or cultural issues - which get tied together
with the President Clinton’s bad personal behavior as a marker -
The left
leaning liberals are looked at as less moral, less religious and more relativist,
humanist, feminism, environmentalist, secular where Abortion has become
the code word that "states rights" used to play for racism.
The traditional
pro-business policy remains low taxes, smaller government, local control
but with a strong defense - balanced budgets with a lower priority.
The Democrats seem less clear both on their partisan rhetoric and their
hard policies.
Their symbolic issues are things like hate crimes ( black
and gay communities ) the right of choice ( working women ) and replacement
workers ( organized labor ).
Their environmental policy has waffled - but
run into the western land management policies that invoke a strong response.
The issues become confused because of the need to collect enough voters
and money to win. After winning the two coalitions do not have a substance
base - Republicans with their "right" wing moral extremist - Democrats
with their commercial ties to their sources of money.
Therefore, as John
McCain has said unless there is a really new system of getting the 100’s
of millions required to win, neither party, or even a collection of moderates
in the center can govern.
They are both too tied to their money rather
than their active political membership. We will not get a real choice,
or real policies - either way - lower taxes and less government - or more
benefits and health and retirement reform - or anything else without reforming
the issue of money and politics.
The tie can not be cut but can be weakened.
Republicans would then be free to be real conservatives and democrats would
be liberals and deals would be made - politics would be restored over empty
talk.
A really strong independent ( not bipartisan ) election commission is
needed to reform the voting process and the financing of elections. Elections
should be short and less expensive.
The commission would give out both
the public funds and control private funds used directly in campaigns.
Money will come out of the cracks and has a constitutional right to express
it’s views BUT if the process is shorter, and better regulated it will
be better.
Out of the box:
Today is the real start of the new millennium so we should think
about longer time frames than just a year.
The interesting phenomenon is
the increase in the rate of change - not only is there a pattern of rapid
changes but an acceleration of the rate of change.
This has been the pattern for the last 1,000 years - let’s review -
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
look at the maps !
In the year 1000 there were about 1/3 Gigapersons One third billion
(109) of people distributed very lightly in the Americas ( less than 3
% ) a decline in Europe of about 50/50% from the times of the ancient Empires
to 50 Million or 12 % with the center of population being in China and
south Asia.
The middle east, North Africa and Spain had about the same
population as Europe with the High Civilization of the Moorish empire from
Spain to India and the decline of the west.
By the 18th Century Europe had become the dominate power with Europeans
in the New World and pushing their empires into Africa and the Far East.
Europeans became 20 % of the earth’s population ( more than half in North
America ) then began a relative and absolute decline.
The planet passed
it’s first gigaperson after the end of the 18th Century with the introduction
of the potato, and a slide into the age of reason, science, technology,
industrial engineering, navigation, communications, scientific agriculture,
liberal capitalist political democracy, founded on Newton’s physics, and
rational organizations using systematic problem solving.
Modern ideas of medicine and public health such as cleaning up the water
supply and disease control started in the 19th Century and began to have
a impact on demographics.
The 20th Century went from a less than two gigapersons
to over six with the population mass shifting east and south while wealth
grew in the North and West - and Japan.
http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop
http://www.popexpo.net/eMain.html
http://www.igc.apc.org/desip/populationmaps.html
So here we are with a technology that greatly increased productivity
and survival rates but vastly different results. Microbes, MICROORGANISM
have done what they do best - evolve quickly. If you kill 99.9 % of them
the other .1 % reproduce quickly and will replace those under control with
those not under control.
The outbreak of ancient negative feedback systems,
pestilence, famine, and war - are beginning to have demographic effects
in the poorest parts of the world.
The great issue of this century is the connection between biotechnology
and new patterns of life and death on the planet. Without policy rich nations
trend toward an aged population with problems of supporting more and more
old with fewer workers.
The answer is in emigration of the poor to the
richer areas as both highly skilled and unskilled workers.
Europe and North America become more Oriental, Latin, African, and Eastern
and Southern European which have to adjust to each other. Since these are
global issue there needs to be a global population and immigration policy
- but there is none or no way of getting one.
There needs to be global
primary education and higher educational strategy, global health policy,
global development policy, ( water, resources, energy, etc. ) global peace
keeping policy, because global problems will not bend to national interest
power policies.
