Mon - April 23, 2007
The 9th amendement and rights most Americans never knew they had
The libertarian legal theorist Randy Barnett has
written about the "unenumerated rights" retained by the citizen in the 9th
Amendment of the US constitution. Now it seems that some lawyers on the left are
starting to take notice. Here is an extract from a new
book by Daniel A. Farber, "Retained by the
People: The 'Silent' Ninth Amendment and the Constitutional Rights Americans
Don't Know They Have" (Perseus Books, 2007).
Whilst a libertarian wouldn't agree with all his
retained rights he is on the right track. Here is a passage:
"Libertarians, who dislike government regulation of
all kinds, agree with part of my argument, and I have found much of their
historical research useful. They, too, would find the Amendment to be a source
of real legal guidance. But they swing too far in the opposite direction from
conservatives like Scalia. While Scalia wants the Ninth Amendment to protect
nothing, the libertarians want it to protect virtually everything. They see in
it the basis of a revolutionary return to the small government ideas of the
early nineteenth century. But this is a gross overreading of the Amendment. It
was meant to protect fundamental human rights, not just the right to do whatever
you want whenever you want."
He is correct to say that Justice Scalia "strictly"
interprets the constitution by recognizing only the rights enumerated, whereas a
true interpretation of "original intent' would have to offer some explanation
for the presence of the 9th amendment in the Bill of Rights and to what it
refers. Silence by Scalia...
Posted at 08:27 PM Read More
Wed - April 18, 2007
Kurt Vonnegut's death
The death of the Indianapolis-born author Kurt Vonnegut has produced a large number of obits, but few have commented upon his strong socialist views and his even stronger anti-war views. I guess the local papers what to claim him as a patriot and forget his criticisms of the American state. See Harvey Wasserman in Counterpunch ; Vonnegut's articles for In these Times ; Christopher Bigsby in OpenDemocracy;
Posted at 03:14 PM Read More
Tue - April 10, 2007
Who don't we impeach?
The Texas journalism professor Robert Jensen
asserts that it is "impeachment all
down the line " - a fine sentiment with strong historical precedents
to back it up. Just read the delightful book by John Nichols on
The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders'
Cure for Royalism (2006). Jensen argues that not
just Bush and his Cabinet who led us into an illegal and stupid war, but also
the Democrat leadership who also voted for war should be put in the dock. I
would add to that list all those voters who re-elected in 2004 any Senator or
Congressmen/women who had voted for war in 2003. Surely they are also
responsible for the war in both a positive and negative sense - negative in that
these voters did not punish the war criminals by not re-electing them; and
positive, given the fact that what had become public knowledge by the end of
2004 about the origins of the war, meant that any vote for the Republican Party
(the ruling party conducting the war) or even for the Democratic Party which
went along with the war, was in fact a vote for continued war. Since the US
already has the greatest number of people behind bars on the entire planet one
wonders where we could put all these impeached war criminals? As an Aussie I
would suggest transportation to a penal colony of some kind. Perhaps a sentence
for "the term of their natural lives" in a post-Christian society with a
trivially small military would do them a lot of good.
Posted at 05:46 PM Read More
Sun - February 26, 2006
Where the ruling elite go to socialise
Rick Lyman and Anne Kornblut in the NYT
describe how the current ruling elite of the US use ranches like the Armstong's
in Texas to socialise while they are away from Washington DC. Here, in the
privacy of a trusted family friend's property, deals can be made, issues of the
day discussed, and strategies for staying in power and rewarding the interests
of one's friends can be made. George W.'s father preferred the old north eastern
family properties in Kennebunkport. The son prefers the ranching and oil money
families of Texas. In the words of Bruce Buchanan, a professor of political
science at the University of Texas at Austin, the greasing of the wheels of
power and privilege must go on, only how it is done is different: "Here in Texas
they just happen to use ranches. Up on the East Coast they use
boats."
See also Tom Englehardt on the Armstrong connections to the Bush regime.
See also Tom Englehardt on the Armstrong connections to the Bush regime.
Posted at 08:10 PM Read More
Mon - February 20, 2006
Presidents Day and Corrupt Elections in the US
Today is a public holiday for many in the US,
Presidents Day. As we are forced to contemplate the benefits our beloved leaders
have bestowed upon the nation, I came across a couple of articles about the long
tradition of electoral fraud which has enabled some presidents to attain office.
