Democracy

I got a call from my son today. Billy is the son who was wounded in battle in Iraq just outside of Baghdad in 2006. He has shrapnel in his neck and shoulder, still. He has had surgery on his leg and it is well again. He is suffering from, and has been diagnosed with, Traumatic Brain injury (TBI). Consequently he now has a type of Tourette Syndrome and suffers from "tics", sort of involuntary jerks or sudden movements. I am happy I still have my son.

Anyway Billy called to tell me that he has been informed, by the Army Medical Board, that he is being retired with a 50% disability. My son understood the risks of being a career Army soldier. He had seen me serving in the Marines almost his whole live as a young man. It seemed a natural transition for him when he decided to make the Military his home. He also had the understanding that the Army too understood and accepted their responsibilities to him. That part hasn’t worked out that well. Our President must not have factored in the cost of wounded soldiers when he let us borrow the money from China to wage war in Iraq.

I saw something about this last night, posted on a few sites.

This is about an Extremely Important Report that will be out tomorrow in the Sunday's issue of the New York Times Magazine.

I just caught it again posted over at After Downing Street where Dave put up the New York Times Magazine link along with posting the article.

I just quickly read through it and am going back for a slower read, but a few pointers, and there are many.

it starts out with this:

stolen from huffingtonpost.com

Corporations now are so powerful they threaten democracy and capitalism itself. Says who? Robert A.G. Monks*, a true capitalist-insider. His book Corpocracy was published yesterday; it would be difficult to overstate its importance. Mr. Monks knows where we went dangerously wrong, AND he's found a clear path out of this looming disaster. His sense of urgency is all the more compelling as he is a very successful venture capitalist, lawyer, businessman, and the world's most respected - or feared, depending on your perspective - shareholder activist.

American public opinion regarding the state of the nation today, depending on who you are talking to, can range from “Could be better”, to “In dire straits”, or “On the brink of tyranny”. In any case, it is not usually good. What ever the case, there are plenty of reasons for the doom and gloom. Take your pick; from 9/11 to our having a President who has abandoned the Rule of Law and burdened future generations with incalculable debt. To most we, as a country, have lost our way. To others, finally the opportunity for America to strike her enemies came, real or perceived, and we took it.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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The state House is poised to pass Senate Bill 353 tomorrow, which would revamp the distibution of electoral college votes in NC. Under this new format, a candidate would get one electoral vote for each congressional district he or she carries. The candidate who wins statewide would take the remaining two votes.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow, this ground -- The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us, the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that, from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here, gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people by the people for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

--the nicolay draft of the gettysburg address; courtesy library of congress

Government by the People, for the People, and of the People.

The kind of government where you grab it with your own two hands and run the darn thing.

It first came into my consciousness when I heard Cindy Sheehan being interviewed on C-SPAN about her disgust with "George." It hit me right between the eyes: what's with all this deference to rank and status in a country that's supposed to be the model of democracy. Especially when the object of the deference was a chicken-shit deserter in the Vietnam War.

Then recently, when I listened in to some of the audio clips Kirk has been posting from meetings in Raleigh, the whole deal got even goofier. All I heard was Madame Secretary this and Attorney General that and Representative hooey and Senator phooey. It made me sick, a creepy game of niceties, masking over a culture of privilege and class.

From here on out, I'm swearing off deference as a matter of practice. If I particularly admire someone and wish to honor him or her, I'll not hesitate to use the some flowery term. "Congressman Kissell" comes to mind.

In the November 20 edition of The Nation, Katrina Vanden Heuvel gives a list of ten things we should consider to strengthen our democracy here at home. With voters being dropped from the rolls with no notice, machines counting votes that can never be verified and voters staying home in record numbers it is obvious we have a problem in this country.

Many of her ideas have already been discussed here in the pages of BlueNC. I think these are discussions we should continue, especially with the elections over and problems we might have encountered fresh on our minds.

The piece by Katrina is subscription only, but I don't think she will mind if I list all ten of her suggestions to help guide our discussions. Also, for those subscribers, here is a link. I'm not sure I agree with everything she says, but the piece and the subsequent letters to the editor printed in this past week's edition give a great starting place for those of us who follow elections.

Please follow below the fold...

Conceptually, the political process should be analogous to a courtroom; the elctorate are a series of jurors who are meant to determine, between two competing, subjective accounts of the country's well being (and what actions should be taken with respect to it) which is more likely to be correct. The jurors, after disseminating the accounts given them, should review all pertinent information, and, in a judicious manner, make a well-educated decision as to whom should be chosen, and what policy should be made. However, in the modern age our primality creeps into the American political experience and festers there, exacerbated and exploited by numerous interests, making the American political experience more akin to a sporting event, or a soap opera. I can think of nothing with greater po