We all saw this coming:
"The top analyst at the CIA is resigning next year, joining more than a dozen agency officials who have stepped down since Porter Goss became the Director of Central Intelligence, NBC News has learned."
One of the best ways to express your civic power is through your pocketbook. More and more citizens are seeing the effect that corporate lobbyists have on our government but we often feel powerless to stop the money monster that D.C. has become. There are those that feel that Democrats should start buying things from companies that support progressive policies and candidates. Buy Blue is a website devoted to letting you know what corporate executives give to whom and ask you to spend accordingly.
However, Jeff Milchen has a good point when he says, "Supporting chains—even those whose executives may share your political leanings—necessarily concentrates wealth and power. We need to prevent wealth from translating readily into political power, but for now, dispersing economic power among millions of small, independent businesses is one key to restraining corporate power and invigorating democracy."
This, I think is a better point. Even if you buy from monster chains that support Democrats, that doesn't necessarily mean that their interests are pure. They are still as concerned with the bottom line as a conservative executive. If our only choices were between blue chains and red chains then by all means support the blue chains. But we have local options and shopping locally is not just good for your conscience but it is a real investment in your community.
The best way to beat the beast is not to change the color of the beast from red to blue but to kill the beast altogether. It is true that all politics are local, and we can change the way our government works if we change the way we work with the government. (I have more circular cliches to toss out in a moment's notice. I must be in Zen mode.)
If you haven't noticed I have been taking some time away from the blog. I have also taken steps to cut down my news intake and to limit the time I spend on the internet. One thing is for sure, life is a much better place when you are not inundated with mostly redundant information. You realize pretty quickly that a single listen of the top-of-the-hour news from NPR keeps you pretty well on top of things. Everything else just becomes superfluous chatter.
Needless to say, I am seriously considering what will become of this blog. All things considered, I have grown fond of having this forum to speak my mind. So, I am still unsure of what to do with this site. I do know that I am not ditching politics altogether, at least not yet. However, if this is my forum then it needs to reflect where I am at the moment, and politics is not that place.
For right now, I will recommend a new blogger to help you downshift a notch. My friend John introduced me to this site a few days ago, and it just goes to show you that blogs are not just for politics, gossip, or any of the other sports of the chattering classes. Duane Keiser is painting a picture a day, and posting them on his blog, and he has sold every single one he has put up so far. These are definitely worth checking out.
Also for all of you still dealing with election fatigue, and desperately need someone to convince you to scale back your manic lifestyle, check out Carl Honore's "In Praise of Slowness." It is an enlightening read.
There is only one name that should be seriously considered to fill the upcoming vacancy of the DNC chair. It is Howard Dean. I have said this before and he just keeps giving me reasons to believe that I am right. He gave a speech today that I highly recommend that everyone read in its entirety here. However, if you don't have time here are a few choice cuts:
"When some people say we should change direction, in essence they are arguing that our basic or guiding principles can be altered or modified."They can't.
"On issue after issue, we are where the majority of the American people are.
"What I want to know is at what point did it become a radical notion to stand up for what we believe?
"Over fifty years ago, Harry Truman said, "We are not going to get anywhere by trimming or appeasing. And we don't need to try it."
"Yet here we are still making the same mistakes.
"Let me tell you something: there's only one thing Republican power brokers want more than for us to lurch to the left -- and that's for us to lurch to the right.
"What they fear most is that we may really begin fighting for what we believe -- the fiscally responsible, socially progressive values for which Democrats have always stood and fought."
***
"We need to embrace real political reform -- because only real reform will pry government from the grasp of the special interests who have made a mockery of reform and progress for far too long."The pundits have said that this election was decided on the issue of moral values. I don't believe that. It is a moral value to provide health care. It is a moral value to educate our young people. The sense of community that comes from full participation in our Democracy is a moral value. Honesty is a moral value.
"If this election had been decided on moral values, Democrats would have won.
"It is time for the Democratic Party to start framing the debate.
"We have to learn to punch our way off the ropes."
Sorry to be such a one-note blogger lately, but the incredible dropping dollar has me more and more concerned about this country's financial future. Here is an interesting section from a piece in the Economist:
"The dollar is not what it used to be. Over the past three years it has fallen by 35% against the euro and by 24% against the yen. But its latest slide is merely a symptom of a worse malaise: the global financial system is under great strain. America has habits that are inappropriate, to say the least, for the guardian of the world's main reserve currency: rampant government borrowing, furious consumer spending and a current-account deficit big enough to have bankrupted any other country some time ago. This makes a dollar devaluation inevitable, not least because it becomes a seemingly attractive option for the leaders of a heavily indebted America. Policymakers now seem to be talking the dollar down. Yet this is a dangerous game. Why would anybody want to invest in a currency that will almost certainly depreciate?
****"If the dollar falls by another 30%, as some predict, it would amount to the biggest default in history: not a conventional default on debt service, but default by stealth, wiping trillions off the value of foreigners' dollar assets.
"The dollar's loss of reserve-currency status would lead America's creditors to start cashing those cheques—and what an awful lot of cheques there are to cash. As that process gathered pace, the dollar could tumble further and further. American bond yields (long-term interest rates) would soar, quite likely causing a deep recession. Americans who favour a weak dollar should be careful what they wish for. Cutting the budget deficit looks cheap at the price."
As you can probably tell I have been taking a bit of a break from the blog. I have also been taking some time away from political news in general, but I wanted to pop back up to add my voice to the the many voices that have already demanded that Howard Dean be the new DNC chair. It is crucial for the future of the Democratic party that some changes be made. I think that Howard Dean is prepared to make those changes, and I am afraid without him we will have more of the same right-leaning rhetoric that we have been getting from the Democrats for far too long. It is time for the Left to have a say in this country, and if the Democrats won't put someone in charge with some backbone then maybe we will have to create a party that will. The Democrats have a real chance here to show us what direction they are going to take the party. Will we let them give us more of the same?
