Sunday, September 26, 2010
Sunday, July 4, 2010
The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States
When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.
He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.
He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.
He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:
For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:
For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:
For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:
For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:
For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.
We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Kin Jong Il has a year to live!
Actually, I have no idea how much longer the Mighty Munchkin will live, it could be 1 year or 10 years, but I can tell you he's getting ready for it.
Let's start with some basics. Kim Jong Il runs the last Stalinist country in the world, namely the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The DPROK is more commonly referred to as North Korea. The man known in North Korea as Dear Leader in herited his position from his father Kim Il Sung, who is referred to as Great Leader. Il Sung died in 1994, passing the reins of military leadership to Jung Il. In North Korea the government is controlled via military might, thus affording Jung Il to be the de facto head of state. It took Jung Il a further 3 years to establish his control over the other parts of political power within North Korea. Since then he's been the bane of South Korea, Japan, and the United States, as well as, a threat to his own people and a sometime annoyance to his protectors in China. That covers some of the basics associated with the current state of affairs in North Korea. In fact, that covers a lot of the information that outsiders know of North Korea.
Let's go back a bit further. Korea, as a whole, has a tradition of being a xenophobic culture. Koreans dislike outsiders being involved in their internal affairs, much like everyone else, but they have usually gone a bit further. Historically Koreans have eschewed any contact with outsiders, including mutually beneficial trade, fearing an unwanted influence on their internal society. This has been changing over recent decades in South Korea as successive generations of South Koreans see the benefit of being a part of the world market. They still distrust outsiders, but they tolerate communication and trade.
On June 25, 1950, among growing unrest in the Republic of Korea, aka South Korea, over policies conducted by the US backed ROK government, Kim Il Sung invaded and pushed the US and ROK forces into a tiny area around the southern city of Pusan. This led to the Korean War, of which there is massive amounts of information to write about. To cut a long story short, the war was suspended in 1953. The Korean War did not end, it was merely put on hold indefinitely, let's get that straight. The war could flair up again at any time, and it would be the same conflict with newer weapons.
Over the years following the armistice, Il Sung would rattle his saber, primarily to draw attention away from economic woes being faced in the North. Meanwhile, he built an extreme cult of personality around himself, which was then copied by other Stalinist leaders such as Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania. This personality cult resulted in a number of odd things. First, when Il Sung died, people mourned him hysterically, some were killed in crushes of mourners during funeral ceremonies, others even committed suicide rather than live without their Great Leader. Second, the official residence of the head of state was converted into a giant mausoleum with Kim Il Sung's embalmed body on display inside a glass coffin, much like Lenin. The third, and possibly oddest, is that Kim Il Sung, who was President of the Republic at the time of his death on July 8, 1994, is STILL President of the Republic.
Kim Jong Il had his father declared Eternal President of the Republic as a way of ensuring his own claim to power. If Il Sung was still the president, then Jong Il could maintain his control over the government, not as president or dictator, but as regent to his father. Now that's some political finagling!
Kim Jong Il has kept up his father's practice of saber rattling as distraction to great effect. His most recent episode began in March 2010 with the sinking of the South Korean Navy's Cheonan. Of course the North disputes the evidence that a North Korean torpedo was to blame for the sinking in disputed waters, but, then again, they teach their children that South Korea invaded North Korea at the beginning of the Korean War.
What has happened in the past year to start this? In November of 2009 Jong Il declared the old currency to be worthless, and replaced it with new currecny. This was done so that people who had been amassing private fortunes via underground private enterprises would have to rely more on state sponsored goods and services. This ultimately backfired, and threw the economically challenged nation into further upheaval.
Over the past few months Jong Il has replaced high ranking officials with extremely trusted family members. He has also said he would enact "total war" on the South and on the United States. He has, presumably, increased his production of nuclear weapons, which he has had since 2006. There is speculation that he has been developing a thermonuclear device, which would really elevate him in the nuclear club. He has stepped up propoganda assaults towards the South. There are even reports that his border guards have fired upon, and killed Chinese guards. All the while, the Peoples Republic of China has been even more reserved in their response to his actions than is normal.
China, which has a long history of being beaurucratic and deliberate, doesn't do things or say things without a reason. For China to be as quiet as they have been, without asking for anything in return from other nations, means they know something.
