Dwight D. Eisenhower, a five star general and President of the United States for eight years, had some prescient words for the nation on the eve of his retirement from 50 years of public service.
This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence–economic, political, even spiritual–is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
It’s amazing to me how accurate his vision was. It’s 45 years later, and we are deep in the muck. In fact, the military-industrial complex–a term coined by Ike–is now in total control of our federal government. I don’t care what your party affiliation is, this is a HUGE problem that needs to be successfully addressed, so we can move forward as a nation.
I live in South Carolina’s second Congressional district. Republican Joe Wilson is my Representative. He won in a landslide two years ago, collecting 181,862 votes to 93,249 for the Democratic challenger, Michael Ray Ellisor. I lived in Chicago two years ago, so this November will be my first chance to vote against the conservative incumbent.
Since there are no radical independents running, I’m looking to Ellisor for the upset. And what an upset it would be. This district has had a Republican Congressman for 41 years running.
Here’s some copy from the candidate’s web site, indicating where his head (and his heart) is:
(I will) work to heal the wounds and reverse the damage to our society caused by President Bush’s flagrant political move to single out a decidedly small segment of our society and make them the scapegoats for what the Christian Right calls our moral decline.
While I’d like to know more about the man, the above sentiment pretty much sums it up for me. He has my vote. But clearly, he needs another 90,000 people in this district to vote for him, if we’re going to bring a more populist vision to Washington, DC.
[UPDATE] 137,849 people live in Beaufort County, SC. During the 2004 election, 52,696 Beaufort County residents voted for or against Joe Wilson. 36,903 for and 14,597 against. Another 1196 voted for a third party candidate. Clearly, a lot of people are not engaged in the electoral process. Peaceful change means bringing more people into the process.
Click here for a mail-in voter registration application. For new registrations, attach a photocopy of a valid I.D. Then mail to: Voter Registration, P.O. Drawer 1228, Beaufort, SC 29901.
Mexico is grappling with the same electoral issues the U.S. faced in 2000 and 2004. Claims of a stolen election were squashed Tuesday by a Mexican tribunal who named conservative Felipe Calderon president after two months of speculation and unrest.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the battle for Mexico is far from over.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is continuing his quest for revolution and promises to set up a shadow government aimed at toppling Calderon.
Lopez Obrador’s tactics–which include plopping tent cities, full of his supporters, in the middle of Mexico City’s clogged thoroughfares–have won him at least as many enemies as friends. As long as the tenacious former mayor of Mexico City is around, many Mexicans are convinced, Calderon is virtually ensured of a messy, miserable term.
Somehow, I can’t imagine Al Gore doing the same in the streets of Washington, DC. Not that Gore isn’t man enough, rather the disparity between our rich and our poor, while disgraceful, is not nearly as dramatic as the gulph that exists in Mexico.
Lopez Obrador, nicknamed El Peje after a gar-like fish found in his native Tabasco state, is unapologetic, saying Mexico needs “a radical transformation.”
Most Mexicans live in extreme poverty despite the country’s immense natural resources, he told his followers this week. And it’s urgent that they establish a “new republic,” he said.
Wall Street Journal questions whether bloggers, especially those who rely on their sites for income, can afford to ever take a break. It seems an appropriate question on this day of no labor.
In the height of summer-holiday season, bloggers face the inevitable question: to blog on break or put the blog on a break? Fearing a decline in readership, some writers opt not to take vacations. Others keep posting while on location, to the chagrin of their families. Those brave enough to detach themselves from their keyboards for a few days must choose between leaving the site dormant or having someone blog-sit.
To be sure, most bloggers don’t agonize over this decision. Of the 12 million bloggers on the Internet, only about 13% post daily, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Even fewer — 10% — spend 10 or more hours a week on their blogs.
I clearly fall into some strange category, for I have my hand in six blogs at the moment. Rain or shine, work day or day off, I take in information. Blogging is what comes out the other end. It may be shit somethimes, but it’s a totally natural process.
Beaufort Gazette reports on moves being made to secure a new community hiking and biking trail.
The State Ports Authority plans to “railbank” the 26 miles of defunct tracks that run between Port Royal and Yemassee, preventing Port Royal residents from claiming the land and enabling Beaufort County to turn the railway into a walking and biking trail.
photo by Bob Sofaly
The Ports Authority shut down the rail line in November 2003 as a prelude to the state-mandated closing of the Port of Port Royal. If the rail line was abandoned, much of the land would revert to the owners of properties next to the rail line, according to a charter granted by the S.C. General Assembly in 1857.
