Paul Soglin: Waxing America

Economic Disaster That A Fool Could Forecast

Like most states, we are caught up in the cruel torture of national policies that are driven by greed, imperialism, and stupidity. Readrers of Waxing America will recall that in the spring of 2007 I forecasted a stock market crash and repeated it last January, Another War; Another Recession. Whatdidyah Expect?

Last  spring I used my limited abilities in forecasting the economy and predicted a stock market crash... For the second time in my lifetime a stupid, foolish war built on lies not only wrecked havoc with another country but it is destroying the American economy.

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

I am not a genius in these matters; it is that I am not driven by blind ideology in arriving at conclusions about the ecomony. A few years experience in the public and private sectors, an understanding of history and a willingness to distance myself from bad public planning, or lack of planning, no matter how politically popular the proposal, do help.

As the fall elections approach, candidates for the Wisconsin legislature and Congress from both political parties will warm your frontal lobes with cuddly promises of 'no tax increases,' cutting fat from the budget, and reducing spending.

If you are attracted to those soft sweet sounds, complete the job and instead of voting, just get a lobotomy.

If you want a candidate who will  provide a lump of coal to warm you in your decrepit retirement, and a dull knife so you can remove your spouse's appendix by candlelight in your toothless waning years, I suggest looking for the following promises:

• A pledge to the business community to provide an educated, trained workforce, not lower taxes.
• A pledge to increase spending on education from kindergarten through the University of Wisconsin and Voc-Tech Systems.
• A commitment to spend money on infrastructure that places a priority on the environment, health, and safety.
• A commitment to regulate where appropriate and needed.
• That infratstructure will be funded through borrowing as should any reasonable capital budget item.
• The operating budget, unlike the capital budget, will be funded by general purpose revenues, and only general purpose revenues. No borrowing here.
• It will be necessary to increase taxes. The increase will be progressive and will fall on wealthier taxpayers.
• A commitment to regulate where required for health and safety.
• A declaration that international trade which exports great jobs and imports poisonous pet food and baby formula is not working.
• There will be no reductions of state revenue payments to local units of government. These reductions only end up with increase in the property tax which has the impact of shifting taxes from the wealthy to the middle class.
• On the national level there will be increases in the income tax- progressive increases.
• If we fight a war, there will be honest talk. It is impossible to have guns and butter. If we fight a war there must be sacrifices at home as well as on the battlefield.
• If the candidate tells you they are highly regarded by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), tell that candidate to move to Alaska.

 

 

It does not take a rocket scientist to get it right... Go on take 10% of your income and set it on fire, throw it down the toilet, or just rip it up. And just for good measure, borrow a lot of money and rip it up too.

It is so simple. You cannot destroy your resources and your assets. Imagine the homes and schools that might have been built. Billions of dollars - now that is stimulation for the economy.

I Have More Foreign Policy Experience than Sarah Palin

With John McCain pushing Sarah Palin's experience in international matters and foreign policy,  McCain touts Palin on foreign affairs, I figured it was not too late to get in on the fun.

I served as mayor of Madison, Wisconsin, 1973-79 and 1989-1997:

• In 1978 I traveled to Japan for Hiroshima Day where I addressed one thousand delegates at a peace conference. The US and Japan have enjoyed peace continuously since then.
• The 1975 trip to Cuba was instrumental in  the first exchange of a sports team between the United States and Cuba, when the Cuban volleyball team subsequently toured the US. The well mannered host team proceeded to lose all nine games.
• That first of the three Cuban trips was given the green light by the State Department in an effort to speed along a successful US-Cuban anti-hijacking treaty. After our visit there were no more hijackings.
• My 1976 trip to Israel coincided with the historic visit of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. I graciously agreed to vacate my Jerusalem hotel room and get out of town to make way for Sadat's entourage, thus furthering the efforts for a Middle East peace.
• We went to Germany, drove on the Autobahn at outrageous speeds and offended no one.
• We went to France twice. In 1982 we caused an incident which resulted in a pheasant being struck by a Frenchman's vehicle at 160 kilometer an hour vehicle, blowing out the windshield. Peace was maintained.
• In 1998 we again toured France and Italy where I authoritatively pronounced, "There are no sharks in the Mediterranean."  The French overlooked the faus pax and we were allowed to stay. We further avoided international incidents by never speaking English in public and passing the entire family off as Spaniards. I was most convincing answering all questions with "si' not "yes" or "oui."