In recent memory there was the contested 1st Bush election and then the
suspicions raised in Ohio in the second Bush election; Kennedy and Johnson
immediately come to mind but the work of the British journalist Andrew Gumbel [and an
interview with him]
has cast a non-patriotic eye over American history and come up with some
astounding history. He quotes a scathing comment by ex-president
Carter:
A few days before the November 2004 election, Jimmy
Carter was asked what would happen if, instead of flying to Zambia or Venezuela
or East Timor, his widely respected international election monitoring team was
invited to turn its attention to the United States. His answer was stunningly
blunt. Not only would the voting system be regarded as a failure, he said, but
the shortcomings were so egregious the Carter Center would never agree to
monitor an election there in the first place. "We wouldn't think of it," the
former president told a radio interviewer. "The American political system
wouldn't measure up to any sort of international standards, for several
reasons."
The decentralised state-based system allows for great
variation in electoral practice and a gentleman's agreement between the two
major parties means that each turns a blind eye towards electoral malfeasance in
each other's territory. Once again, the US is no model for a thriving democratic
regime to follow. My favourite quote is from an old governor of Louisiana who
said he wanted to be buried in Louisiana so he could "remain active in state
politics" after his demise.
Posted at 09:13 PM Read More
Tue - February 14, 2006
Kurt Vonnegut has no country
In his latest book Indianan Kurt Vonnegut laments the
loss of the country he fought for in WW2. I can understand his confusion. What
is one to do given the madness of the present - his advice is just to help each
other get through it. Humour helps quite a bit. VP Cheney shooting the
occasional big party donor helps a lot too. But what happens when reality can no
longer be lampooned or satirized? Even Vonnegut's fiction may not be enough to
help us through these dark days. A good juicy impeachment would raise my spirits
considerably.
See John
Preston of the Telegraph's interview of Vonnegut. I especially liked
his photo and the story of his oration at the funeral of Isaac
Asimov:
When Vonnegut says that he has never held an official
title, this isn't strictly true: he is the honorary president of the American
Humanist Association, having taken over from friend and fellow novelist Isaac
Asimov.
"Being a humanist means that you try to behave as
decently, as honourably, as you can without any expectation of rewards or
punishments in an afterlife. When we had a memorial service for Isaac a few
years back, I spoke at it and said at one point, 'Isaac is up in heaven now'. It
was the funniest thing I could think of to say to an audience of humanists.
Believe me, it worked - I rolled them in the aisles. If I should ever die, god
forbid, I hope people will say, 'Kurt is up in heaven now'. That's my favourite
joke."
And another line which seems to have sustained
Vonnegut throughout his life. It comes from a british Army POW review which he
saw as a young man:
"What I have always tried to do is look for the things
that make life worth living," he says.
"In fact, you could say that my whole life has been
made up of lots of minor epiphanies. Quite by chance, I was thinking of one the
other day involving the British.
"During the war, my whole division was destroyed and
the Germans took those of us who had survived to this prisoner-of-war camp
called Stalag 4B. The camp was full of British officers, who were incredibly
kind and welcoming. We were hungry and cold and filthy and they fed us and put
on this play to cheer us up. The play was
Cinderella,
with a male
Cinderella,
of course. I still remember a line from it - it was one of the best things I've
ever heard in my life. When the clock struck 12, Cinderella turned to the
audience and said, 'Goodness me, the clock has struck! Alack a day and f--- my
luck!' "
Vonnegut bursts into an even louder guffaw of wheezy
laughter than before - he sounds like a starter motor churning over and
over.
"Although I can't explain why exactly, that made me
feel that life was worth living again. Suddenly, despite everything, human
beings really seemed rather wonderful."
Posted at 08:58 PM Read More
Mon - February 13, 2006
VP Cheney shoots somebody
Should the person VP
Cheney shot on the weekend be classified as "collateral damage" or as
"battled hardened"? Multi-millionaire Harry Wittington might be giving less to
Republican campaign causes this year. I know I would be. This man has also got
more coverage in the American press than the previous 10,000 people killed by VP
Cheney and his regime in Iraq deliberately or accidently (how can you kill
someone "accidently" when you invade their country?). George W. recently
admitted to 30,00 deaths in Iraq. A couple of years ago a more honest figure was
100,000 plus. Now it is closer to 175,00. I predict about 750,000 before the
Americans are forced to withdraw, especially if a new "bombing campaign" (à
la Cambodia) is used to mask a "troop withdrawal". More from Counterpunch
. Jim
Lobe has a good piece as well. The
Independents ' take on things.
Posted at 09:32 PM Read More
Cartoons on Jesus and slavery
Continuing on my earlier post, I dug up some images
I used to use in my first year European history course one of the themes of
which was slavery. It is clear that some Christian sects in Britain and the US
were adamantly opposed to slavery for good and just reasons, but at the time
they were considered "mad" by the mainstream Christian groups and were
ostracized and even arrested for their abolitionist activities. The fact that
slavery was enshrined in the US constitution as a "compromise" between the slave
owning south and the north should be a source of undying shame to Christian and
freedom loving Americans. But it is largely a taboo subject for those who
believe in the onward march of God's manifest destiny for America. This is what
the Islamists should be having "cartoon competitions" about - not the Holocaust.
