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Campaign 2008
2007-08-29 21:19:00
Edwards: Does He Mean It?  By Hank EdsonThe Sincerity Question We Don’t Need to AskFor the last seven years, we have been asking ourselves, “Does George W. Bush really believe the stuff he says.” For example, while campaigning for office, George W. Bush reportedly told a group of supporters in 1999, “I believe God wants me to be president.” In July of 2004, he re-asserted this faith, stating, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.” When Bob Woodward asked Bush if he asked his father for advice regarding going to war with Iraq, Bush replied: “ He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength. There's a higher Father that I appeal to.” The sincerity question is beside the point when it comes to George W. Bush, however. Time and again, pundits have essentially defended the President by asserting their opinion that he actually believe...
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Political Accountability
2007-08-26 22:42:00
Overlooking the Obvious     On ImpeachmentBy Hank Edson Does One More Outrage Really Matter? It may seem completely unnecessary to pursue yet one more ground for impeachment when we already have so many. In their book, The Case for Impeachment, journalists David Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky have cited, for example, seven classes of impeachable offenses Bush and Cheney have committed: Lying to Congress and America about the need to invade Iraq, about the existence of an imminent threat to the United States, and about the existence of a link between that alleged threat and 9/11. Refusing to cooperate with congressional and 9/11 investigations; Violating the bill of rights by detaining US citizens indefinitely without charge, by detaining and deporting legal residents, and by illegally authorizing the national Security Agency to spy on American citizens without a court order. Abusing power by adding over 1000 signing statements to legislative acts passed by Congre...
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Political Process Integrity
2007-08-23 09:37:00
Undermining Democracy:   Party Po litics and Pelosi's Priorities  by Hank Edson Poli tical Pragmatism Many well-meaning, pragmatic politicians espouse party loyalty because the party’s general vision of how to promote the public's general welfare is sufficiently in line with their own. Under such circumstances, the compromises a politician chooses to make out of loyalty to his or her party is off-set by the benefits that result when party strength is applied in service of the general welfare. The goal remains government of, by, and for the people. Such pragmatic loyalty, however, still diminishes the integrity of the political process and the value of the political debate on which wise policy depends for its formulation. To appreciate that this is true it is helpful to compare the political process with the scientific process. Both processes involve an open critical discourse aimed at identifying the most accurate understanding of reality. In...
More About: Integrity , Process , Politic

Feminist Commentary
2007-08-21 20:56:00
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues  By Hank Edson James Carroll published an insightful column the other day, entitled: “Questions for Hillary Clinton.” In his column, Carroll makes the point that like her husband, Hillary has attempted to co-opt the Republican’s posture of being “strong” on foreign policy, meaning “dangerously prone to destabilizing violence.” My favorite observation from Carroll’s column is this one: “Coming into power as the world’s relationship to military force was being fundamentally altered by such figures as Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, Óscar Arias, Lech Walesa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela, John Hume, Corazon Aquino, and Pope John Paul II, [Bill] Clinton was unable to claim what should have been his natural place among them.” Carroll's column can be found at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/ 08/20/3283/.The Big Question Carroll poses for Hillary Clinton is thus: ...
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Progressive's Plea
2007-08-19 16:55:00
I Want a Candidate!  by Hank EdsonI want a candidate who has the guts to stand up for gay marriage. For crying out loud, it’s just positive human commitment to care for each other. Where are our principles anyway? I want a candidate who says she is going to raise taxes—a candidate who wants to make taxes on investments equal to taxes on hard-earned salaries—a candidate who wants to raise taxes on the top 5% most wealthy who have captured all of the gains in economic growth over the last decade and more, while the rest of us have flat-lined. We all make this society possible; 95% of us are entitled to more equity. I want a candidate who will bust up monopolistic conglomerations of market share among too few corporations. We need a new Teddy Roosevelt to fight these Robber-Barons of Big Oil, Big Media, and Big Business. I want a candidate who will get serious about the environment. Again, we need a new Teddy Roosevelt. We need someone even better. I want someone...