It's no surprise that Kim Jong Il has been seeing increasing health concerns over the past few years. According to his biographies, he is either 68 or 69 years old. There is some discrepency depending on who you believe. We know that Jong Il had, atleast, one stroke in 2008. He's appeared to be physically weaker and unhealthy in photos that have been put out. According to some claims he has diabetes. There is even one scholar in Japan who says that Kim Jong Il died of complications from diabetes years ago, and that one of his dopplegangers has been stepping in to appear for him.
Something is going on in North Korea, and it could be bad news for us all.
Let's start with some basics. Kim Jong Il runs the last Stalinist country in the world, namely the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. The DPROK is more commonly referred to as North Korea. The man known in North Korea as Dear Leader in herited his position from his father Kim Il Sung, who is referred to as Great Leader. Il Sung died in 1994, passing the reins of military leadership to Jung Il. In North Korea the government is controlled via military might, thus affording Jung Il to be the de facto head of state. It took Jung Il a further 3 years to establish his control over the other parts of political power within North Korea. Since then he's been the bane of South Korea, Japan, and the United States, as well as, a threat to his own people and a sometime annoyance to his protectors in China. That covers some of the basics associated with the current state of affairs in North Korea. In fact, that covers a lot of the information that outsiders know of North Korea.
Let's go back a bit further. Korea, as a whole, has a tradition of being a xenophobic culture. Koreans dislike outsiders being involved in their internal affairs, much like everyone else, but they have usually gone a bit further. Historically Koreans have eschewed any contact with outsiders, including mutually beneficial trade, fearing an unwanted influence on their internal society. This has been changing over recent decades in South Korea as successive generations of South Koreans see the benefit of being a part of the world market. They still distrust outsiders, but they tolerate communication and trade.
On June 25, 1950, among growing unrest in the Republic of Korea, aka South Korea, over policies conducted by the US backed ROK government, Kim Il Sung invaded and pushed the US and ROK forces into a tiny area around the southern city of Pusan. This led to the Korean War, of which there is massive amounts of information to write about. To cut a long story short, the war was suspended in 1953. The Korean War did not end, it was merely put on hold indefinitely, let's get that straight. The war could flair up again at any time, and it would be the same conflict with newer weapons.
Over the years following the armistice, Il Sung would rattle his saber, primarily to draw attention away from economic woes being faced in the North. Meanwhile, he built an extreme cult of personality around himself, which was then copied by other Stalinist leaders such as Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania. This personality cult resulted in a number of odd things. First, when Il Sung died, people mourned him hysterically, some were killed in crushes of mourners during funeral ceremonies, others even committed suicide rather than live without their Great Leader. Second, the official residence of the head of state was converted into a giant mausoleum with Kim Il Sung's embalmed body on display inside a glass coffin, much like Lenin. The third, and possibly oddest, is that Kim Il Sung, who was President of the Republic at the time of his death on July 8, 1994, is STILL President of the Republic.
Kim Jong Il had his father declared Eternal President of the Republic as a way of ensuring his own claim to power. If Il Sung was still the president, then Jong Il could maintain his control over the government, not as president or dictator, but as regent to his father. Now that's some political finagling!
Kim Jong Il has kept up his father's practice of saber rattling as distraction to great effect. His most recent episode began in March 2010 with the sinking of the South Korean Navy's Cheonan. Of course the North disputes the evidence that a North Korean torpedo was to blame for the sinking in disputed waters, but, then again, they teach their children that South Korea invaded North Korea at the beginning of the Korean War.
What has happened in the past year to start this? In November of 2009 Jong Il declared the old currency to be worthless, and replaced it with new currecny. This was done so that people who had been amassing private fortunes via underground private enterprises would have to rely more on state sponsored goods and services. This ultimately backfired, and threw the economically challenged nation into further upheaval.
Over the past few months Jong Il has replaced high ranking officials with extremely trusted family members. He has also said he would enact "total war" on the South and on the United States. He has, presumably, increased his production of nuclear weapons, which he has had since 2006. There is speculation that he has been developing a thermonuclear device, which would really elevate him in the nuclear club. He has stepped up propoganda assaults towards the South. There are even reports that his border guards have fired upon, and killed Chinese guards. All the while, the Peoples Republic of China has been even more reserved in their response to his actions than is normal.
