A Free Press?

My buddy Dan Meek, the great public interest lawyer, sent my last blog (The 800 pound gorilla) out to 242 press outlets in Oregon. The subject was the most important issue facing the country. It was relevant, pertinent and topical; all the things a good press release should be, and well written too if I do say so myself. Not a single mention of it from any of the newspapers, radio or TV stations – and sent from a candidate for governor! Why no mention? It’s because we don’t have a free press in this country, not since the CIA infiltrated it in the 40’s. Google search Operation Mockingbird if you think I’m exaggerating.

“There is no such thing, at this date of the world’s history, in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar weekly salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalists is to destroy the truth; to lie outright; to pervert; to vilify; to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes. We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.” John Swinton, former Chief of Staff for the New York Times.

John Swinton was one of New York’s best-loved newspapermen, called by his peers “The Dean of his Profession.” He made this statement when asked to give a toast before the New York Press club in 1953. It wasn’t reported in the press of course. It did come out in Senator Frank Church’s senate investigation in 1975 but few noticed. I did.

So while you’re reading about Chris Dudley missing another free throw or Allen Alley taking a stroll or Kitzhaber wearing jeans, take some time to do your homework before you let the press tell you who to vote for. Please.

The 800 pound gorilla

We all love and appreciate the sacrifice made by our boys in uniform. That’s not the point. The point is that military spending is bankrupting the country by devaluing our currency. How disappointing to hear President Obama declare a freeze on desperately needed investments into our infrastructure but won’t cut back a dime on a totally unnecessary expense, in fact intends to increase military spending even more. This is not the action of a capitalist.

I wish our politicians could read a balance sheet and financial statement. A tank is not a capital item by any definition of the word. It is an expense, a night watchman’s expense. Based on the spending for military nonsense the past 50 years one could make the case that we have had a military coup in this country. In fact, we have. It seems everyone welcomes it. Well, not everyone but the military has an 80% approval rating. Compare that to the approval rating of congress.

I’m a factory owner, competing in a market economy. If I had the same night watchman’s expense as the United States I’d have to nearly double the price of everything I sold, which explains our trade deficit. Our military consumes 40% of our total industrial output annually. Is the reason we aren’t told this because we’d instantly see the lunacy of such a policy? This misdirection of our labor, credit and material resource must come to an end. Nothing is more detrimental to commerce than war, invented or real, unless you own stock in defense contractors.

We’ve been buying protection we don’t need. We have no enemies. We are protected by vast oceans and are individually armed to the teeth, impossible to occupy by foreign invaders. The simple fact is nobody wants our territory, so polluted it is. Our forests are ravaged. Our roads, sewer systems, bridges and cities are crumbling before our eyes. Our farms are sterile and poisoned. And all we do is make weapons. This is a mindset worthy of a true hillbilly. It mocks the lofty “honor system” preached in our military academies. You generals should be ashamed of yourselves for perpetrating such a fraud; it’s treasonous. Is your ambition, lifestyle and job security more important than the people’s you’re supposed to be protecting and defending? Have you lost all common decency? Have we all?

Snip Snip…

My proposal to neuter criminals in lieu of prison will no doubt be viewed as barbaric by some, ineffectual by others. It deserves further explanation. Here goes…

Castration calms the savage beast. One need only note why ranchers and pet owners neuter males; it makes them tolerable to live with and does no harm. It’s a painless procedure with anesthetics. It does not make one impotent but it drastically lowers testosterone levels, the prime cause of belligerent behavior and explains why 99% of convicts are male. It improves the lives of those neutered but more importantly it improves the lives and safety of everyone who has to deal with them. That’s all of us.

There is a great cost advantage to this alternative to prison, $100 paid once, not $100 paid every single day for decades. We spend more tax money caging up humans than we spend on higher education. Fully 85% of the public safety money goes to this expense, not to police and court costs. Nothing could be more barbaric than locking a person in a cage for years. It does nothing to rehabilitate. It just makes convicts crazier, more belligerent and dangerous. Prison is also is a death penalty for many, 36% with confirmed Hepatitis C. And what kind of dehumanizing job is it to watch over these people? Surely the guards deserve to be set free too.

State of the Union?

“In a word, the state of the union is ANGRY! The question for the president 
and for BOTH parties to figure out is, at what?

Because we have a two-party system, the only choice people have if they 
don’t like what’s happening is to vote for the other guy,
 even if the other guy is largely responsible for what’s happening, and the 
guy that’s in there now is in there because of the other guy’s mistakes.

People are angry at deficits, largely run up by the irresponsibility of the 
Bush administration, and topped off by Obama.
 They’re angry that the bankers who got us in this mess are making millions
 while we lose our shirts, thanks mainly to deregulation
 promoted primarily by Republicans (but signed off on by Clinton). They’re 
angry about jobs, but there’d be a lot more of them if the 
stimulus package had been larger, which would have increased the deficit, 
which they’re angry about. They’re angry that Washington 
seems wholly beholden to special interests, so they’re going to vote for the
 party that loves special interests at least as much as the 
party in power now. They’re angry at the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which 
were started by the party they just voted out a year ago.
 They’re angry that Obama has accomplished so little of his agenda, so 
they’re going to vote for the party that has unanimously opposed
 every single aspect of it.”

Ed Stein

Ed pretty well sums things up.  Gore Vidal said it too: “It makes no difference who you vote for — the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people.” There is NO difference in the major parties! There is a BIG difference with the Progressive Party of Oregon. If you want to make a difference, please register and vote as a Progressive.

Response to a letter…

Just finished your book, interesting. Not an Oregon voter (MI) but noted and have to hope you rethink this one (Public Employees Take Notice, Jan 8 blog). Being the child of UAW workers, and now a unionized college professor – I can honestly say there is waste in the system. And it is unfortunate to have votes sold to interest groups. But there is waste in every system, and there is corruption on all sides. I am all for improving/streamlining/increasing accountability (I LOVE (and benefit) from our merit based raises for instance) – but targeting this (large) group as bogeymen seems out of proportion to the problem(s). Phil Renato

Dear Phil,

Glad you enjoyed my book. My kids nagged me into writing it.

I’m not picking on public employee unions any more than I am the lawyer’s union, doctor’s union or indeed, this union of 50 states. All unions by nature exclude non-members from consideration; all are corrupted by selfish-interest. Only individuals have ethics. Groups don’t. These “groups” pool their money to buy laws favoring themselves at the expense of non-members.

Only by public financing of elections and outlawing “contributions” to elected officials can we have a government of the people, by the people and for the people. What we have now is government for sale to the highest bidder. Public employee unions are the highest bidders of all as witnessed by the wide gap over the private sector in pay scale (45% higher) and benefits (70% higher). Public employees should have never been allowed to unionize. Neither should anyone else for that matter. The argument that employers tread on employees is spurious; all are free to seek the best wages anyplace they can be found and can quit without notice to do so. This is “free-enterprise.” All unions extort so should be banned for the same reason we outlawed the communist party.