Profiles in Shame
2007-08-17 21:35:00
A Few Facts Rumsfeld Omittedfrom His Resignation Letter By Hank EdsonTwo days ago, the Washington Post reported that a copy of Donald Rumsfeld’s November 7, 2006 resignation letter came to light as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press. Rumsfeld’s letter was four-paragraphs long and contained 148 words. Like the recent resignation statement of Karl Rove, Rumsfeld’s letter spoke of the honor he felt in being allowed to serve his country and of the historical significance of this presidency. Like Rove, Rumsfeld omitted to reflect on the long catalogue of ways he had defiled the honor that had been bestowed upon him. Like Rove, Rumsfeld avoided acknowledging that the historical significance of the Bush presidency was shameful to the extreme. Neither men said anything about their responsibility for the most disastrous administration of our government in the history of the United States. And yet both men were resigning because ...
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Profiles in Shame
2007-08-14 16:23:00
The Pride and Prejudice of Karl RoveBy Hank EdsonKarl Rove says he's deeply proud and grateful to have been a witness to history; I'd be proud to be a witness at Rove's trial.  It’s wishful thinking all around.  Rove’s not a witness, but a participant in history.  And if he had something to be proud of, he wouldn’t be resigning.  The only testimony I can offer is that of an outraged citizen who believes Rove should not escape responsibility for his role in the disaster that is the presidency of George W. Bush.  If I can’t be a witness, I and the rest of the country at least now get to see what truths will come to light when Rove no longer can direct political cover-up and retribution from inside the White House. Perhaps we will all find out how hot the heat is that is forcing Rove to resign.  It’s by no means the kind of career ending anyone wants who has spent a life in politics.  But the story of Karl Rove, we sho...
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Political Process Integrity
2007-08-12 20:32:00
Let's Try YouTube Answers Insteadby Hank Edson(This Post was published by FreePress.org on August 15, 2007: http://freepress.org/departments/display/ 10/2007/2760)Worthless CurrencyWe all know why our presidential debates are worthless currency to the American people.  We all know that the opinions the candidates will voice are calculated not to offend the contributions made by Big Business on which each candidate’s campaign depends.  We all know that in our 24/7 corporate media culture, the power of the echo-chamber to exaggerate and repeat the slightest deviation from the conventional “wisdom” completely kills the impulse in the candidate to speak from the heart.Thus, none of us believe anything the candidates say is really going to make a difference.  Whether they get elected or not, whether they live up to their promises or not, nothing they promise will make a difference because they all have been trained to promise virtually nothing.  They...
More About: Political , Integrity , Process , Poli , Politic

Democracy on the Rack
2007-08-06 06:00:00
The New Feudalism of the Republican AllianceBy Hank EdsonChess Anyone?Chess is a game that portrays the old power structures of feudal Europe and recognizes the alliance of different authoritarian interests that kept the people of society under the yoke of service to the elite.The king and queen represent the economic oppression asserted through a monopoly on land ownership in an agrarian society.  The bishop represents the psychological manipulation exercised by the church.  And the knight represents institutionalized brutality. To keep the pawns producing fortunes for their castles, the king and queen, the bishops and the knights worked in close cooperation just as the corporate monopolies of Big Business, the false prophets of the Religious Right, and the Neo-Conservative war-mongers do today.  Let’s face it we are in an era of new feudalism.  The Republican Alliance of economic oppression, religious manipulation, and institutionalized brutality controls...
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Campaign 2008
2007-07-30 05:00:00
Third Party IronyThe marginalized third party would become the Democratic Party.  By Hank EdsonPulling a LiebermanRalph Nader was right, sort of.  He did say, after all, that Democratic Party politicians had no reason to listen to the voters on the left whose vote they regarded as “in the bank.”  Well, they are not listening.  Roughly 70% of democrat voters now favor impeachment, but the democrats in the House of Representatives aren’t budging.  We want our troops home, but the “surge” continues.  As a result of the Democrat’s betrayal of their mid-term victory, the woman in charge, Nancy Pelosi, is being challenged for her seat by Cindy Sheehan as an independent.  It may be different to run a third party campaign for president than to run one against the Speaker of the House of Representatives, but this distinction should not drown out the obvious truth: we cannot rely on the lesser evil as a solution for the gr...
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Four Awful, Horrendous Truths
2007-07-23 03:52:00
Why We Must Leave Iraq ASAP: It’s the Only Way to Fight Our Real Enemy By Hank Edson (This Post was published by CommonDreams.org on July 23, 2007: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/ 07/23/2697/)The first awful, horrendous truth is we don’t know our own real enemy. It’s not Al Qaeda, it’s not Saddam Hussein, and it’s not terror. None of these pose a threat to the existence of our democracy. Properly managed, Al Qaeda has far less ability to inflict physical injury on Americans than do Americans who misuse hand guns and automatic weapons. In 2005, handguns killed over 30,000 people in America. Even with these deaths, we do not feel our democracy is in danger. The second awful, horrendous truth is that almost all our elected Democratic and Republican leaders incorrectly believe there is no enemy. They do correctly understand that we are not fighting the war in Iraq against an enemy, but rather for a reason—a strategic objective: the control of...
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Questioning Authority; Promoting Process
2007-07-17 03:14:00
By Hank EdsonThe old bumper sticker, “Question Authority !” was good advice we seem to have abandoned about the time George Orwellian Bush took his oath of office. Or perhaps, we let go of it before that, say, when we accepted the Supreme Court’s authority to dispense with the need to count votes in Florida in 2000. In truth, this bumper sticker was worn away bit by bit over the last three decades by a Republican Party hard at work furthering goals that were ultimately authoritarian: Big Business’s economic monopolism, the Religious Right’s infallible religious orthodoxy, and the Neo-Conservative’s military unilateralism. Little by little, our reminder to question these things got stripped from the car we were following, and for some reason it’s message didn’t stick where it mattered most: our consciousness.It didn’t stick because, as good as its advice is, “Question Authority” is only halfway down the road to wisdom. ...
More About: Promoting , Questioning , Process , Romo