Here is an illustration widely used by anti-slavery
advocates in the 1820s against the slave trade in which Protestant America and
Catholic France actively participated:
Here is an illustration from Voltaire's satirical
novel "Candide" which poked more holes in European hypocrisy 250 years ago than
anything which could be presently attempted in the Islamic world today. Seeing a
runaway slave with an amputated foot Candide asks if this "is the price of sugar
in Europe"?
Posted at 09:14 PM Read More
Sun - February 12, 2006
Profile of prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald
Paul Harris in the Sunday
Observer has a long profile on the life and work of prosecutor
Patrick Fitzgerald who is digging into the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame by
the White House as payback for her husband's revelation that Iraq was not
attempting to buy yellow cake uranium from Niger. He has a history of doggedly
uncovering corruption and conspiracy going back many years.
Posted at 10:59 AM Read More
Mon - February 6, 2006
S*xagenarian Stones still too raunchy for Middle America after 40 years
The Rolling Stones were censored on the Ed Sullivan
Show 40 years ago and they were again during the half-time performance at the
Super Bowl. Two of their three songs were "bleeped" by the organizers in fear
that any sexually explicit lyrics, even after 40 years might corrupt American
morals. A few European papers (The
Times ) printed the offending words which were apparently too
sensitive for American ears even though they have become a bit shop worn in
other Anglo-Saxon nations after centuries of heavy use. Mid-western Americans
seem to believe that by using euphemisms for traditional anglo-saxon words no
one will know that they are actually swearing: "shoot", "frigging", "freaking',
"dang". Who are they fooling? Only their precious selves in my view. Let's hope
they don't let their kids read Shakespeare who probably had the broadest command
of swear words and bawdy of any English speaker alive or dead. I teach my kids
all the good English words - anglo-saxon and latinate - and insist on their
proper use and appropriate context. There are some words they can't use (in
order of sensitivity) in front of their mid-western teachers, others they can't
use in front of their Aussie Nanna (who is quite broad-minded and has been known
to use a few choice words in her time), and those they shouldn't use in front of
their parents on a daily basis. I don't mind the occasional use of the
appropriate swear word in the right context but I do object to its hackneyed use
(as one hears in the army and on TV on so-called reality programmes). There is
nothing worse than boring speech especially when profanities are used to cover
up the absence of thought and a good vocabulary. I would much prefer a child of
mine who could call someone a "shoothead" (this is a nasty Australian swear word
euphemized for American sensibilities) in ten different and creative ways much
as as Steve Martin did in the movie Roxanne when someone described his nose as
"big".
P.S. sexagenarian comes from the Latin "sexaginta" for sixty and has nothing to do with s*x.
P.S. sexagenarian comes from the Latin "sexaginta" for sixty and has nothing to do with s*x.
Posted at 10:38 PM Read More
Thu - February 2, 2006
State of the Union Address (SOTUA)
We have the acronym POTUS for the President of the
United States and now SOTUA for State of the Union Address. I like simplicity
and brevity so I suggest that we replace POTUS with I and SOTUA with C. I stands
for idiot and C stands for crap (I would have used S but for my conservative
American neighbours who prefer to say "shoot" so they don't offend anybody,
especially themselves). Unlike two years ago, there is a growing chorus of
protest at the platitudes and lies which for pass for political discourse in
this country. For all his faults as a leader, I would welcome a sharp-tongued
and literate Paul Keating (Aussie PM 1991-1996) to take the floor of congress
and let loose with some well-directed barbs of criticism, mockery and abuse.
Americans would not know what had hit them. The outright lies and fabrications
of previous SOTUA (or C) have been replaced by self-delusion (David
Corn). Gore Vidal
can still appreciate the values of the old republic and how far the current
POTUS (I) has taken it from its solid roots. Nat
Hentoff worries about James Madisons' current sleep patterns, how he
must be tossing and turning at night over how the checks and balances designed
to check "unitary executive power" have unravelled in recent years. And Cindy
Sheehan, the anti-war mother of a dead soldier, who was evicted from
the premises for wearing a T-Shirt with the current death toll printed on it. It
makes you wonder. See analyses of the SOTUA by Stephen
Zunes . Robert
Dreyfuss .Sidney
Blumenthal and again
. Andrew
Bacevich . Andrew
Sullivan's suitably cynical response. Alexander
Cockburn is the only one to notice GW's ban on animal-human hybrid
research - thus in one stroke losing the Centaur vote in the next election.
Tom
Engelhardt is shocked by the continuing absurdities of the Bush
regime.
Her are some cartoons which capture the event quite nicely:
On rhetorical ability:
On the steady stream of good news:
and on partisan politics in the chamber (has anyone pointed out to the Americans that both donkeys and elephants are both slow and stupid animals?)