China, which has a long history of being beaurucratic and deliberate, doesn't do things or say things without a reason. For China to be as quiet as they have been, without asking for anything in return from other nations, means they know something.
It's no surprise that Kim Jong Il has been seeing increasing health concerns over the past few years. According to his biographies, he is either 68 or 69 years old. There is some discrepency depending on who you believe. We know that Jong Il had, atleast, one stroke in 2008. He's appeared to be physically weaker and unhealthy in photos that have been put out. According to some claims he has diabetes. There is even one scholar in Japan who says that Kim Jong Il died of complications from diabetes years ago, and that one of his dopplegangers has been stepping in to appear for him.
Something is going on in North Korea, and it could be bad news for us all.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Who's at fault?
Over the past number of months people have been throwing blame back and forth about who's responsible for the economic quagmire, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and regulating illegal immigration. Some people blame Obama, while others blame Bush. Some people claim it's the Republicans, and others lay the responsibility at the feet of the Democrats. Some say liberals, others say conservatives. Po-ta-to, po-tah-to, it's all the same day in and day out. Let's face it, we're all to blame really.
Let's start at the beginning, and I don't mean January 20, 2001, I say we go back a bit farther than that. Let's start in the 1970's. Richard Nixon got into office with the promise of ending the Vietnam War, which he did, but only after dramatically increasing the number of troops in the region, and expanding the scope of the fight to include neighboring countries. Then he resigns before he can be impeached because of the Watergate scandal. Nixon was highly paranoid, and just a bit delusional, which is always a great combination in a world leader, but Nixon did something that Republican presidents have not done since. Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon increased regulation on industries and corporations, and developed diplomatic and trade contracts with China. The Nixon administration gave us the Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Plus, he opened up trade with the People's Republic of China in exchange for NOT officially recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation. Nixon also began the War on drugs, and pushed for universal healthcare. So, to recap, Nixon, a lifelong Republican, opened up trade with a socialist country, began a decades long effort to end the drug trade in the United States, advocated universal healthcare, ended the Vietnam War, and advanced environmental protections like no other president since Teddy Roosevelt.
Next comes Gerald Ford, the only president to have never been voted into the Oval Office. I like Gerald Ford. He was a bit clumsy, yet athletic. He was self deprecating, yet confident. He was very intelligent, without talking down to people. He was a good man. Too bad he wasn't allowed to be a good president. See, after Nixon resigned, Congress continued to look into the Watergate Scandal, news outlets continued dredging up new dirt about the issue, and the American people were focused on seeing it finished. Ford knew that, unless he did something drastic, nothing would get done in Washington to move the country forward. What did Ford do? He pardoned Richard Nixon, thus putting a stop to any, and all congressional investigations into the previous president's actions while in office. It was the correct decision, but it didn't help Ford one bit. He lost his re-election bid to a man who was so far outside of Washington politics that people were asking who he was.
Which brings us to Jimmy Carter. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of Carter. He didn't play politics as usual. He was grounded in real world issues and experience. He was extremely intelligent and well educated, but didn't feel the need to prove it. Unfortunately, none of this helped him get anything through Congress. It also didn't help him when he came up for re-election with the Iran Hostage Crisis in full swing. He lost to the patron saint of the Republican Party and the Teabag Movement, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Reagan is where our current issues really begin. Back in 1980 the Iranians were holding 52 Americans from the US embassy for well over a year. The crisis lasted 444 days to be exact. Carter had tried a rescue attempt that was doomed to failure. The Iranians refused to talk to him to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Reagan walks in and says that if he's elected, he'll ende the crisis. Reagan wins the election, and as he's being sworn in as president on Jan 20, 1981, the hostages are released to US custody. Crisis averted, but wait, there's more. We still have the "Evil Empire" to deal with.
