LIMITS OF POWER

The world, usually a dark and dangerous place, seems even more ominous at the moment. Our entire financial system is in jeopardy – or so we are told - the war in Iraq continues, the war in Afghanistan grows, while the war in Iran, as Shakespeare would say, is hard upon.

How did we get here? How did we go from being the post-WWII savior of the free world to being the 21st century imperial threat to world peace? The answers are neither simple nor particularly pleasant, but with a critical election just weeks away, the lines are being drawn and decisions made.

If a clear view of the last 60 years, a step-by-step look at how we got here from there, would help you make up your mind, then I recommend – I strongly urge – that you get a copy of Andrew Bacevich’s, Limits Of Power. The audio version can be downloaded from itunes.

A West Point grad and Viet Nam vet. with a Ph.D. in American Diplomatic History, Bacevich now teaches at Boston University. With no political axe to grind, Bacevich lays out a series of snapshots, showing America’s goals and mis-steps over the past half-century. If you want to know what the hell is going on, this is a good place to start.

WALL STREET

That was some week we just had, huh? Understanding the complexities of our financial structure is, like the man said, above my pay grade, but there are a few things that seem fairly obvious:

1. Regulation seeking transparency and responsibility began in 1933, as a reaction to the stock market crash of 1929. Ever since, the wealthiest people in America have been looking for a way to roll back those regulations.

2. The first roll-back came in the early 80’s – it took them 50 years but they got there – when the savings and loan industry was deregulated, which led to the near collapse of that industry and a huge government bailout. Driving those efforts were Phil Graham, John McCain’s current financial advisor, and Alan Greenspan, a private economist at the time and soon-to-be head of the Federal Reserve.

3. In 2000, conservatives finally had a perfect storm – control of the White House, the Congress, and the Senate. They (with Sen. Phil Graham in the lead and Sen. John McCain right behind) pushed through a deregulation package that completely gutted the laws written in 1933. The devastation of the last week is the ultimate result.

4. Last night on 60 Minutes, McCain was asked what he thought of the 2000 deregulation. He said there was no doubt that deregulation helped to expand the economy. There was a brief silence as the air left the room.

Well, you pays your money and you takes your chances. Be sure and vote.

ALASKA

We have just returned from Alaska, where Mother Nature rules and Sarah Palin governs. I won’t bore you with the details of our exhilarating cruise – glaciers, forests, living history, native Eskimos, and non-stop eating – but I would like to pass on some interesting political opinions I picked up from the locals. They were not shy.

The recurring theme of the Alaskans to whom we spoke was that if you live in Anchorage, Fairbanks, or especially Wasilla (all northern cities), you have a pal in the governor’s office. But if you live in southeastern Alaska, well, you might as well be in Russia. (It should be noted that the towns we visited – Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan – are all in southeastern Alaska.) Gov. Palin takes good care of her own, but that only includes people fairly close to Wasilla. The CNN bio. on her (re-airing tonight) reveals a my-way-or-the-highway type legislator who fights like a pit-bull for what she believes in but is pretty much unwilling to expand her belief structure in any significant way. The best example of this is the infamous Bridge To Nowhere.

The international airport in Ketchikan, pop. 7,368, is located on the small island of Gravina, pop. 50. The only transportation to and from is the ferry. The idea for the bridge sprung from the anger of an Alaskan congressman who missed a ferry and had to wait an hour. Gov. Palin was a big backer for the $220 million, federally funded bridge when she was running for governor. Then it became a national embarrassment, and she realized the state would still have to put out several million for construction. The result was her comment at the Republican convention: “I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ on that Bridge To Nowhere.”

I did meet people who were enthusiastic supporters, who were proud that their governor was in a national race, but they were few and far between.

The other interesting moment occurred when I spotted a sign in a store window saying, “Owned by an Alaskan family.” A few quick questions revealed that most of the stores in most of the cities had been bought up by the cruise lines. Those still owned by Alaskans, and those which refused to pay kick-backs to the cruise lines, were not found on the ships “recommended shopping” list. I don’t mind Princess Cruises making a good profit for their service, but this kind of bullying behavior is greedy and cowardly, and takes the glow off an otherwise magical vacation.

