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Clogg Blog
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Tuesday, May 13
THE MONEY PRIMARY, AFTER 250 YEARS!
When George Washington won his first election to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758, 18 years before the Declaration of Independence, he plied the 397 voters of the district with 28 gallons of rum, 50 gallons of rum punch, 34 gallons of wine, 46 gallons of beer and two gallons of hard cider for a total of 160 gallons of booze. His rival also bought refreshments for the occasion, but Washington totally out-spent him; he was a rich plantation owner and a well-known guy. He didn't even need to show up for the party.
Years later, when Washington and the other Founders were hammering out a constitution for the new country, the main basis of argument was whether government should be by and for the wealthy. It was revolutionary enough that there wouldn't be a king. Did we want to give power to the masses, too?
Hasn't changed much, has it, 250 years later? The debate still rages. Let's say you're challenging an incumbent congressman (which by coincidence I am). If you're in his party-in this case, the Democratic Party-the important election is not the November election. It's the Primary in spring, June 3 for us Californians. If, say, in a mostly Democratic district like California's long, lanky 1st District, you beat the incumbent in the primary, it's pretty much assured you'll get the job.
Nowadays, this is called the "money primary," because the party leaders in the seven separate counties of the district and the media want to see what you've got, in terms of money and connections, before they'll give you the time of day. It's the system protecting itself from regular people getting power, unchanged in all these years. It's why of 535 congress members and senators, only 13 are not millionaires. Can regular people expect to get equal representation in this ironclad system? Of course not, but nobody said it's perfect and, anyway, every now and then somebody breaks through, and you get a fine leader who truly has the interest of his people as his top priority.
This 1st Congressional District of California is one of the few places in the country where the voters are independent enough to look past the signs and the hype and choose real change. Our former congressmen Doug Bosco, Frank Riggs and Dan Hamburg can all attest to that. We hold our representatives to a high standard here in this magical land, and money's not always the last word.
Mike Thompson lives very high on his huge congressional budget and his even huger pay from his corporate sponsors. His record of achievement is as slight as his profits have been big. It's time for him to GO!
Monday, April 28
DON'T CHEAT ON YOUR TAXES!
I'm not saying you should cheat on your income taxes, because the I.R.S. can be ruthless and mean. They want to lock up Wesley Snipes, for instance, and I'm on his side. But if you owe back taxes, be sure to hire one of those outfits that bargains your bill down with the I.R.S. Those people are really good at what they do, and they'll save you a ton of money.
But the I.R.S. deserve to be cheated, because giving money to the government is like giving it to a tweaker. They're just going to buy more meth with it. You're not helping. The government's going to do unlawful and immoral things with it, like kill innocent people and push the world's wealth into the guarded treasuries of the rich, who already pay you too little to do their work, use the I.R.S. to take back your pay in taxes and give it back to themselves with government contracts that pay them $500 for a carpenter's hammer. The I.R.S. can't ever get enough, because they're working for these very rich people, who complain all the time about taxes yet hardly ever pay them. (Remember the billionaire Leona Helmsley? "We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes!")
When President Eisenhower warned us that the military-industrial complex would get like it is now, I thought some Democrat had snuck in with his speech-writing team, because I thought Ike was stupid. I thought he got to be a five-star general in World War II by doing what the politicians and war-mongers wanted him to do and got to be president the same way. When I read his speech I still thought that. There was no way Ike was hip enough to deliberately say those things.
"We realize that America's leadership and prestige depend not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches and military strength but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.
"A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty and ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.
"Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.
"Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace; to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity and integrity among people and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt both at home and abroad.
"The United States once had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.
"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual—is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
"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. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
It turned out I was the dumb one. He was long dead before I saw film footage of him sitting at his desk, speaking those words—the stern look on his face, the direct eye contact with the camera. He damn well knew what he was saying and wanted us to pay attention. My lifelong view of Dwight David Eisenhower changed the first time I saw that footage: "Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."
Wow!
But we have a bad memory. He said that in 1961. Uh—isn't that, like, pre-historic?