For those of you too young to remember, or those that have simply forgotten, the "evil empire" was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or, rather, the Soviet Union. The US had been engaged in a Cold War with the Soviets since the end of World War II in 1945. Reagan was determined to end the Cold War, so he did what any good capitalist does, he outspent them. Within the Soviet Union economic trade was generally restricted to countries that made up the USSR, for instance, Russia could trade with East Germany, but East Germany could not trade with France. This limited their ability to maintain a strong and vibrant economy in a world market. All of their money was simply flowing around within their system and not growing. Whereas, the US could trade with other countries, not just goods, but also debt. The US could loan money to foreign countries, and borrow from others, allowing our economy to fluctuate a bit, but remain fairly strong. Reagan recognized this and decided to increase spending within the Militray Industrial Complex of the United States. It ultimately worked. The Soviet Union could not keep up with the production of the US and its allies, and slowly began to crumble. The whole story is worthy of a different entry.
The problem is, in order to increase all of that spending and building, Reagan had to decrease a lot of the regulations that had been put into place during and after the Great Depression. Those regulations had been enacted to protect the US economy from collapsing like it had in 1929, as well as to keep financial institutes accountable for their actions. Reagan, systematically cut and snipped away at those policies to increase the value of the US dollar, allow an increase in more aggressive trading practices, and increase the value of American industry. All of that worked extremely well at the time. It also was not intended to be a permanent change. Those regulations were supposed to go back into effect once the Cold War was over, atleast that was the plan.
Reagan worked very closely with the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to decrease nuclear armament, decrease military spending, and increase trade opportunities with the USSR. All of this helped to end the reign of the Soviet Union, while increasing the strength and reach of the US economy.
Next comes George Herbert Walker Bush, or as many people refer to him now, Bush I. This George Bush continued the talks with the Soviet Union to end the Cold War, increased trading with the former enemy, and worked fairly well with Congress. Then came Iraq. In 1990 Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded the sovereign nation of Kuwait. Iraq claimed that Kuwait had previously belonged to them, which is technically true, and they wanted it back to increase their access to the Gulf of Arabia and repatriate the lost Iraqis. This upset the entire world community. The UN condemned the actions of Iraq, and the US vowed to free Kuwait. Nation after nation pledged support for the US, including troops and materiel. Even Iran, who calls the US the "Great Satan", promised assistance. Bush set a deadline for Hussein to pull out of Kuwait. Hussein refused. Bush began sending in the troops to begin preparations. Hussein said he would win. The deadline came and went. The world held it's collective breath to see who would win this game of chicken. Hussein refused to budge. So, the coalition forces of doezens of countries allied with the US, all led by Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, wiped the desert floor with Hussein's troops and expelled them from Iraq. The troops wanted to go all the way to Bagdad and get remove Hussein from power, but Bush had promised the Un he would cease hostilities as soon as Kuwait was freed. Bush pulled in the leash on his dogs of war, and helped rebuild Kuwait.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Iron Curtain, the Soviet Union collapsed. The Cold War was over, and the US had won. All of the regulatory policies that had been suspended in order to end the Cold War were supposed to be put back in place. Unfortunately, Bush had Iraq to contend with, and forgot about them. It was OK, he could deal with it in his second term. The problem is Bush never got that second term. The American people are fickle. You can't start a war and not finish it, and in the eyes of many Americans Desert Storm wasn't over.
Out goes George H.W. Bush, in comes Bill Clinton. Clinton never got around to replacing those regulatory policies either, but hey, the economy was booming, there weren't any clouds on the financial sky. It began to look like we didn't need the regulations, and for a while we didn't. Financial institutions were lending money without being aggressive. People were making fortunes seemingly overnight. The vast majority of the world loved us as heroes. Nothing seemed to be broken, so why fix it? Really, the most embarassing thing that happened was Clinton undergoing, and winning, and impeachment trial in the Senate, all beacuse of a little extra marital fun. Clinton finishes two terms as president with amzaing goodwill towards the US from the rest of the world, a booming economy, a huge surplus of money in the treasury, and a stain on a blue dress from The Gap.
Welcome George Walker Bush, otherwise known as W. I'm not going to get into the whole election mess here. First year in office and the US experiences the most heinous attack from a foreign source ever. Pearl Harbor, back in 1941, was a horrible attack, but the Japanese limited their focus on military targets. On September 11, 2001 Saudi born terrorists trained in both the US and Afghanistan, and were all here on legal visas, did the unthinkable. The world mourned alongside of us. We retaliated against Afghanistan, and helped the Afghani people to overthrow the Taliban run government. The world supported the United States in this. We were freeing an oppressed people from an authoritarian government they didn't want, and we were seeking justice for thousands of civilian deaths on Sept. 11.
