Published on Saturday, February 26, 2011 by CommonDreams.org
‘Mad as Hell’ in Madison    by Ralph Nader

The large demonstrations at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin are driven by a middle class awakening to the spectre of its destruction by the corporate reactionaries and their toady Governor Scott Walker.

For years the middle class has watched the plutocrats stomp on the poor while listening to the two parties regale the great middle class, but never mentioning the tens of millions of poor Americans. And for years, the middle class was shrinking due significantly to corporate globalization shipping good-paying jobs overseas to repressive dictatorships like China. It took Governor Walker’s legislative proposal to do away with most collective bargaining rights for most public employee unions to jolt people to hit the streets.

Republicans take rigged elections awash in corporatist campaign cash seriously. When they win, they aggressively move their corporate agenda, unlike the wishy-washy Democrats who flutter weakly after a victory. Republicans mean business. A ram rod wins against a straw all the time.

Governor Walker won his election, along with other Republicans in Wisconsin, on mass-media driven Tea Party rhetoric. His platform was deceitful enough to get the endorsement of the police, and firefighters unions, which the latter have now indignantly withdrawn.

These unions should have known better. The Walker Republicans were following the Reagan playbook. The air traffic controllers union endorsed Reagan in 1980. The next year he fired 12,000 of them during a labor dispute. (This made flying unnecessarily dangerous.)

Then Reagan pushed for tax cuts—primarily for the wealthy—which led to larger deficits to turn the screws on programs benefitting the people. Reagan, though years earlier opposed to corporate welfare, not only maintained these taxpayer subsidies but created a government deficit, over eight years, that was double that of all the accumulated deficits from George Washington to Jimmy Carter.

Maybe the unions that endorsed Walker will soon realize that not even being a “Reagan Democrat” will save them from being losers under the boot of the corporate supremacists.

The rumble of the people in Madison illustrates the following:

1. There is an ideological plan driving these corporatists. They create “useful crisis” and then hammer the unorganized people to benefit the wealthy classes. Governor Walker last year gave $140 million in tax breaks to corporations. This fiscal year's deficit is $137 million. Note this oft-repeated dynamic. President Obama caved to the Minority party Republicans in Congress last December by going along with the deficit-deepening extension of the huge dollar volume tax cuts for the rich. Now the Republicans want drastic cuts in programs that help the poor.

2. Whatever non-union or private union workers, who are giving ground or losing jobs, think of the sometimes better pay and benefits of unionized public employees, they need to close ranks without giving up their opposition to government waste. For corporate lobbyists and their corporate governments are going after all collective bargaining rights for all workers and they want to further weaken The National Labor Relations Board.

3. Whenever corporations and government want to cut workers’ incomes, the corporate tax abatements, bloated contracts, handouts and bailouts should be pulled into the public debate. What should go first?

4. For the public university students in these rallies, they might ponder their own tuition bills and high interest loans, compared to students in Western Europe, and question why they have to bear the burden of massive corporate welfare payouts—foodstamps for the rich. What should go first?

5. The bigger picture should be part of the more localized dispute. Governor Walker also wants weaker safety and environmental regulations, bargain-basement sell-outs of state public power plants and other taxpayer assets.

6. The mega-billionaire Koch brothers are in the news. They are bankrolling politicians and rump advocacy groups and funding media campaigns in Wisconsin and all over the country. Koch Industries designs and builds facilities for the natural gas industry. Neither the company nor the brothers like the publicity they deserve to get every time their role is exposed. Always put the spotlight on the backroom boys.

7. Focusing on the larger struggle between the people and the plutocracy should be part and parcel of every march, demonstration or any other kind of mass mobilization. The signs at the Madison rallies make the point, to wit—“2/3 of Wisconsin Corporations Pay No Taxes,” “Why Should Public Workers Pay For Wall Street’s Mess?”, “Corporate Greed Did the Deed.”

