Iraq, Iran, War, Money, Me, and US

beautiful and distinctive voices in music and has won 20 Grammy Awards. She sings one of my favorite Christmas songs along with Alan Jackson, The Angels Cried, Honky Tonk Christmas. I ran across a blog article that talks about politics and being a regular old American. Something we talk about in this blog all the time. The author is Chris Pirillo, unless you’re a computer geek you’ve probably never heard of him. It’s worth taking a few minutes to read. Technorati Tags:

Iraq, Iran, War, Money, Me, and US ~ Chris Pirillo

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You’re falling for the kool-aid, Chris. :)

The President’s staff does serve at his pleasure. He is the one who picked them for the job and Congress only approves or denies his choice. They don’t decide his staff for him. When he decides they’re not doing their job to his satisfaction, then he is the one who fires them. They’re not elected positions, they’re appointed, so there is no option for impeachment.

However, the president does serve at OUR pleasure. If we don’t like the decisions the president has made, then we appeal to Congress for an impeachment or vote him out of office or vote his party out of office.

There’s a lot of wolf crying lately that the system is broken and this and that, but the system works. It simply works much slower than Internet Time (it’s 4 years minimum between political revolutions) and as a result it seems slow and inefficient.

As for war profiteering, this has been a fact since a king realized he can have more power under war than under peace. It’s been with us since we first formed tribes before written history. And it’ll continue to happen. Absolute democracy does not work nearly as well as a representative democracy and for as long as that’s true there will always be people we assign with power and they will abuse it for as long as possible. It’s one the main reason I’m a huge fan of term limits for all positions in the government, even judges.

But this will never happen for one simple reason…those in power will not vote themselves out of power. Like you said, it’s nothing to do with party affiliation…it has to do with the fact that a segment of the population craves power over others. And that’s just how some brains calculate survivability…one of those annoying traits we have because we evolved from scared monkeys in trees.

Chris, I’ve been a candidate for local office, and I will be one again soon. I gotta tell you that as much as I agree with you that Internet media is the way to go, that the voting public does not buy that yet. They follow the money. for the most part, ideology be damned. People pay so little attention to their own system of government that everything is geared toward getting that tiny group that calls the shots to pay attention: 50% +1 of the people who care enough to vote. And in local elections, the turnout can be as low as 9%. I am not kidding. And when you consider the fact that only a little over 60% of the people who COULD vote even register, you are looking at 9% of 50% of 60% of the people who could vote just called the shots. And those people are pretty easily moved by slick mailers and packaged sound bites. They are not bloggers and they only tune in the last week of a campaign. The voting population is lazy, apathetic, and easily moved by negative campaigning. As Pogo said, we have me the enemy, and he is us!

Dukrous, that was the most brilliant comment I’ve ever read on any political post. You nailed it. People try to make thinks WAY more complicated than they are. I agree with you totally.

[...] Iraq, Iran, War, Money, Me, and US Chris Pirillo  |  Apr 2, 2007 2:27am EDT [...]

You had me until Rosie…

Then the irrelevance factor went up. Way up…

i think rosie missed the times article about the iranian troops that came into iraq trying to start a fight. and yes war profiteering sucks but it has happened in every war, i dont like it because it takes money away from what would go to the military as combat pay (when the war started the military got $250 month combat pay now they only get $50 for combat pay) having a brother serving his second tour in iraq this upsets me.

The Net can help enormously in getting the word out, but it can’t substitute for face-to-face organizing, for getting in the streets, for mobilizing in communities, and I say that as one who has helped organize multiple antiwar protests, some of which have drawn hundreds of thousands or people.

That war profiteering has always occurred doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be opposed now!

“If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation…want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” — Frederick Douglass

Dukrous, i also agree with you great comment

The moment you attempted to give Rosie O credibility.. I lost all interest in this article. That woman is off her rocker.

So the UK sent 15 Sailors (one woman) into two rubber dinghies to start a war with Iran? The UK hasn’t even got any Naval air support at present and is reducing it’s armed forces quite dramatically.

The UK sailors were there under a UN mandate and were checking boats for anything illegal.

The Iranians told the British THREE times the co-ordinates where they were captured. When Britain pointed out these were co-ordinates in Iraqi waters they changed their mind.