When the law goes bad:
Pardon my French : J’ suis l’etat - or l’etat son moi ( I am the state
said Louis XIV ) Nous son la droit - ( We are the law -
The U.S. Supreme
court ) C’est tres ennuyeux - ( It is very annoying ) When you have something
taken and you say " I will go to the police " and they say we are the police
! You are told "Report that you were beaten up to the authorities" - and
you say -
They were the authorities ! it is a coup d'état, usurpation,
ARROGATION arbitrary rule, arbitrariness, negation of law, abolition of
law by the highest court in the land !
Don’t bother your sweet little heads about democracy:
You just carry on with Christmas shopping - the republic will take care
of itself without you paying any attention. I had a dream about the U.S.
Supreme court. I was arguing with them. I was saying " Look this is not
about chads, or equal protection, or due process but it’s all about who
gets to be President of the United States. You can say Democracy and elections
are sloppy, recounts lack standards, voting in America is messy and confused
and always has been thus - so we don’t have to do all that recounting and
making hard judgments but just let the high court select the President
for the country.
Hear ye Judges, the court is very wrong to interject itself into the
rough and tumble of democracy and pick winners and losers ". Federal courts
have no constitutional role in Presidential elections.
The Supreme Court
has defied the constitution ( which is only what they say it is ) they
have defiled common sense - they have defied logic and consistency - they
have defrauded tradition - and no longer can we say as a text book I used
claimed "
The people shall Judge " or choice but don't worry your pretty
little head about it, father knows best !
Congress is set up by the constitution to decide election disputes,
not the courts, any strict construction or review of the current law will
read it that the federal courts have NO role in the selection of the electoral
college. Title II makes Presidential elections a function of state legislatures
- who then set up the popular votes and rules governing elections - the
laws are specifically said to be interpreted by state courts given the
widest discretion to see votes counted in the popular votes for President
get counted and the right persons wins.
It is painfully clear that Florida law is a patched up job leaving conflicts
between old and new parts. It was not designed for Presidential elections
at all and badly designed for the short time lines required under federal
law. But that is a state issue which has no federal solution or cause because
electors are state elections under Article II, purely state law not a federal
case - I am sure now that their attention has been called, the Florida
Legislature will draft a better law with clear deadlines and clear up the
conflicts the courts tried to deal with such as " shall " may or could
- "electoral systems" now or latter deadlines et al - including making
contest of state wide election be state wide and under uniform standards
- but did not do so for this election as the law is the law until the Supreme
Court said don't bother with history, the law, tradition, justice, common
sense, we will select the winner for you because we are better than you
are !
The only issue is that one side wanted to count votes because they believed
there were legal votes, the votes could be counted under Florida Law, and
counting would bring them victory. ( As will be proven in the next few
weeks that there were more than enough such votes if they could have counted
them )
The other side did everything it could to obstruct the counting. This
pattern of objection and obstruction including using the Secretary of State
to issue a legally false opinion and obstruct the counting as much as she
could, the use of a rent a mob and direct death threats from the Cuban
Mob in Miami, throwing sand and dust into the air about standards and chads
at the counting tables, calling in the Florida Legislature, and the courts
to STOP the counting of votes because they believed as well, if the votes
were counted they would lose.
They won because of the delays, stalling,
obstruction and finally because of the stay by the U.S. Supreme Court -
finally stopped the counting of legal votes then saying it was too late
to repair the damage done to the democratic process by a pattern of obstruction
which included the federal court.
The federal courts had no role in this fight and the Supreme court never
found a believable cause for even hearing the case. ( due process and equal
protection are really far fetched, blue sky attachments without legal foundation
to over turn a State Supreme court on state election law - such jurisdiction
exists only in clear violation of federal voting rights where such a finding
could be made - Voting rights violation was never even suggested in this
case - Title II of the Constitution, the U.S. Code having to do with electoral
college dates and how Congress shall deal with election disputes, and the
Michigan Case about the powers of legislatures were more than a stretch
they were a leap in legal logic. )
The court said " Because the process is messy, in the future if there
is a close election the Supreme court will decide who wins. Never mind
about federalism, judicial restraint, states rights, that state courts
interpret state law, because democracy is messy and confused - Never worry
your little heads about it - This most undemocratic of all institutions
can make the choice for the country. We are not really concerned with due
process, equal protection ( which we could hear as a civil rights voting
case but refuse to do so ) but only in imposing our final judgment in place
of a popular unruly democracy. " Mainly we like republicans better than
we like democrats ( who have been very nasty to us for years ) and we think
George W. Bush should be President, so THERE !
The conservatives going back to Madison, Mason and Hamilton never believed
in equality or democracy.
There were the "better" class - richer, more
responsible, wiser and they would rule through representatives of their
own type and class.