We know that a Governor's supervision of the National Guard is no more foreign policy than a mayor's heading the local police department:

• In 1973 Police Chief David Couper and I stifled an internal insurrection, peacefully.
• In 1989 we handled a major demonstration by anti-choice demonstrators without incident.
• Numerous times, (except the year 1996 when I let Alderman Verveer talk me into changing strategy for the Mifflin Street Block Party), utilizing my own experiences in the streets, I developed tactics with the police and fire departments that resulted in peaceful block parties and Halloweens.

The day Sarah Palin can deal with the fall or spring revelry of a population of students five times the size of her home town in a peaceful manner with minimal arrests and property damage, she can carry my laptop and gas mask.

John McCain, you, sir, are no Eisenhower

Dwight David Eisenhower may have graduated only 61st in class of 164 when he left West Point in 1911, but it did not adversely affect his performance as a soldier, a general, or a president. Throughout his career Ike faced his challenges with candor and truthfulness.  He knew the American people.

This was evident in his Presidential Farewell Address delivered January 17, 1961:

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

Ike knew the obvious reasons that nations engaged in combat - the struggle over ideology, political destiny, and the myth of natural, racial, or religious superiority. He also understood that profiteering, petty jealousies, century old conflicts, and the struggle for natural resources all entered into the calculations of the architects of war.

John McCain graduated from the Naval Academy, 894 out of a class of 899. He not only performed miserably in his academic pursuits, but as the years went by he failed to understand the nature of war and the nature of the American people. 

Examine a speech that John McCain delivered as recently as April 11, 2008 on the war in Iraq. Thousands of words long, he rambles on about terrorists, the divisions in the Muslim world, and Al Qaeda. Nowhere in the speech does he drill down and acknowledge why these partisans fight. Nowhere does he drill down and explain why we fight. Only the homilies and the flag are there.

Unlike Eisenhower, who spoke truth to both power and the people, McCain tragically provides bromides from Richard Nixon's poisonous Vietnam cabinet:

However it ends, the war in Iraq will have a profound influence on the future of the Middle East, global stability, and the security of the United States, which will remain, for the foreseeable future, directly affected by events in that dangerous part of the world. The war is part of a broader struggle in the Arab and Muslim world, the struggle between violent extremists and the forces of modernity and moderation.

This is a contest of ideas and values as much as it is one of bullets and bombs. We must gain the active support of modernizers across the Muslim world, who want to share in the benefits of the global system and its economic success, and who aspire to the political freedom that is, I truly believe, the natural desire of the human heart.

It sounds good and it says nothing. Throughout history forces of modernity and moderation were confronted by extremists - but war is not inevitable. Just ask those who are struggling for a fair and just America today.

Perhaps it is the tragedy of his years of imprisonment in North Vietnam; perhaps it was his isolation when he returned to the United States. No matter what the reason, John McCain has learned nothing from Vietnam or from the American people.

Finally, in a rather ironic gesture, McCain, who recently opposed extending a GI Bill to this generation of soldiers, invoked the name of General George Marshall, architect of the Marshall Plan which rebuilt Europe after World War II:

George Marshall, whose long, selfless service to our country was of inestimable value in some of the most consequential moments of the last century. As we celebrate this year the 60th anniversary of the Marshall Plan...

If you had asked General Marshall to name the other important legislative work that honored America's military victory in World War II, undoubtedly he would have named the GI Bill.

 

Joe Lieberman Needs A Lesson: Henry Kissinger Can Help

This week Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, blinded by his fanatical support of the Bush war in Iraq, errantly suggested, as reported by the AP, Lieberman irks Democrats by criticizing Obama

"If Israel is in danger today, it's not because of American foreign policy, which has been strongly supportive of Israel in every way," he said. "It is not because of what we have done in Iraq. It is because Iran is a fanatical terrorist, expansionist state."

Unfortunately Lieberman denies the consequences of creating a power vacuum. He need only look to right wing foreign policy and military analysts like Henry Kissinger and Herman Kahn to know that the United States' incursion and subsequent decimation of Iraq not only endangered Israel but the rest of the world.

I have sympathy for what they’re intending to do. First of all, if we don’t get Iran out of the nuclear business, we have lost this ground, and more. They’re either going to be out in a year or so, or they’ll be in forever. And if they’re in forever, that means Turkey, Egypt, everybody will be in. And then we live in a world that is uncontrollable.

