I had lunch with May Woo on Tuesday.  I met her at the Etech conference when she showed me her hiptop camera cum phone. We talked about blogging and our families and she had a delightful laugh.  She's going to fix my Moveable Type server if I can't get it to work.  She's a freelance designer - hire her if you need design talent.  She lives in San Francisco, and recently learned that its a good idea to bring extra padding when you camp out in snow. She has a great laugh. Lunch with her leaves you smiling for hours afterward....

5:20:24 PM    

"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."

Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his farewell speech to the country, warning his fellow citizens against the power of the military-industrial complex, a term he coined.

Sadly, there is no better time than the present to dust off Dwight's famous quote and reflect on its meaning. Whether its Haliburton in Iraq, Cheney on Haliburton's payroll, The Carlysle Group's connection with George Bush Senior and Donald Rumsfeld, its clear that we are losing the battle to have a government that isn't dominated by big business and the military.

I don't get it. Are people so scared by the hyped threat of terrorism and WMD seem just beyond our grasp, SARS and North Korean nukes that they willingly cede more and more power to a govrment that is so baldly using it to line the pockets of the ruling class?

• What about health care, which is soon going to be a disaster for tha majority of Americans as boomers find they can't get insurance at any cost.  Where's the debate on national health care policy?  Have the Dems been bought off as well by the medical industrial complex?
• What about education, which is soon going to crash and burn as state's are forced to cut budgets to pay for Bush's tax cut giveback to the rich?  Of course our kids are going to be screwed every whcih way as we cheerfully pas the deficit onto their shoulders to sort out after we boomers are gone.
• Speaking of the deficit, notice how Republican's sreamed about it as long as it was a Democratic Congress that ran the meter up.  That most (but fortunately, not all, since not all of them are selfish bastards) now support endless deficits as not only an OK thing, but rather a good thing, since deificits will screw the government for many years to come, and Republicans are anti-goverment (when it comes to anything designed to help the middle and lower classes, that is) as a matter of neo-conservative philosphy.  If ya got a big deficit, ya can't spend money on social programs, but the rich will have theirs and be able to move offshore to not have to pay any taxes.  That's glbablization for you, Republican style.
• "Fighting" terrorism - Bush and his gang have no real incentive to get ahead of the curve on this issue, since they discovered that its a great way to keep your approval ratings up and be assured of winning elections for the foreeseable future if you keep the American people on the razor edge of being terrified 24/7. In this regard the Iraq campaign was a masterstroke - you use terrorism as an excuse to grab the oil fields of Iraq, thereby cranking up the voume of terrorism as a byproduct which will keep Americans supporting Bush as he dismantles the constitution and transfers their wealth to the wealthy. Gotta hand it to Karl Rove.
• It's the economy, stupid!  Only an idito would believe that tax cuts aimed at coroproations and investors will translate into an economic recovery.  My experience in industry sez that companys will only start investing again when customers start buying.  So the proposed $350-550 billion taxcut is another giveback to the rich.  So why are the working poor and middle class so behind it?

• Assault on civil liberties.  Ashford seems to live for the opportunity to dismantle the Bill of Rights in the name of security.  Guess what, that's exactly how Hitler did it as well.

Someone recently argued in a scholarly article about the world condition that Bush will go down in history as arguably the worst president we've ever had.  It might not seem that way now.  But I predict that once we manage to pry him out of the White House we will all realize that we are awaking from a national nightmare that is not unlike the one the Germans emerged from after the end of World War II.

So the question remains - when will the Americna people develop a spine and begin to stand up to these atrocities being committed against them and others in their name?  When will the disenfranchised class get themselves franchised?  What are you going to do that will make a difference?

What, me worry?

You bet I do!

 

3:15:36 PM