For a long time after he warned us, I paid taxes without complaint, and I felt that people who cheated were disloyal crooks. Our taxes seemed high, but for lower class and middle class people they were a lot less than workers in other countries paid. We were the best country, we had the best opportunities and the best lives. A poor kid could get an education and make something of himself, like Abe Lincoln did. Education was free through high school, and college was affordable.
After Eisenhower, we had a Democratic congress. Actually, it started before that, before I was born. From 1931 until 1995 the Democrats dominated the House of Representatives, which signs off on all federal spending or else the checks aren't written, and we had growing prosperity and growing equality and justice. The Republicans were the rich guys, but the Democrats had the votes, and lots of taxes went to making things better for everybody, not just the rich.
It was a good time to become a man. America has never been as innocent as we like to think we are, but it was a whole lot more innocent than it is now—and a whole lot less ignorant. We're engaged in skulduggery all over the planet and out into near space, but we can't believe how sinister and sadistic our "leaders" are. We turn our backs on it and watch the tube.
Now our taxes have redistributed our dwindling national pile upwards. The top one thousandth of us—one tenth of one percent!—have more money than the bottom fifty percent. That's how things go when the rich are in control. So I'm not saying you should cheat on your taxes, but make sure if you make a mistake it works for you, not for them. The arrogant young Mr. Prince, who owns the fantastically rich and ruthless Blackwater Company, doesn't need your money.
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Thursday, April 17
TIME IS RUNNING OUT!
Let's talk plainly. When you use words like "evil," people start to wonder if you're all there. I don't believe in the Devil any more than I believe in the Easter Bunny, but I know there's evil. My definition for evil is "human cruelty." I don't know any other. Let's keep religion out of this for now. This is not a sermon, even if it sounds like one. It's a quick study of evil.
A hurricane is not evil, a wolf killing a lamb is not evil, Ebola is not evil and an earthquake is not evil. These are things of Nature and misfortune. They are not human actions. They may be tragic, but they're not evil. Human cruelty is the only evil I know of.
You could add indifference. If I take from you, and you and your family suffer because of it and I don't care, I could say I'm not evil because it wasn't doing something cruel that I intended; it was just to take your stuff. But if I'm indifferent to the suffering it caused you, that indifference is cruel, and it's evil.
Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are evil. Taking people in secret to foreign countries so they can be tortured is evil. Torture is evil. Rape and murder are evil. Putting death and violence on innocent people is evil.
Our leaders are making us do cruel things in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are making us harm people and degrade ourselves. They are making us suffer in body and spirit for the things we do. They are doing countless acts of cruelty to us, to "We the People" every moment of every day, and they are making us part of our own degradation. They are making us do evil under false slogans about "freedom" and "democracy." The United States of America has become a global empire, killing and taking, destroying and inflicting unspeakable cruelty on other people and on ourselves.
We have locked more people away behind steel doors and bars - American citizens! - than any society has ever done to its people - not China, not Iraq under Saddam, Russia under Stalin or Germany under Hitler. We have more of our own citizens imprisoned than any society, ever.
At the head of all this are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. These guys are evil. There's no argument about it, and if you don't believe it, you're not paying attention. They have surrounded themselves with people who are just as cruel, just as happy to cause suffering and just as evil as they are. This is what I call the Bush Syndicate. Why our representatives in Washington, Mike Thompson of St. Helena, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and all the others refuse to impeach these men is a mystery. All it takes is half of the people in the House of Representatives plus one. You don't need two thirds. The President can't veto an impeachment vote. The Republicans don't have enough members to stop it. There are easily enough Democrats in the House to do it. Pelosi has only to allow the vote to happen and it will, without the slightest doubt, and an evil administration, the worst in this republic's history, will stand accused before the whole world.
Then it's up to the Senate. Impeachment isn't a trial. It's a public disgrace and will lead to a trial if there are sufficient grounds. In this case, with these criminals, there are sufficient grounds ten thousand times over. In the Senate they can be tried and condemned for their crimes. On their way to prison, they should be despised by crowds, as Bush was on the day he was first inaugurated, and people in Washington held up hundreds of signs that said, "Hail to the Thief." Remember? What's happened to us?