Assuming that Iran can be brought to the point where it behaves like a nation and not like an empire, and we get into a negotiation with them, the worst outcome is a nuclear Iran and a vacuum in Iraq.  So we have to try to fix the vaccum in Iraq. That’s a rough business that has to be done. Iran needs to know that it has the option to negotiate. But in the meantime, we have to work on the incentives to negotiate, and that means again, we do several things at the same time.April 18, 2007 The Atlantic, A Conversation with Henry Kissinger. (emphasis added)

That the crushing of Saddam Hussein and the dismantling of the Baath Party created a power vacuum was reported throughout the war. Even such popular publications as The Guardian, Power Vacuum has taken US by surprise, April 11, 2003 or Time Magazine,A Power Vacuum in Iraq?, May 29, 2005  acknowledge that the Bush War in Iraq destabilized Iraq and endangered the entire region.

The issue is not the power vacuum, but Lieberman's inability to comprehend or acknowledge the fatal consequences of the war.

It is going to be very difficult for the next Congress and administration to bring peace and stability to the area. It is going to next to impossible if a United States Senator with Lieberman's stature refuses to acknowledge the impact of the war.

Bush Iraq War Destroying American Breweries - Documented Proof

Sorry if I offend, but I do not like it when foreign companies purchase America businesses and destroy our brands. I do not like Australian robber barons (Rupert Murdoch) buying our newspapers and television networks.

Even less appealing is the thought of American breweries such as Anheuser-Busch bought out by the likes of InBEV SA. Belgian InBev SA offers $46 billion for Anheuser-Busch

Yes,  Belgian conglomerate is offering $46 billion or $65 a share for the Saint Louis competitor of Miller which is of course owned  by SABMiller as in South African Breweries.'

The offering price is almost $30 billion euros.

When Mr. Bush started the war in Iraq, that $65 a share, U.S. would cost the Belgians $50.5 billion euros.

So you can add to the list of tragedies of this war, the loss of human life, the rising price of oil, and the world wide disdain for the United States, the fact that America is on sale to foreign investors because of the significantly weakened United States dollar.

And they are starting with the breweries.

Good grief, I suppose Wal-mart is next.

 

 

Scott McClellan: A John Dean Moment, Not A Democrat

Tuesday night I watched the first of the Bush Administration talking heads, including some 'expert' from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, respond to Scott McClellan's  "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception."

The former White House press secretary was quickly assaulted with a limited and dull collection of bromides:

• If he was so concerned about these matters, he had the obligation to speak up at the time.
• He betrayed the White House.
• He sounds like a Democrat.

From  Bush apologist Frances Townsend, on CNN we got "Scott never did that on any of these issues as best I can remember or as best as I know from any of my White House colleagues."

From the White House,  the AP reports,"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," said current White House press secretary Dana Perino, a former deputy to McClellan."

As for Secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice (also AP), we are told her response was, "Those who were skeptical should have spoken up at the time and argued against U.N. sanctions such as the oil-for-food program, she said."

None of these and the myriad of other replies addresses one fundamental point - no one will take on McClellan head on and deny the truth of his allegations.

The notion that he sounds like a Democrat, must bring a smile to the lips of John Dean. The Watergate Era staffer to Richard Nixon, and author of Blind Ambition,  faced a similar, though somewhat more demanding, crisis.

Both men knew that eventually history would catch up with them (also see Stanley Kutler's  The Wars of Watergate ) and their presidents.

Faced with the ugly lies and the disapproval of their colleagues, both Dean and McClellan chose the truth, the temporary label as turncoat, and the long-term contentment of honesty.

That is not a Democratic quality, I hope.

McCain Should Be "Sick At Heart." No friend of war or peace.

As he simultaneously attempts to distance himself from the George W. Bush's Iraq policies and his own troublesome relationship with veterans, Republican Party presidential nominee John McCain, tells us that he is "sick at heart by the many mistakes made by civilian and military commanders and the terrible price we have paid..."

He should be.

As a witness to the Vietnam War debacle, McCain should not have bullied his Congressional colleagues into supporting a war built on lies and a lust for making the oil barons billions.

McCain knew that loyal Americans should have carefully scrutinized the shoddy claims of Rumsfeld and Chaney, and their puppet, Bush. McCain's own experiences in the Vietnam War obviously were not sufficient to empower him with the judgment to make military decisions.