8. Look how little energy it took for these tens of thousands of people to sound the national alarm for hard-pressed Americans. Just showing up is democracy’s barn raiser. This should persuade people that a big start for a better America can begin with a little effort and a well-attended rally. Imagine what even more civic energy could produce!

Showing up lets people feel their potential power to subordinate corporatism to the sovereignty of the people. After all, the Constitution’s preamble begins with “We the People,” not “We the Corporations.” In fact, the founders never put the word “corporation” or “company” in our constitution which was designed for real people.

As for Governor Walker’s projected two-year $3.6 billion deficit, read what Jon Peacock of the respected nonprofit Wisconsin Budget Project writes at: http://www.wisconsinbudgetproject.org about how to handle the state budget without adopting the draconian measures now before the legislature.

Ralph Nader is a consumer advocate, lawyer, and author. His most recent book - and first novel - is, Only The Super-Rich Can Save Us. His most recent work of non-fiction is The Seventeen Traditions.

more Ralph Nader on CommonDreams.org

As the protests continue in Egypt, coverage is spotty at times and the meaning of it all can be elusive to those of us living in western cultures, where we believe we understand both Democracy and the ways in which our foreign policies implement those ideals we take for granted. We also tend to ignore the ramifications of our economic colonialism and the warnings that have been forgotten over and over again. This lack of context between the diplomatic and economic actions we take in other countries, and the "blowback (intelligence)" which eventually follows, leaves us rattled, confused and wondering "why do they hate us?"

Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow has been reporting on Egypt since the protests started on January 25th after the successful democratic revolt in Tunisia that took place the week before. With Egyptian-born and Senior Producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous on the ground, DemocracyNow has been one of the few news outlets that have been able to accurately describe what is happening in the streets of Egypt.

Today's show was another hour of historical importance culminating and followed by an extensive interview with the MIT Professor of Linguistics, Noam Chomsky, one of the few remaining true political intellectuals and philosophers left in America.

Anyone wanting to get a clear picture of the modern US economic-driven foreign policy agendas, can find many resources still, but few that can more clearly articulate in the everyday language that most people can understand.

Below is the entire interview, preceded by today's DemocracyNow newscast. I highly recommend watching all of it, but certainly the Chomsky interview. I promise you will learn something and find yourslef more enlightened because of it.

Extended interview PART 1: Chomsky links the U.S. military industrial complex to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and it support of the Mubarak government.

Extended interview PART 2: Chomsky discusses the decades-long "campaign of hatred" in the Middle East against the United States for blocking democracy and progressive developments.

Extended interview PART 3: Chomsky discusses the impact of revelations from WikiLeaks on the uprising in Egypt and the consequences of U.S. support for radical Islamism.

Extended interview PART 4: Chomsky says U.S. fear of the Muslim Brotherhood is really a fear of democracy in the Middle East.

Extended interview PART 5: Chomsky examines the role of U.S. corporations in a "stable" Egypt in the Middle East.

Extended interview PART 6: Chomsky discusses what the Egyptian protests mean for people in the United States.

Link: http://nader.org/index.php?/archives/2238-Open-Letter-to-President-Obama.html#extended

Ralph Nader is a hero of mine, plain and simple. He is in a small group of intellectuals who have been trying to make the USA a better Democracy for all people for more than 50 years. Noam Chomsky, Gore Vidal, John Pilger are others still living. Many others have died, either peacefully or have met with violence brought about by the mentally disturbed and pitifully misdirected by the paid-for pundit opinion of the day. The biggest difference though between Mr. Nader and almost anyone I can think of who has been in public service during my lifetime, is that Mr. Nader has actually made a difference in the course of his advocacy, and did so more than 40 years ago when he fought the automobile manufacturers AND the business end of Congress to bring safety standards to the cars we buy and drive. This courageous and determined individual risked his own life to do this, and even if he had walked away into retirement then, he could have lived the rest of his life still taking credit for saving more civilian lives than almost any person in our nation's history, before or since. Day in and day out.