Then came Iraq, again. Yes, Saddam Hussein was ahorrible man. Yes, Hussein killed thousands of his own citizens. Yes, Hussein was the dictator of a rogue nation. No, he didn't have ties to Al-Qaeda. No, he didn't have weapons of mass destruction. No, he didn't pose a real threat to the safety of the United States. His air force had been grounded for well over a decade because we sold him the aircraft, but wouldn't supply the parts and maintenance staff to keep them running. He didn't have the capability to produce long range missiles to attack the US. What armament the UN inspectors found was old and useless. In fact, the weaponry they found would have been a bigger danger to the Iraqis using them than to their intended targets. Did this stop W from finishing what he saw as his father's failing? No. So, into Iraq we go again. The mission in Afghanistan goes on the back burner, in favor of W's crusade into Bagdad.
Where does that leave the regulatory policies Reagan suspended in the 1980's? The ones that Bush Sr. was supposed to put back in place? The ones that were forgotten about by Clinton because the economy was doing well? Languishing in some history book, that's where. W wasn't about to put the squeeze on his buddies running the large companies, nor was he going to lose focus on his goal of taming Iraq. This left the financial institutions to begin getting more and more aggressive with their lending practices. People were still living on credit that they got used to back in the 1990's. American auto makers kept pumping out huge, gas guzzling machines. it was business as usual. Then everything went down the drain.
The economy tanked. Financial institutions began crushing the American dream that they sold people who couldn't afford it. People stopped buying large, American made cars in favor of imports with better gas mileage. The recession began. W began bailing out corporations. He tried stimulating the economy with tax rebates, and tax credits. Meanwhile, he was spending more and more money and American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama enters office, and all of his supporters think that he'll fix everything overnight, while all of his detractors begin blaming him for all of our woes. Obama continues the bailouts to keep large American employers from closing their doors and putting more Americans out of work. He did the same exact thing W did, and he gets flack over it from the Teabaggers. He wants to replace the regulations that had been forgotten about years ago, and he gets flack about that from the Teabaggers. Meanwhile, the Teabaggers are touting their love of all things Reagan, forgetting that it was Reagan who actually began all of this mess in the first place. Not to mention that everyone wants to continue spending as though it was 1999.
So, you see, through the strategic economic planning of one president, a snowball effect of spend, spend, spend was put into place. This pattern of continually spending money noone has has led to the economic collapse and turmoil we've seen. What began as a way of ending the Cold War has been our undoing. This is the second time in less than a century that we have faced the lesson that corporations need government regulation, and the second time we've been burnt by it. We ALL need to learn the lesson.
Let's start at the beginning, and I don't mean January 20, 2001, I say we go back a bit farther than that. Let's start in the 1970's. Richard Nixon got into office with the promise of ending the Vietnam War, which he did, but only after dramatically increasing the number of troops in the region, and expanding the scope of the fight to include neighboring countries. Then he resigns before he can be impeached because of the Watergate scandal. Nixon was highly paranoid, and just a bit delusional, which is always a great combination in a world leader, but Nixon did something that Republican presidents have not done since. Richard "I am not a crook" Nixon increased regulation on industries and corporations, and developed diplomatic and trade contracts with China. The Nixon administration gave us the Clean Water Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Plus, he opened up trade with the People's Republic of China in exchange for NOT officially recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation. Nixon also began the War on drugs, and pushed for universal healthcare. So, to recap, Nixon, a lifelong Republican, opened up trade with a socialist country, began a decades long effort to end the drug trade in the United States, advocated universal healthcare, ended the Vietnam War, and advanced environmental protections like no other president since Teddy Roosevelt.
Next comes Gerald Ford, the only president to have never been voted into the Oval Office. I like Gerald Ford. He was a bit clumsy, yet athletic. He was self deprecating, yet confident. He was very intelligent, without talking down to people. He was a good man. Too bad he wasn't allowed to be a good president. See, after Nixon resigned, Congress continued to look into the Watergate Scandal, news outlets continued dredging up new dirt about the issue, and the American people were focused on seeing it finished. Ford knew that, unless he did something drastic, nothing would get done in Washington to move the country forward. What did Ford do? He pardoned Richard Nixon, thus putting a stop to any, and all congressional investigations into the previous president's actions while in office. It was the correct decision, but it didn't help Ford one bit. He lost his re-election bid to a man who was so far outside of Washington politics that people were asking who he was.