You my friend, are an idiot.

“I seriously can’t believe that my fellow Americans continue to put up with this shit”

This is what the rest of the world has been thinking for years.

I agree with the most of the comments, your post sounded intelligent until you quoted Rosie.

In the 1950’s, Dwight Eisenhower warned about the permanent war economy and the buildup of the military-industrial complex. I remember a particularly stirring New Yorker cartoon in which tanks were rolled off the end of a pier into the ocean so that we could build more tanks. Nothing has changed in fifty years.

I am not American. I do not live in the US. But I can tell you, most of the world no longer looks up to the US as a ‘leading’ nation because of the fascist-like Bush Administration. I studied in the US and liked the US a great deal, but you guys need to get your act together and impeach Bush and Cheney ASAP. The Bush administration is leading the entire America into a no-return path of hatred.

Thanks to the wonderful world of BT and my local pay TV service (legality issue aside for the moment…if I could purchase these programs via iTunes, I would, but iTunes only work if you live in the US and a few selected countries), I am able to watch quite a bit of US TV, from the ridiculously biased Fox News to the most ‘liberal’ shows like Real Time with Bill Maher. Of course, I also get to watch shows like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report. Much of the media (less FOX News) seem to have it together, but people on the Internet needs to get their acts together and just impeach Bush asap.

The administration is a joke. Show the world what true democracy is. With such a low approval rating, I do not see how he can remain as president.

As I said in my year ending post about Canadians, which also applies to any western country and its people, the sheep mentality needs to change. When most people think about sheep mentality they associate it with those who blindly follow conservative aka republican politicians. It also applies to left wing aka Democrat aka Labour aka Liberal parties and their followers. I read a wide variety of blogs and journalists online as well as various news sources.I try to sift thru it all to arrive at a balanced viewpoint- unlike Dukrous. Jack, in his post made a valid point. The problem is Jack, the Lib lefties don’t want to face facts like yours, and the righties may choose to use it as propaganda to validate their positions also. I read an article online recently by an Arab Palestinian Christian who outlined why it was a disaster for Israel to listen to the UN and the Russians (and their ilk) and by doing so withdraw from Lebanon last year without a conclusive victory over Hisb’Allah and Hamas, Iran and Syria. This is first hand observation from someone who lives in the milieu every day. I would strongly urge anyone who wants such a first hand view to email me and I will forward it (I received it from a Dutch friend).A lot of the points would also apply to the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.
If you want really different but definitely interesting reading, I can point you to more resources.

I don’t have time to get into any of this right now, but I do feel the need to say one thing, and that’s about your “Independent” status. I’m all for independant voting. However, I do get a little twitchy when self-proclaimed Independents feel the need to almost put down those of us who align themselves with one party in an attempt to make themselves look more thoughtful, unbiased, and, well, independent.

Like many Americans, I’m a proud Democrat, but I certainly don’t “live my life on party lines”. If there’s a good Republican running, I will (and have) vote for them. I’ve just studied enough of the political system to know that my politics fall more with the Democrats than with the Republicans (particularly over the past few years), and I take pride in the fact that I get to vote for Dems in primaries because of that.

In other words, just because I align myself with one party doesn’t make me a less thoughtful, more biased, and less independent voter. In fact, I see some “independents” as being independent because they like to pretend they’re above the political system, while they’re usually too lazy to get their hands dirty and figure out what, exactly, they believe in politically (present company excluded, of course).

Sorry if it seems I’m going after you, here. I’m not. I’m just taking out my aggression toward my “Independent” brother in law on this incredibly thoughtful entry. Thanks for noting the video, as I’ve been meaning to rent it. Thank goodness for Google Video!

Sadly, no. The president serves a four-year term. Political appointees serve at the pleasure of the president–meaning as long as he’s pleased and not a nano-second longer. Impeachment is a legal process that has nothing to do with pleasure or lack thereof. (Even in Clinton’s case, it wasn’t about Monica pleasuring him, but about his lying about it.) We don’t have the “no confidence” vote that can end the term of a prime minister. Our consitituion came down on the side of stability over pleasure.

I have read a number of your post and I love it, can’t wait to read some more.