The letter I have provided to you below is just one example of the daily routine of this man, even today, and after running for President three times (4 on the ballot), and ultimately being rebuffed and betrayed by some of his previously most loyal followers. It's a shame, to say the least. A national loss to us all, point of fact. But he doesn't stop. Not this man. He is a (unpaid) civil servant juggernaut of the highest caliber, and it is so sad that so many people do not really know him. I hope after reading this letter that some will recognize his potential value, and take some time to learn more about this great gentleman.

It's easy to understand when you know this man why he is so vigorously maligned, especially by the "status quo". He speaks his mind, and does so with fervency and confidence. Though he respects and appreciates diplomacy, he does not believe in patronizing his audience, be it a group, organization or elected official. He will tell it like it is, and always knows what he is saying and talking about. You'll clearly see that when you read his letter to the President. And you'll also understand, with little surprise, why it will be likely ignored. If you agree that people will often point out their own faults in others, then you'll understand why it's so hypocritical for his opposition to call Ralph Nader "conceited", "arrogant" or "vain". For it is these qualities in those he criticizes or advises that generally creates the friction that ends the conversation.

Too bad. The way I see it, it is precisely this kind of energy we need in our leaders, if we hope to ever regain this country and her government in the name of The People. Can anyone imagine Ralph Nader bowing to non-public special interests, corporate lobbies or the corruptions and moral hazards created too often by Congress? The plain truth is that Ralph Nader is not a politician or even an activist. He is an advocate, for the people. Isn't that what we really need our leaders to do? Advocate for us? Read this letter, see if you don't find yourself agreeing with his observations and recommendations.

Thank you and KUDOS Mr. Nader!!!!!

Open Letter to President Obama

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Dear President Obama:

The sentiments expressed in this letter may have more meaning more for you now that the results of the mid-term elections are clear. You have seen what can happen when a number of your supporters lose their enthusiasm and stay home or do not actively participate as volunteers.

In your first two years, you have developed a wide asymmetry between your association with Big Business executives and the leaders of national civic and labor groups whose members are in the tens of millions. You have met repeatedly at the White House and other locales with corporate officials, spoken to their gatherings and even traveled abroad with them to promote their exports.

Recently on your trip to India with a covey of business leaders, you vigorously touted their products, some by brand name (Boeing and Harley-Davidson’s expensive motorcycles). Your traveling companions could not have been more gratified as you legitimized their view that WTO trade rules were a net plus for employment in the United States as well as India. Imagine—the President as business agent.

Contrast this close relationship with profit-making firms, many subsidized by the taxpayers in various ways, and probed for health, safety or economic violations by regulatory agencies, with your refusal to openly and regularly address the large non-profit civic groups. Before your inauguration, I wrote requesting that you do what Jimmy Carter did just after his election when he addressed and interacted with nearly one thousand civic leaders at a Washington hotel. They addressed a broad array of issues: environment, food, labor, energy, consumer, equality for women, civil rights-civil liberties and other endeavors for a better society. It was a grand and productive occasion.

You know that the civic groups—often called the Independent Sector—employ many thousands of people around the country often on shoestring budgets with no profits in mind. They work for health, safety, economic and environmental well being, for living wages and access to justice, for peace and the rule of law in domestic and foreign policy. Yet you as President do not adequately attach your cachet in their favor and give them the visibility that you give commercial businesses. Strange! For profits and jobs, yes I’m coming says the President. For justice and jobs, no I’m not coming says the President.

It is time to associate yourself with civil society, name some with approbation as you have done with companies, express your support for the expansion of their budgets and activities, in short, identify with them.

Please note that when you invite the CEOs of Aetna and Pfizer numerous times to the White House and cut deals not exactly in the patients’ best interest, while you decline to invite old friends and mentors on these health insurance and health care subjects like Dr. Quentin Young in Chicago, people are perplexed and communicate their displeasure via their networks.