The masses are only self centered, easily mislead by
false passions, leaders and ideas and clearly need to be controlled and
regulated. It was the popular upraising against taxes, foreclosure, and
"their betters" in the courts and state houses that was the direct motivation
for the federal constitution along with the desire to clear up land titles
in the Northwest Territory so scripts used as payments during the war (
which were based on land grants ) could be redeemed at windfall profits.
Strict construction means defending the minority of rich against the
rapacious but more numerous poor.
The court served its ancient master which
protected slavery, fought against unions, civil rights, social justice
and equality over the bulk of its history. Only in the 1960’s and some
of the 70’s did the court go modern, flexible, and support democracy and
justice. It has returned to form as a center piece of anti-democratic forces.
There is no judicial constraint in shutting down the counting of votes
and picking a President.
The constitution is not a democratic document.
The founders were not
democrats. Democracy did not exist as we now know it.
There were limited
representative republics but popular democracy grew with the 19th and 20th
Century both in Great Britain and in the U.S. - the right to vote for President
became clear in 1845, popular franchise with the growth of the frontier
and Andy Jackson. First most white males, then Black males after the Civil
War for awhile until the political system and the high court turned their
backs on the 14th and 15th admendment.
Then women with the 19th admendment,
and blacks with the Voting Rights act and repeal of poll taxes, a long
slow process of the right to vote. One man one vote was a lon g time coming
and bitterly opposed.
The court has never ruled the sloppy voting systems, where some ( mostly
poor and minorities ) have much higher rates of spoiled or machine unreadable
ballots raises a equal protection issue.
They have always looked for intentional
discrimination not variation in outcomes. Schools still fail to produce
equal results, or does the death penalty, or does equal housing, or employment,
or income, or anything else - we are still very unequal - it is almost
impossible for courts to demand fair outcomes only minimal due process.
Cubans Worried by Bush Election Win
The Associated Press Thursday, Dec. 14, 2000; 12:34 p.m. EST
HAVANA –– A Cuban newspaper expressed concern Thursday at George W.
Bush's presidential win, asking how much Cuban exiles in Florida would
influence the new administration.
"How much power will he give the Mafia of Miami?" asked a lengthy article
in Juventud Rebelde, the daily of Cuba's Union of Young Communists. "What
will happen to foreign policy?"
Miami - Nov 22 Wed who shut down the count that would have put Gore
over the top and changed everything ?
.
The "bourgeois riot" celebrated by Wall Street Journal columnist Paul
Gigot helped stop the announced manual recount of the 10,750 undervote
in Miami-Dade County. Instigated by an order from New York congressman
John Sweeney to "shut it down," dozens of screaming GOP demonstrators pounded
on doors and a picture window at elections headquarters.
The canvassing
board, which had already found a net Al Gore gain of 168 votes, reversed
a decision it had made a couple of hours earlier to begin a tally of the
undervote.
The mob gang-rushed a local Democrat carrying a blank sample ballot.
They threatened that a thousand Cubans were on their way to the headquarters
to stop the count. Several people were "trampled, punched or kicked," according
to
The New York Times.
The canvassing board chair at first conceded that
mob pressures played a role in the shutdown—which cost Gore the 168 votes
as well—but later reversed his position.
The high success rate in the partial recount triggered a "mandatory"
obligation under state law to count the rest of the ballots, but it also
triggered a GOP mania to block it. Sweeney, who was coordinating the assault
with a local Cuban congressman, branded Dade "ground zero" in the ballot
battle and called the attempted count "theft," though his own representatives
were in the room where it was scheduled to begin.
Instead of condemning the Dade tactics, W. himself called the victory
party that night to praise them, and Republicans invoked the specter of
Jesse Jackson, who'd merely led peaceful protests outside election offices.
Unlike Sweeney's mob, Jackson was, of course, protesting real voter theft—the
massive Duval County disenfranchising of black voters—a cause all but ignored
by Gore for fear the GOP would turn the Florida fight into a Race Thing,
their favorite consensus-building gimmick.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20001214/aponline123456_001.htm
If more than half your revenues come from Cubans - and they can boycott
your advertising - and customers to those who do advertise - you see how
"they" can intimidate the "media" - Knight newspapers have pulled off the
exile ( Foundation ) and violence, political corruption, and intimidation
story - in the face of violence against them and bankruptcy of their Miami
newspaper and TV stations. Politicians are even more cowardly - getting
votes however they can and clearly afraid of the power of the mob.
http://www.americas.org/country/index.asp?country=Cuba
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