Her are some cartoons which capture the event quite nicely:
On rhetorical ability:
On the steady stream of good news:
and on partisan politics in the chamber (has anyone pointed out to the Americans that both donkeys and elephants are both slow and stupid animals?)
Posted at 11:16 PM Read More
Sun - January 29, 2006
Limiting the power of the President
Everyday it seems we read about the continuing
flaunting of traditional constitutional limits on the power of the US president.
Robert
Freeman has a good historical essay on the fear of Madison and other
Founding Fathers that a monarchy might try to reestablish itself in America
after the revolution and the extraordinary steps they took to try to ensure that
it didn't. John
Nichols in the Nation discusses the abdication of the Senate Judicial
Committee in its duty to assert Congressional oversight over an ambitious
president. A clique of legal advisors around the president is pushing hard for
the theory of the unitary power of the executive - what in previous times (the
1960s) might have been termed the "imperial presidency" or in the 18th century
just a plain old "monarchy". What happens when these advocates of the "unitary"
presidential powers get appointed to the Supreme Court? Time for a replay of
1776... but where is our Madison, our Jefferson...
Posted at 04:56 PM Read More
Tue - December 27, 2005
NSA spying on its own citizens
George Bush has openly admitted to breaking the law
by ordering the Pentagon's National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the
communications of American citizens without bothering to get a court order to do
so. Even though this proviso is extremely lax and is often given ex post facto
Bush believed that his role as "commander-in-chief" entitled him to ignore the
law and the constitution yet again. Jonathan
Schell writes in The Nation that this marks a watershed in the
evolution of Bush administration because for the first time the regime openly
admits to breaking the law instead of lying that it did not. This action has
angered many Americans more than the illegal invasion and occupation of a
sovereign state, the killing of over 100,000 Iraqis, the use of torture, and
government spending out of control. And we mustn't forget that the NSA was used
by the Bush administration to spy on diplomats and officers of the UN in New
York in order to put pressure on them in the lead up to the start of the Iraq
war. See the Guardian
report then and Norman
Solomon now. And James
Bamford , who has written a book on the NSA.
Posted at 02:58 PM Read More
10 Bitter Ironies of 2005
Gary Scott, a professor of philosophy at Loyola
University, has a list of "The Top 10 Bitterest
Ironies of 2005". Although he limits the list to US politics it has
some merits. Irony of course is not limited to the US even though for cultural
reasons it is largely an irony free zone. My favourite is no. 9:
"9. Torturous Times:
How bitterly ironic was it that George W. Bush
(or his dim-witted handlers) chose Panama for the site of Bush's claim that "We
do not torture?" That the School of the Americas (widely known as the School of
Assassins or the School for Torture) was located in Panama from 1946 to 1984,
prior to moving to Ft. Benning, Georgia. The National Security Archives are
teeming with reports of atrocities committed by the graduates of the SOA. Nice
venue, Dubya. Must have made Daddy proud."
Posted at 02:46 PM Read More
International Treaties the US refuses to abide by
Haider
Rizvi has a long list of the international treaties the US refuses to
sign. Often it alone of the western and industrial nations is the holdout. The
list includes: U.N. Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against Women (CEDAW), UNESCO protection of cultural rights treaty, the Kyoto
Protocol, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear weapons, the Treaty
Banning Antipersonnel Mines, a protocol to create a compliance regime for the
Biological Weapons Convention, the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, the
International Criminal Court treaty, the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
the Chemical Weapons Commission and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT),
and the U.N. Human Rights Commission probe into the alleged torture abuse of
prisoners at Guantanamo and other detention centers. Of course, from a
libertarian perspective there are no doubt objectionable clauses in many of
these treaties (the claims to economic and cultural rights e.g.) but there are
others (Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty on nuclear weapons, the Treaty Banning
Antipersonnel Mines, a protocol to create a compliance regime for the Biological
Weapons Convention, the Antiballistic Missile Treaty, the International Criminal
Court treaty, the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty) where the US objection seems
to be that signing these treaties would hinder their imperial and military
ambitions. By refusing to sign these treaties it is hard to see the US
exercising any "moral leadership", not that much is left after the invasion and
occupation of Iraq.
Posted at 12:15 PM Read More
Quick Links
About David M. Hart
I was born and raised in Sydney, Australia and now work for a non-profit educational foundation in the US. Before moving to the US with my family I taught modern European history at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. I have studied at universities in Australia, Germany, the US, and Britain and consider myself a citizen of the world and a supporter of no particular nation state. [More]
Categories
Archives
XML/RSS Feed
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Apr 23, 2007 08:28 PM
Total entries in this category:
Published On: Apr 23, 2007 08:28 PM