Last Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that on February 7, you “will cross Lafayette Park from the White House to the headquarters of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, his longtime political nemesis…” What about walking next door and visiting your political friends at the headquarters of the AFL-CIO whose member unions represent millions of working Americans?

You can discuss with Richard Trumka, a former coal miner and the new president of the AFL-CIO, your campaign promises in 2008. Repeatedly you said to the American people that you supported the “card check” and a “federal minimum wage of $9.50 in 2011.” The 1968 minimum wage, adjusted for inflation would be about $10 today. (The federal minimum wage is now $7.25)

Moving up the minimum wage to nearly what it was back in 1968, in purchasing power, would increase consumer demand by over $200 billion a year. Isn’t that what this economy needs right now, not to mention the boon it would be to long deprived, underpaid workers and their families? After all, businesses of all sizes have received a variety of substantial tax breaks during this windfall period of a stagnant federal minimum wage. Isn’t it time for some equity for the people?

On a related note, over a year ago, Mr. Mike Kelleher, the man in charge of letters written to you, said he would get back to me about your policy on replying to letters that deal with substantive matters, whether under your signature or the signature of your assistants and department heads. I have not heard from Mr. Kelleher.

Let me give you an example. Months ago I wrote to inform you that several prominent environmental and energy groups, such as Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, were at their wit’s end trying to arrange a joint meeting with Secretary Steven Chu. He repeatedly declined to meet, though he has often met with nuclear energy business executives and has gone so far as to tout nuclear energy’s desirability in an op-ed. The environmental groups wanted a serious exchange with him on your Administration’s energy policies, including your request to Congress for very large loan guarantees by taxpayers for utilities that want to build more nuclear plants.

My letter asked you to intercede and urge Secretary Chu that it is only fair and constructive to hear what these groups have to say. There never was an answer from the White House or the Department of Energy. You know that for years many citizen advocates have worked hard to improve the federal government and they have rarely experienced such discourtesies of no replies.

Perhaps you do not care. But you should know that there are people who do. What is your response?

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

I have been thinking a lot lately about globalization and so-called "free-trade". And aside from all the arguments we've made against it; the loss of domestic jobs, wage suppression, corporate multi-nationalism, and all the other downsides that the elite turn a blind eye towards because these are the things that have made them filthy rich. Aside from these arguments and others, there is an aspect to this economic lie that no one ever talks about. And it goes like this:

Think about those big ships, the ones with the hundreds of cargo boxes that later get loaded on trains and trucks. Think about how big those ships are, and how many of them must be in the water all the time in order to bring us all the goods that we do not make here anymore. Think about the amount of fuel these ships must use, and the trains and the trucks that have to bring those goods across country from one port on one coast to post-industrial towns and cities around the country. Then think about "global peak oil". How many years of fuel is left in the ground. Think about how those projections have probably been way too conservative since the first of those big ships began to steam across the oceans. Then think about our military abroad. Think about how much fuel they must use in order to control the parts of the world we need to provide us with that fuel. It's the "mother" of all catch-22s.

Our leaders promised us affordability and increased leisure through free-trade. They promised us a richer life. Yet in reality they have brought us our doom ever closer and ever faster with their lies and false promises.

Someone should plot a graph, a time-line, comparing the estimates for global fossil fuel supply in relation to our current use and growth, including the military, with that of how it would have been had we rejected the WTO, NAFTA and all the other trade agreements that stripped us of our manufacturing and economic independence. I can promise you that down the road our grandchildren in their growing hate for our generation will look at this.

And finally, because after-all, I am commenting on an environmental blog, think about this same paradox, the accelerated use of fossil fuels brought on by our selfish economic policies, and apply that to fossil fuel emissions...

In our haste to imagine we were making a better world for our great, great grandchildren, we have likely doomed the planet generations earlier than was necessary.

And a paradox it is.

