Friday, April 16, 2010

Obstructionist Republicans—Time for a Real Filibuster!

Well, I guess this is “Round 2”. On the same day that the Security and Exchange Commission announced formal charges of fraud against Goldman Sachs, Senator Mitch McConnell (R, Kentucky) announced that he has a “unified GOP” ready to put the brakes on debating Wall Street Reform. Could it possibly be any more OBVIOUS who is “in the pay” of whom? Short of finding ONE rational Republican (Snowe or Collins of Maine come to mind, as well as retiring Voinovich of Ohio) we are heading towards yet another collision course where legislation that seems so obviously required (and urgent!) becomes blocked by the minority totally beholden to their financial masters.

Bear in mind that the Republican stance now is “no, we just don’t want to discuss it.” This isn’t an up-down vote on the Bill itself, but whether to bring the legislation to the floor of the Senate so that debate and amendment can begin to the goal of passing a Bill that the House has already passed (H. R. 4173). Ready yourself for another round of “this Bill is too big!” (The House PDF file is 1705 pages). No doubt they will also sing the outright lie that the Bill somehow encourages continuing bailouts for “too big to fail” institutions, along with other coordinated "talking points" that these virtual parrots are just so good at singing. The proper legislation to pass along with this reform would be a Bill authorizing clear tests for when institutions ARE “too big to fail.” We need to put in place orderly, step-wise procedures for selling off various sections so that the one large “too big to fail” company is broken up into pieces that cannot endanger the U.S. (and/or global) economy. It's time to listen to the qualified "voices of reason" in this debate: a consensus of economists who can bring wise, academic counsel to an industry that has shown its willingness to "bet the farm". Especially, then the consequences seem to bear so little connection to the reality. (Witness the round of exorbitant "bonuses" to the higher echelons of Wall Streeters even following the worst year of financial disasters since the 1930s.) These lemmings are shameless. They'll take the dough even while ushering the general populace off the cliff.

Consolidation (and its cousin “monopoly”) has brought the financial companies to their “too big to fail” state. After bring the U.S. (and global) economies to the precipice of the largest financial melt-down since the Great Depression, it should be clear to everyone that reforms and safeguards are urgently needed so as to avoid simply repeating past mistakes. Only a legislator who is “in the pay” of the vested interests that seek to preserve could possibly be against such reform. But—remember!—these are the folks who worked against Health Care Reform and whose lies and distortions in blocking passage of that legislation should now be seen as the clear distortions and obstructions that they were.

No more! You want to block this (or other) legislation from moving forward? Bring in the cots, Senators. It’s time for a good, old-fashioned filibuster! Do you want to add your voice to those that say "enough, already--get this passed now"? Click here.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

The 411 on “311”

I’ve just seen a very intriguing segment on Fareed Zakaria’s excellent “GPS” Sunday morning program on CNN. ASIDE: If you’ve not added this to your stable of Sunday news and information programs, you should definitely give it a try. Zakaria has a knack for looking at things both as an American and as a world citizen and brings insightful questioning to a distinguished list of newsmakers from around the world—ranging from Prime Ministers of Israel, Indian film stars, the leading American political and environmental thinkers (Thomas Friedman being the foremost) and opinion makers of all types. He consistently moderates in measured, lowered-voice style, bringing a civility and clarity to the discussion at all times.)

Anyway … his closing segment on today’s program was a very short report on how a group of active US Air Force strategists have “made a stunning recommendation: that the US unilaterally reduce its nuclear arsenal to 311 weapons.” Here’s the proposal in a nutshell: With 100 land-based missiles, 192 sea=based missiles and 19 missiles aboard aircraft. That’s it. Brilliant!

If you want to look at this notion a little closer, here are a couple links which may be illuminating: “International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War” ) and the coverage (with copious numbers of embedded source links) on FiredogLake.

FINALLY, here’s the kicker: Many of these esteemed proponents of the “311” number say that getting the US to this number need not take a decade of strategic arms limitation talks across the international community. Most experts state that the US could unilaterally reduce the number of nuclear weapon to 311 and still serve as a total deterrent to any Russian “sneak attack” as even if the 100 land-based missiles were taken out, there would be ample mutually assured destruction (“MAD”) capability remaining in the 211 sub-based and bomber missiles.

Plainly, an all-out nuclear Armageddon would cleanse our planet of most life as we know it. The planet, of course, survives and in whatever millennia it takes for the half-life of all that nuclear mess to deteriorate into harmless powder, the planet will regenerate and start all over again. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. (I'm with Sting--I hope the Russians love their children, too.)