More GOP Talk About Terrorist-Friendly Liberals

by Tony Peyser

It's yet another strategy
That's undeniably Rovian
To make voters salivate
In a manner Pavlovian.

August 14, 2006

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

On Sunday, BuzzFlash posted an editorial accusing the Bush Administration of treason.

It is a subject worthy of a book.

Their priority is not to fight terrorism, as we have said many a time. Their priority is the accumulation of dictatorial powers, primarily by using terrorism as a tool for doing away with our civil liberties.

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

August 13, 2006

As BuzzFlash has repeatedly editorialized, the Bush Administration is a detriment to America's national security. Our lives are increasingly at risk every day that they are in office.

They will never seriously battle the sources of terrorism in an effective, strategic fashion. That is because politically they need the terrorists as much as the terrorists need them. And the goals of the Bush Administration are the consolidation of power and the acquisition of natural resources and economic dominance, not the eradication of terror.

A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Larry Beinhart, author of Wag the Dog and Fog Facts

Say it loud, say it often, "Republicans are bad on national security." Every Democrat running for national office – and local offices too, why not? – should say, "I'm running because Republicans are bad on national security."

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

As we've said before, when it comes to using fear to achieve political ends and consolidate power, the Bush Administration makes us feel like it's Groundhog Day everyday when they need some tyrannical law passed or election season is approaching.

BUZZFLASH MAILBAG

This is Part 2 of the August 11, 2006 BuzzFlash Mailbag. Click here for Part 1.

Subject: The Crazy V.P.

If it wasn’t bad enough that this nation has a President with the I.Q. of a fruit fly we are also burdened with a crazy Vice President!

Unable to change channels fast enough there have been times when I was forced to listen to Dick Cheney. (Don’t you just hate it when you’re sitting on the remote?)

BUZZFLASH MAILBAG

Subject: Airplane Plot

Hi, Buzz --

Isn't it a good thing Britain wasn't waiting for Chertoff and the security boys here to sound the airline plot alarm? On Wednesday Bush is out on his bike in Crawford, Texas circling around the U.S.A. press idiots. Urging them on in 100 degree heat to run three miles. For a tee shirt and a photo with him. Offering "playful taunts and encouragement" according to the L.A. Times. Isn't Bush known to diddle around in August? Funny. If anything big were to happen the press boys would be in the throes of heat stroke.

NEWS RELEASE

News from the DNC:

Dusting Off The GOP Playbook: Fear-Mongering And Desperate Tactics

Washington, DC - In the wake of an unfolding terror plot and their own plummeting poll numbers, Republicans in Washington have once again dusted off their tired campaign playbook in a desperate attempt to stay alive politically. Party leaders and even White House officials have again begun engaging in fear-mongering to distract from their failed record and salvage their dwindling campaign prospects in November.

BARBARA'S DAILY BUZZFLASH MINUTE

Seems to me the “establishment” is whining, complaining, and offering advice to internet bloggers because they fear the bloggers may get the truth out and thus inhibit mainstream corporate media’s chances of spinning the dark fantastic!

TABOR and Direct Democracy: An Essay on the End of the Republic
by Bradley J. Young

THOM HARTMANN'S "INDEPENDENT THINKER" BOOK OF THE MONTH REVIEW

There is a group of people -- who often refer to themselves as "conservatives" -- who are not only committed to the destruction of our republic, but actively (and successfully) crippling governments all over this nation. Their main weapon is "direct democracy" -- the initiative system by which citizens can get measures on a ballot and bypass legislators -- and a series of seemingly commonsense citizen-promoted limitations on the growth of government.

The initiative process was mostly written into the constitutions of several dozen states largely as part of the progressive and populist backlash against entrenched and corrupt political machines in the Reconstruction Era following the Civil War. The idea was that if legislators refused to follow the will of the public because they'd been bought off or co-opted by the Robber Barons or other "special interests," citizens could take things into their own hands. In some recent cases -- most notably medical marijuana and Oregon's "right to die with dignity" -- the system has worked pretty well in the face of spineless legislators.

But with the so-called "taxpayers bill of rights" or TABOR, the Grover Norquist-types of the world who think government should be destroyed, in large part, and replaced by a corporate aristocracy running everything from our schools to our power systems, have found a tool to fool citizens into building self-destruct mechanisms into representative democracy.

The main means by which this is done is a "ratchet" system that requires government to return budget surpluses to taxpayers annually, wiping out rainy day funds and other ways for government to deal with economic downturns, and limits the growth of government revenues to the sum of population growth and inflation.

Population growth plus inflation sounds reasonable, right? But GDP almost always (other than during severe recessions) increases more than the simplistic formula of population plus inflation. There's also the fact that productivity increases -- the very core of business growth -- and so the size of economies grow in real terms significantly faster than population plus inflation. Along with them, come the added needs for government -- roads, police, schools, etc.

But TABOR and other "tax limiting" measures prevent government from growing to meet the needs of it citizens -- instead actually shrinking government, and, because of the "ratchet" system, not letting it catch up when times are good. Schools deteriorate, roads disintegrate, and the social safety net goes from frayed to moth-eaten to gossamer. Eventually, conservatives will be able to say, "See? The schools are broken and should be replaced by a corporate system! Same for our roads -- let's sell them off to French toll-road companies! And private charity, through faith-based systems administered by Bush, will replace our secular social services systems!"

The mechanics of all this are brilliantly laid out in this handy, readable, accessible little booklet -- "TABOR and Direct Democracy." It also shows how direct democracy is a far more vulnerable system to wealthy and powerful special interests who can buy campaign advertisements to fool the average voter in ways that professional politicians would see through in a moment.

The Republic of The United States is very much under assault, mostly at a state-by-state level. This shock, informative, and powerful book is an absolute must-read for every citizen and -- more importantly -- every voter. You'll find it a critical addition to your library, and will probably want to get several copies (they're cheap and pocket-sized) to share with others. Mostly under the radar-screen, TABOR and its variations may well accomplish what the Robber Barons only dreamed of -- the final and ultimate destruction of representative democracy in the USA, replaced by a corporate elite in all parts of our lives.

THOM HARTMANN'S "INDEPENDENT THINKER" BOOK OF THE MONTH REVIEW

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Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk show and a morning progressive talk show on KPOJ in Portland, Oregon. www.thomhartmann.com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection," "We The People," "The Edison Gene", and "What Would Jefferson Do?