The only thing I didn’t get to do in Alaska is “zip-line.” This is an activity in which you are suspended in a harness from a cable - above the trees – and roll through the forest at about 30 mph, for 700 feet at a time. Ah, well, next time.

HANOY HILTON

Any person with the slightest compassion for the human condition couldn’t help but be moved by last night’s dramatic retelling at the Republican Convention of John McCain’s Viet Nam War story. Captured, imprisoned, tortured and held for over five years, his suffering was truly monumental, his courage almost beyond human capacity. The story was told in fine fashion by former Sen. Fred Thompson and met with thunderous applause in St. Paul.

More interesting to me, however, was the inability of those cheering patriots - all chanting “Country First,” the new slogan of the Republican campaign - to see the connection between the immorality of what was done to John McCain and the immorality of what is being done to “illegal enemy combatants” being held and tortured by the American government. We are now doing to them exactly what was done to McCain. I wonder if forty years from now there will be a political convention somewhere in the Middle East at which the story of a Guantanamo survivor will be retold in dramatic fashion. Gives one pause.

Beyond any consideration of ethics or constitutional law (neither of which seem to have been given much consideration), one must keep in mind that the singular, defining characteristic of the Bush administration is its almost unimaginable incompetence. Even if you approve of torture in the name of national security, the chances that these baffoons have actually imprisoned the right people are too small to calculate.

Jane Mayer’s book, The Dark Side, chronicles the intentional abandonment of law in America. She recounts, in depressing detail, the step-by-step process by which the Bush administration turned away from law to justify torture. This was all done, of course, in order to obtain “actionable” intelligence, and thereby win the war on terror. What they failed to see, what most tyrants fail to see, is that once they turned to torture they had already lost the war.

THE CONVENTION

It would appear that the Gulf Coast has dodged a major bullet. The Republican National Convention may not be so lucky.

With the administration making an obscene public display of its emergency preparations – though I notice that three years later they haven't quite fixed the levees yet – hurricane Gustav made landfall with considerably less punch than expected. There was enough weather to give Ann Curry and Al Roker a couple of photo-ops, but not enough to show up the deeply ingrained incompetence of government at all levels. The added benefit is that Bush has been given an opportunity to make a show of personally overseeing FEMA’s efforts, thereby preventing him from attending the convention. This is a real face-saver for the Republicans, considering that his popularity is hovering a point or two below Charlie Manson.

More alarming are reports that St. Paul police are rounding up not only protesters but journalists as well. According to Democracy Now (you can find them at democracynow.org), the police have made huge, pre-emptive sweeps, jailing anyone they suspect of wanting to either spoil the RNC party or cover it. As usual, incompetence has led them to arrest a number of people in error, but that didn’t stop them from holding these innocent people for 48 business hours without charges. That means they could pick them up late Friday and hold them through the entire Labor Day weekend, not releasing them until late Wednesday – all without charges. I’m not too fond of making comparisons to NAZI tactics, but if the jack-boot fits . . .

The other big story of the RNC, of course, is Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who announced that her 17 year old (unmarried) daughter is five months pregnant . . . or so she says. This may be the least of her problems. The rumors go from A to Z and I have no idea how much truth is in any of them:

Rumor 1. The down-syndrome baby (Trig) that Mrs. Palin had in April is actually her daughter’s. A birth certificate would probably put an end to that rumor, but they don’t seem to be able (or willing) to produce one.
Rumor 2. Trig is actually the child of one of Mrs. Palin’s sons and an unnamed woman.
Rumor 3. Mrs. Palin delivered her first child only eight months after she was married. This may or may not be true and may or may not mean anything if it is true, other than Alaska is a boring state with little to do but explore personal relationships.
Rumor 4. Mayor Palin once fired a local librarian because she wouldn’t remove certain books from the library, books that did not conform with Palin’s religious beliefs.
Rumor 5. Gov. Palin had her sister’s ex-husband fired from the state troopers.
Rumor 6. Before Gov. Palin was opposed to "the bridge to nowhere" she was one of its bigges supporters, and was a regular outlet for the money pipeline that led from Wasihington, D.C., through Sen. Ted Stevens to her local organization.

You can believe or disbelieve whichever of these rumors you like, but the smart money says that Palin will hand back her Veep nomination within 48 hours. We’ll see.