Which brings us to Jimmy Carter. I have to say, I'm a huge fan of Carter. He didn't play politics as usual. He was grounded in real world issues and experience. He was extremely intelligent and well educated, but didn't feel the need to prove it. Unfortunately, none of this helped him get anything through Congress. It also didn't help him when he came up for re-election with the Iran Hostage Crisis in full swing. He lost to the patron saint of the Republican Party and the Teabag Movement, Ronald Wilson Reagan.
Reagan is where our current issues really begin. Back in 1980 the Iranians were holding 52 Americans from the US embassy for well over a year. The crisis lasted 444 days to be exact. Carter had tried a rescue attempt that was doomed to failure. The Iranians refused to talk to him to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Reagan walks in and says that if he's elected, he'll ende the crisis. Reagan wins the election, and as he's being sworn in as president on Jan 20, 1981, the hostages are released to US custody. Crisis averted, but wait, there's more. We still have the "Evil Empire" to deal with.
For those of you too young to remember, or those that have simply forgotten, the "evil empire" was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or, rather, the Soviet Union. The US had been engaged in a Cold War with the Soviets since the end of World War II in 1945. Reagan was determined to end the Cold War, so he did what any good capitalist does, he outspent them. Within the Soviet Union economic trade was generally restricted to countries that made up the USSR, for instance, Russia could trade with East Germany, but East Germany could not trade with France. This limited their ability to maintain a strong and vibrant economy in a world market. All of their money was simply flowing around within their system and not growing. Whereas, the US could trade with other countries, not just goods, but also debt. The US could loan money to foreign countries, and borrow from others, allowing our economy to fluctuate a bit, but remain fairly strong. Reagan recognized this and decided to increase spending within the Militray Industrial Complex of the United States. It ultimately worked. The Soviet Union could not keep up with the production of the US and its allies, and slowly began to crumble. The whole story is worthy of a different entry.
The problem is, in order to increase all of that spending and building, Reagan had to decrease a lot of the regulations that had been put into place during and after the Great Depression. Those regulations had been enacted to protect the US economy from collapsing like it had in 1929, as well as to keep financial institutes accountable for their actions. Reagan, systematically cut and snipped away at those policies to increase the value of the US dollar, allow an increase in more aggressive trading practices, and increase the value of American industry. All of that worked extremely well at the time. It also was not intended to be a permanent change. Those regulations were supposed to go back into effect once the Cold War was over, atleast that was the plan.
Reagan worked very closely with the new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, to decrease nuclear armament, decrease military spending, and increase trade opportunities with the USSR. All of this helped to end the reign of the Soviet Union, while increasing the strength and reach of the US economy.
Next comes George Herbert Walker Bush, or as many people refer to him now, Bush I. This George Bush continued the talks with the Soviet Union to end the Cold War, increased trading with the former enemy, and worked fairly well with Congress. Then came Iraq. In 1990 Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, invaded the sovereign nation of Kuwait. Iraq claimed that Kuwait had previously belonged to them, which is technically true, and they wanted it back to increase their access to the Gulf of Arabia and repatriate the lost Iraqis. This upset the entire world community. The UN condemned the actions of Iraq, and the US vowed to free Kuwait. Nation after nation pledged support for the US, including troops and materiel. Even Iran, who calls the US the "Great Satan", promised assistance. Bush set a deadline for Hussein to pull out of Kuwait. Hussein refused. Bush began sending in the troops to begin preparations. Hussein said he would win. The deadline came and went. The world held it's collective breath to see who would win this game of chicken. Hussein refused to budge. So, the coalition forces of doezens of countries allied with the US, all led by Generals Colin Powell and Norman Schwarzkopf, wiped the desert floor with Hussein's troops and expelled them from Iraq. The troops wanted to go all the way to Bagdad and get remove Hussein from power, but Bush had promised the Un he would cease hostilities as soon as Kuwait was freed. Bush pulled in the leash on his dogs of war, and helped rebuild Kuwait.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Iron Curtain, the Soviet Union collapsed. The Cold War was over, and the US had won. All of the regulatory policies that had been suspended in order to end the Cold War were supposed to be put back in place. Unfortunately, Bush had Iraq to contend with, and forgot about them. It was OK, he could deal with it in his second term. The problem is Bush never got that second term. The American people are fickle. You can't start a war and not finish it, and in the eyes of many Americans Desert Storm wasn't over.