If we do not do this, if we let our representatives get away with not doing this, the ideals our country is founded on will be soiled in a way that will never be washed clean. If Bush, Cheney and their syndicate leave Washington and retire into lives of unimaginable luxury and ease, the door will be open for future "leaders" to do exactly the same, and no American child will ever be taught that his country stands for goodness and fairness without that lesson being false and sinister. We're very close to that now.
Democracy can stand many kinds of attack. It is a powerful idea. Knock it down and it will stand back up. But it can't stand contempt. It can't take the foul contempt that Bush and his gang have plastered it with. It must be cleansed, or else the stain won't ever go away. The only way to cleanse it is to confront and defeat the criminals who have befouled it through due process of law, and that law, plainly spelled out in the Constitution, demands impeachment in the House of Representatives and trial in the Senate.
It freezes my heart to say these words, because so much is at stake: It looks like they're going to walk. Our time is running out.
Mitch Clogg
___________________
Wednesday, April 16
YOUR HOLINESS, PLEASE EXORCISE THE PRESIDENT!
Pope Benedict XVI turns 81 today, as he arrives in Washington to meet President George W. Bush. Wine from this First Congressional District will be served in His Holiness's honor in the White House tonight. Sebastiani Vineyard in Sonoma is the winemaker of choice. "It's a very big honor," said Mary Ann Sebastiani Cuneo, president and CEO of Sebastiani. The First District makes some of the finest wines in the world, so it's no surprise. It would be nice if the Pope would perform exorcisms on Bush and Cheney while he's here.
Here's what the New York Times said on Monday about the costs to all of us for Mr. Bush's Iraq war: "At the low end of estimates of the cost of the war - $120 billion a year - the money would cover the projected cost of Mrs. Clinton's universal health care plan. It could pay for Mr. Obama's less inclusive health care plan and his proposal to bail out homeowners with troubled mortgages. Or for development of new renewable energy sources and a nationwide public works program. Or pay toward a long-term fix for Social Security. Or the unpaid part of the Medicare drug benefit."
Sunday, April 13
____________________
The Sacramento Bee sent me a candidate questionnaire to answer, among other questions, what I think we should do about the "credit crisis." Good question. Economists all over the world are scratching their heads over it and coming up blank.
The failure of our money-lending system is a big reason why the economy is headed for the homeless shelter, and when we go down, we drag all the rest of the world with us.
Here's how it happened: 1) Banks and mortgage companies lent money to people to buy houses who couldn't pay it back. 2) People borrowed more money than they could repay. Borrowers and lenders were fooled by the gleam of fast-rising housing prices into thinking the prices would keep going up. They didn't. They never do. 3) Government and industry watchdogs didn't do their job. They're supposed to keep an eye on lending and borrowing to make sure things don't get out of hand. They didn't do it.
Here's what congress should do: In more sensible times, the rule for buying houses was: 20% down; mortgage, taxes and insurance to total not more than one quarter your gross income. That should be the law, period. You save to buy a house, and then you buy one within your means. Buying property just to flip it for a profit drives up prices. The more people that play the game, the faster prices rise. The higher they rise, the harder they fall. This is going to be a hard fall.
Government and industry watchfulness has to be restored to something real instead of make-believe, just-for-appearances regulation that everybody winks at and ignores. That's congress's job. People love money. No sense in calling them names, like "predatory" lenders and "greedy" borrowers. People love money, and their willingness to do shady deals for it has to be governed, just like their tendency to do violence to each other when they're upset. That's what government's for, to help spread our best impulses and control our worst.
But I didn't say any of this to the Sacramento Bee. I said Congress should stop funding the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, right now! The war is illegal, immoral, unwinnable and cruel. It's ruinous to the Middle East and it's ruinous to us! Does anybody really believe the United States is so rich it can squander half a trillion dollars without taking a terrible hit in the national bank account? That account was already deeply overdrawn, maxed out, before the Bush Gang started the war. Now we're so deep in debt it looks like we might be in for another Great Depression.