Under provisions adopted by Congress in 1983, however, an owner can transfer its out-of-service railroad to another agency for use as a trail until the railroad might again be needed for rail service. “Such interim use shall not be treated … as an abandonment …,” the statute states.
The provision has withstood numerous legal challenges, according to the nonprofit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, and has been applied to about 4,400 miles of rail lines in more than 30 states.
In other local news, AgriTech International plans to build a $5 million shrimp processing faciltity in Williamsburg County, a move that offers hope to an ailing shrimp industry. According to the article, a flood of cheaper farm-rasied imports has pushed down the price of America’s most-consumed shellfish in recent years, and rising fuel and equipment costs are keeping local trawlers tied to the docks instead of in the Atlantic casting nets.
If Ward’s a man of greater good, a cross between winking folk lothario and bowtied preacher, he’s bound to end up tripping over some tropes. The man’s still got monkeys to kick, bells, whistles, and cheese to sweat out of his system.
I’m not prepared to agree with or counter the above sentiments, but they do sound a bit harsh. As for The Village Green, they’ve got a late Beatles aesthetic that I like.
“Let no one deny we are patriots. We love our country, we hold dear the values upon which our nation was founded, and we are distressed at what our President, his administration, and our Congress are doing to, and in the name of, our great nation. Blind faith in bad leaders is not patriotism. A patriot does not tell people who are intensely concerned about their country to just sit down and be quiet; to refrain from speaking out in the name of politeness or for the sake of being a good host; to show slavish, blind obedience and deference to a dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights-violating president.” -Rocky Anderson
What does it mean when President Bush faces a “Rocky” reception in Salt Lake City, home to more Republicans per capita than any other major US city?
Salt Lake Mayor, Rocky Anderson at anti-Bush rally yesterday
It means a number of things. One thing it means is Salt Lake is more diverse than people give it credit for. The other thing it means is the emperor wears no clothes.
Salt Lake uber blogger, Blurbomat, says of the day, “The local GOP tried a phone jamming campaign to ‘send a message’ that Mr. Anderson didn’t speak for the state. For the record, he represented my feelings perfectly.”
I’ve been discovering and subsequently listening to a ton of new music. New to me, that is. Among the standouts in my new pile of discs are My Morning Jacket and Drive-By Truckers. DBT is a band I’ve been hearing about and I’ve heard a few of their tunes, but only recently did I give iTunes a ten spot for “A Blessing And A Curse,” the band’s latest. It’s an album that makes one want to listen again and learn more about the distinct Southern voices coming through.
Here’s a bit from the bio section on DBT’s website:
You hear about “the greatest band in the world” being dropped on many a group, desperately given this medal in hopes they’ll use it to “save rock-n-roll,” whatever that means. But no band that has had to suffer under this artificial responsibility has succeeded so triumphantly as Drive-By Truckers. Equal parts back porch historians, runaway drunken firecrackers, and poets of the hard life and how to live it; they came on the scene and set the bar higher for what you can do with the music we love. The characters in their songs have left gals at the altar, wrecked their cars, woken up on the cold floor and even killed themselves a number of times over the years, breathing some new intelligent life, not just into rock music but, into rockers everywhere. Many a critic, including myself, have placed upon them the treacherous mantle of being The Best Rock Band In The World, and they wear this title like the blessing and the curse it is–I love this band. – Alex V. Cook
Clearly, Drive-By Truckers is a band that inspires passion. That’s what great bands do.
As for My Morning Jacket, I’ve been put into a kind of spell by their album “Z”. It’s haunting in a friendly way.
USA Today says of Bob Dylan’s 31st studio effort, released today, it’s “earthy blues, ragtime and rockabilly. The language shifts from mischievous to mysterious and romantic to rueful as Dylan surveys a crumbling world in doubt-shrouded songs about love and vengeance, faith and fate.”
The 10 songs, recorded with his touring band in January in New York, “are in my genealogy,” he says. “I had no doubts about them. I tend to overwrite stuff, and in the past I probably would have left it all in. On this, I tried my best to edit myself, and let the facts speak. You can easily get a song convoluted. That didn’t happen. Maybe I’ve had records like this before, but I can’t remember when.”