Because only this kind of selfishness could exacerbate the very problem that we are simultaneously putting off in every way imaginable. We, are indeed chasing our own tails, and we will eat ourselves eventually.

Link: http://century-club.com/blog2.php/2009/08/24/it-s-really-so-simple

People like Frank Luntz teach people like Sarah Palin how to use well-chosen words, expressions, analogies, metaphors and diatribes to emotionally re-characterize our understanding of a particular issue in order to sway public support to bias a particular policy in such a way that gives some individual, group or organization some kind of political and/or corporate advantage, usually resulting in a redistribution of both power and wealth from the most needy to the most greedy of our society.

Andy Lubershane made the video below using very simple language and clever imagery to make a pretty clear argument against the for-profit health insurance option, and for a not-for-profit universal health care system. See if you don't agree.

This past Friday night on Bill Moyers Journal, I watched the most educational conversation I have heard in a single place to date on the current healthcare debate we are trying to have in this country.

Personally I find many similarities between this debate and the less publicly mentioned Employee Free Choice Act debate that is still brewing quietly in the back rooms of Congress and our national mainstream media empire. One thing I find very similar are the opponent arguments, which are biased towards the industry. The corporations. And the fact that both debates are tied to employment, and the current standard of living for the most vulnerable of our citizens.

The show consisted of two segments on the healthcare debate, and both were very informative. It's been clear to me for some time that what seems to be holding back the tide of citizen support for single-payer is their, well, ignorance on the construct of our current system, how and why it is broken, and most importantly, why it is not sustainable. Not only economically, but morally as well.

The very fact that the opposition even has our good President confusing the issue with false excuses about "service disruptions", great complexity to change and even having us believe that, although admitting the system is broken, somehow it is not so broken that we can't more or less leave it in place while we make a longer term transition to public healthcare, is nothing short of disingenuous. This was an argument I was having trouble with myself until I watched this program. They explained it all with a matter-of-fact clarity, along with some apparent amusement at the state of our national ignorance on what most of the opposition simply scares us into believing merely with the word "socialism".

This is definitely one case (watching this show) where the truth may set you free!

Watch it here:

Excerpt from DemocracyNOW on today's show:

Legendary folk singer, banjo player, storyteller, and political and environmental activist Pete Seeger turned ninety on Sunday. More than 18,000 people packed New York’s Madison Square Garden Sunday to celebrate the man, the music and the movement. The all-star lineup included Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, Ani DiFranco, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Billy Bragg, Ruby Dee, Steve Earle, Arlo Guthrie, Guy Davis, Dar Williams, Michael Franti, Bela Fleck, Tim Robbins, Dave Matthews, Rufus Wainwright, John Mellencamp, Ben Harper, and Ritchie Havens. We speak with some of the musicians, play Seeger’s music and play excerpts from our hour-long interview with Seeger in 2004.

After reporting today's headlines, Amy Goodman devotes the rest of the hour to discussing the history and influence Pete Seeger and others have had on the struggles of America and the world. An ongoing struggle that Pete is still very optimistic about. Interviews, trivia and music are all included here. An inspirational show I highly recommend.

Watch it here:

39 years ago today in 1970, over 20 million Americans publicly demonstrated their support for the first Earth Day. Founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in, a nationwide grassroots demonstration on the environment. This occurred during a time of great concern about overpopulation and when there was a strong movement towards "Zero Population Growth."

Today we have a new President who claims to bring a message of "hope", and we have a new EPA Administrator, Lisa Jackson, who also seems to have a genuine concern for our environment. On the EPA web site they have dedicated an Earth Day message to all of us. You can read, view and listen to it HERE.

While looking for Earth Day media I ran across the following video on YouTube. It's from one of our current generation's concerned citizens, and tells a breif history of Earth Day.

I also found this very nice multimedia site from Earth Day Television. A "must-visit" for all you "eco-warriors" out there!

And please visit my other blogs for Earth Day postings.

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