Out goes George H.W. Bush, in comes Bill Clinton. Clinton never got around to replacing those regulatory policies either, but hey, the economy was booming, there weren't any clouds on the financial sky. It began to look like we didn't need the regulations, and for a while we didn't. Financial institutions were lending money without being aggressive. People were making fortunes seemingly overnight. The vast majority of the world loved us as heroes. Nothing seemed to be broken, so why fix it? Really, the most embarassing thing that happened was Clinton undergoing, and winning, and impeachment trial in the Senate, all beacuse of a little extra marital fun. Clinton finishes two terms as president with amzaing goodwill towards the US from the rest of the world, a booming economy, a huge surplus of money in the treasury, and a stain on a blue dress from The Gap.
Welcome George Walker Bush, otherwise known as W. I'm not going to get into the whole election mess here. First year in office and the US experiences the most heinous attack from a foreign source ever. Pearl Harbor, back in 1941, was a horrible attack, but the Japanese limited their focus on military targets. On September 11, 2001 Saudi born terrorists trained in both the US and Afghanistan, and were all here on legal visas, did the unthinkable. The world mourned alongside of us. We retaliated against Afghanistan, and helped the Afghani people to overthrow the Taliban run government. The world supported the United States in this. We were freeing an oppressed people from an authoritarian government they didn't want, and we were seeking justice for thousands of civilian deaths on Sept. 11.
Then came Iraq, again. Yes, Saddam Hussein was ahorrible man. Yes, Hussein killed thousands of his own citizens. Yes, Hussein was the dictator of a rogue nation. No, he didn't have ties to Al-Qaeda. No, he didn't have weapons of mass destruction. No, he didn't pose a real threat to the safety of the United States. His air force had been grounded for well over a decade because we sold him the aircraft, but wouldn't supply the parts and maintenance staff to keep them running. He didn't have the capability to produce long range missiles to attack the US. What armament the UN inspectors found was old and useless. In fact, the weaponry they found would have been a bigger danger to the Iraqis using them than to their intended targets. Did this stop W from finishing what he saw as his father's failing? No. So, into Iraq we go again. The mission in Afghanistan goes on the back burner, in favor of W's crusade into Bagdad.
Where does that leave the regulatory policies Reagan suspended in the 1980's? The ones that Bush Sr. was supposed to put back in place? The ones that were forgotten about by Clinton because the economy was doing well? Languishing in some history book, that's where. W wasn't about to put the squeeze on his buddies running the large companies, nor was he going to lose focus on his goal of taming Iraq. This left the financial institutions to begin getting more and more aggressive with their lending practices. People were still living on credit that they got used to back in the 1990's. American auto makers kept pumping out huge, gas guzzling machines. it was business as usual. Then everything went down the drain.
The economy tanked. Financial institutions began crushing the American dream that they sold people who couldn't afford it. People stopped buying large, American made cars in favor of imports with better gas mileage. The recession began. W began bailing out corporations. He tried stimulating the economy with tax rebates, and tax credits. Meanwhile, he was spending more and more money and American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Obama enters office, and all of his supporters think that he'll fix everything overnight, while all of his detractors begin blaming him for all of our woes. Obama continues the bailouts to keep large American employers from closing their doors and putting more Americans out of work. He did the same exact thing W did, and he gets flack over it from the Teabaggers. He wants to replace the regulations that had been forgotten about years ago, and he gets flack about that from the Teabaggers. Meanwhile, the Teabaggers are touting their love of all things Reagan, forgetting that it was Reagan who actually began all of this mess in the first place. Not to mention that everyone wants to continue spending as though it was 1999.
So, you see, through the strategic economic planning of one president, a snowball effect of spend, spend, spend was put into place. This pattern of continually spending money noone has has led to the economic collapse and turmoil we've seen. What began as a way of ending the Cold War has been our undoing. This is the second time in less than a century that we have faced the lesson that corporations need government regulation, and the second time we've been burnt by it. We ALL need to learn the lesson.
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