Now al Queda, once trapped in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan, flourishes in Iraq, the greater Middle East,  and North Africa. McCain is on the defensive with veterans who expect the federal government to modestly assist in their college pursuits and furtherer workforce development. As the Wall Street Journal reported, McCain has the most preposterous reason for opposing the legislation. He is concerned that the bill would decrease the number of noncommissioned officers who would leave the military to further their education.

Barack Obama, younger and supposedly more inexpereinced, clearly can be trusted.

McCain is no friend of war or peace.

Kevin Barrett: Someone Else's Billy Goat

My old friend, AFSCME union leader, Dode Lowe, used to have an appropriate saying for the occasional loose cannon among his members.  When confronted with a questionable individual that the union was forced to defend, Dode used to say, "He may be a billy goat, but he is our billy goat."

Those of us who defended the University of Wisconsin from narrow minded assaults this past year, often had Kevin Barrett held up to us as an example of a misguided teacher who was a waste of taxpayers' money. This is the Barrett who doubts that the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center was the work of foreign terrorists, but offers suggestions that perhaps domestic operatives were responsible for the attack.

Barrett is now running for Congress, as a Libertarian in Wisconsin's Third Congressional District.  As John Nichols notes in The Capital Times column on Friday:

Barrett will shake up District 3 race

...Barrett, a convert to Islam who has argued for a number of years that the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon "had nothing to do with Islam" and that "the war on terror is as phony as the latest Osama bin Laden tape."

...A Republican legislator, Whitewater state Rep. Steve Nass, condemned the university for a man critics describe as "a conspiracy nut."

...A 10-day review by UW Provost Patrick Farrell of Barrett's teaching record and his plans for the introductory class determined that Barrett would fairly represent a variety of viewpoints in his course -- and was thus fit to teach.

Those of us who believe that professors should be left alone to teach as long as they are open and fair, will continue to defend his right to espouse his bizarre world view.

On the other hand, now that Barrett has solidly aligned himself with the Libertarian Party, it gives me great comfort that everyone knows he is someone else's billy goat. It was last year that I repudiated Barrett and Ward Churchill as not being part of the political left.

The Libertarians and the conservatives can have him.

So there.

Crumbling Dollar Lifts Wisconsin Blue Cheese

Another victim of the disastrous Bush economic polices and the war in Iraq is the absence of the finest European cheeses from swank east coast restaurants.  As the Village Voice reports, How Chefs Are Dealing With the Tanking Dollar: Getting creative with imported goods

Recently, I (reporter Sarah DiGregorio) realized that I could no longer afford my favorite stinky French cheese (not that I ever really could, technically)...

At Kellari Taverna...Greek feta, once crumbled over many dishes, is now only on the tomato salad..."It's killing us!" exclaims Gregory Zapantis, the Greek-born chef at Kellari Taverna. "A few years back, it was equal—one dollar to one euro. Now the euro is $1.60."

The concerned New York culinary reporter turned to an economist who specializes in wine economics to discover that, "... the government spends more than it has, putting us in hock to the Europeans, Japanese, and Chinese to pay for Bush's tax cuts and the war in Iraq."

But the inventive mid-town Manhattan chefs now turn to Bucky when times are tough, "Zapantis has fallen in love with the fish he gets from Long Island in the summertime. And he's happy to have discovered Wisconsin blue cheese as an unlikely alternative to feta."

Kutler on Republican Executive Powers

Waxing America's favorite Emeritus Professor in the entire galaxy, the esteemed University of Wisconsin Constitutional scholar Stanley Kutler, reminds us that the Republican Party, with an almost century long record of limiting the power of the president, now embraces what could be called an imperial presidency:

  Hunkering Down in Baghdad

Voltaire had it right: history is nothing but a pack of tricks that we play on the dead...

...Executive power expanded enormously during World War II. After the war, old guard Republicans, still rooted in isolationism, proposed a constitutional amendment to give Congress authority to regulate all executive agreements with foreign powers....Republican concerns that first President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Yalta and then President Harry S. Truman at Potsdam had bargained away too much....The GOP also objected to Truman’s sending troops to Korea in 1950 without congressional approval.

Kulter notes that with the Bush Administration is "... betting that the rest of the world, from Europe to Asia, will quietly accept U.S. troops to defend their economic interests..."

Kutler writes that Bush "may have made a prophet of former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, who said last September that “the Iraq war is largely about oil” and essential for the global economy."