January 21, 2009

HOLD BUSH AND CHENEY ACCOUNTABLE


Congratulations to President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. I like some of what I've seen already. Rescinding Bush's global gag order, suspending some of Bush's "midnight regulations," and reviewing the situation in Gitmo are a good start. I hope that the Obama administration will look at full investigations of the crimes committed by the Bush administration and hold all the responsible parties accountable. We need to look to the future, but we can not ignore the crimes of the past.


THE REAL STORY OF PREDATORY CAPITALISM

Free market savants link capitalism and "freedom" in one sentence. It's interesting to note, though, how repressive capitalism has been and continues to be here and around the world. As this author points out, many capitalist countries are by no means free. The commentary by Michael Parenti is at www.commondreams.org:

The corporate capitalists no more encourage prosperity than do they propagate democracy. Most of the world is capitalist, and most of the world is neither prosperous nor particularly democratic. One need only think of capitalist Nigeria, capitalist Indonesia, capitalist Thailand, capitalist Haiti, capitalist Colombia, capitalist Pakistan, capitalist South Africa, capitalist Latvia, and various other members of the Free World--more accurately, the Free Market World.

A prosperous, politically literate populace with high expectations about its standard of living and a keen sense of entitlement, pushing for continually better social conditions, is not the plutocracy's notion of an ideal workforce and a properly pliant polity. Corporate investors prefer poor populations. The poorer you are, the harder you will work-for less. The poorer you are, the less equipped you are to defend yourself against the abuses of wealth.

In the corporate world of "free-trade," the number of billionaires is increasing faster than ever while the number of people living in poverty is growing at a faster rate than the world's population. Poverty spreads as wealth accumulates.

Consider the United States. In the last eight years alone, while vast fortunes accrued at record rates, an additional six million Americans sank below the poverty level; median family income declined by over $2,000; consumer debt more than doubled; over seven million Americans lost their health insurance, and more than four million lost their pensions; meanwhile homelessness increased and housing foreclosures reached pandemic levels.