Does it have to be that way? No! What would happen if we started governing ourselves so that everybody benefits instead of corporations benefit and rich people benefit and everybody who hopes to be lottery-rich or casino-rich or housing-bubble rich? What would happen if the people who are blowing up Iraq and getting themselves blown up came home and went back to work on peaceful tasks, like providing for their families and growing our economy? What would happen if the money we're hemorrhaging in Iraq and Afghanistan were building a streamlined, universal health-care system? If we rebuilt our bottom-of-the-class education system (we rank 20th among the developed countries), with free education, bottom to top? If we put alternative-energy development at the top of our national to-do list? If we rebuilt our rusty, leaking and sagging infrastructure-transportation, roads, airways, jet fleets, water and sewer systems? If we went to work bringing back our national fisheries, forests and wild places. If we upped everybody's paychecks except for the people whose paychecks are already up? If we taxed rich people at the rich-people rates we used to, back when the country was prosperous? If we closed loopholes and welfare to corporations? If we stopped giving away our jobs through the schemes the rich sing proudly about, the schemes called NAFTA and WTO? What would happen? Would we keep on sliding inexorably into a depression? No!
Is all this unrealistic? Is it idealistic? Is it naive? No! Who says it is? What it is, folks, is absolutely necessary, and if we don't take these steps, and lots more like them, we're going to turn into the Land of the Very, Very Rich...and everybody else. That's where we're headed.
I like my plan better.
Thursday, April 3
_____________________
NATO agreed with George Bush's proposal to put a missile-defense system in Europe, pointing at Iran. W's mind is not cut out for understanding big things, and he's spent his life spending other people's money--as a businessman, a governor and a president--so it won't mean much to him that this would cost, say, $30 billion or more. What it does mean is that friends of his would make lots--LOTS--of money building and installing it, just as they're making more money than all the bandits in history from our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile our health-care system is busted, and our school kids are at the bottom of the class among the modern countries of the world.
Bush should be tarred and feathered for his trip to prison, and we should all be tarred and feathered if it doesn't happen.
______________________
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Mike Thompson is getting attention in the news from coast to coast, but it's not the kind he wants.
He went to Baghdad in 2002, six months before "Shock and Awe," and came back opposing the war Bush was expected to declare. He said Saddam probably didn't have nuclear weapons, our economic blockade and bombing were ruining the country and causing intense suffering to innocent people. He said Bush was probably going to lie to the world to fire up support for going to war. Right, right and right.
Thompson says now he didn't know the trip was arranged by Saddam's Intelligence Service, which it was, and now he's catching criticism all over again. Before it was Republicans and their pet media commentators calling Thompson a traitor for putting out an anti-Bush, anti-war message. Now they're on him for being a stooge of Saddam's Intelligence Service.
This is particularly embarrassing because Rep. Mike Thompson is chairman of the House Human Intelligence and Anti-Terrorist Subcommittee. You'd think he'd know that Iraq's spy service was paying for his trip, but he insists he didn't.
This is what the media's focusing on, but it's not the important part. What's important is that MT let himself be "swiftboated" like John Kerry did in 2004, when Kerry gave a totally sissy answer to people who were questioning his gutsy service in Vietnam. Kerry should have shoved the truth down his critics' throats, but he didn't. Thompson should have done the same, but he didn't.
It was dumb of Thompson to go to Iraq on Saddam's dime because it guaranteed that Hussein would use the visit for propaganda purposes, but this is an instance when the propaganda was true, as was Thompson's prediction that Bush would lie to the world to launch a tragic and disastrous attack on a country the size of California.
But instead of sticking to his story, instead of turning up the volume, Thompson laid low until the "traitor" criticism died down. He voted against authorizing Bush to attack, BUT HE DIDN'T GET THE REAL STORY OUT!
(And he's voted to continue funding that war ever since!)
So here we are, spending $200 million a day committing bloody crimes in a corner of the world that is prepared to take revenge wherever and whenever it can. Our economy is headed for a homeless shelter, and Thompson, who proudly calls himself a conservative, is a big part of the problem instead of the solution. IT'S TIME FOR HIM TO RETIRE!
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