If you have time and feel like it, here's a diary that ties some loose ends together and offers a solution.
If you were a visitor to our little planet, and asked to examine how Information has been handled here in the U.S.A., you’d notice in the 1950s it became a matter of National Security; then the loss of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s; following that, the media consolidation of the 1990s; following that, the 2003 effort to relax ownership rules, which brings us to today’s pending recommendations: basically, to sell public frequencies to private interests by confusing technology/access with information itself.
Whether these facts of history combined amount to a conspiracy or not, either way it’s a dangerous situation. And if in addition to information, we now lose The Vote to private interests--via a brand-new voting machine lobby--that’s deadly. Our society is currently risking a fatal consequence. But it's not too late, as evidenced by this recent excerpt of writing by a well-known American:
A Hell of a Mess
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.
Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen--and more important, what are we going to do about it?
Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.
I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobble head on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?
I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises—the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."
Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?
I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.
My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to--as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them--or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.
And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together.
Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?
[Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone? Copyright © 2007 by Lee Iacocca]
There were three things mentioned to zero in on: Common Sense, Call to Action, and the Constitution.
What happens if we find a way to distract ourselves from this mess--this critical moment--and we ignore it--hoping it goes away? What happens? We already know: corruption will reach a point where politicians will need to insulate themselves from angry voters and the result is inevitable: a police state tyranny.
A recent movie titled The Lives of Others is about the East German Stasi, or the secret police apparatus, before the fall of the Berlin Wall. It depicts a tyranny of "officials" over the lives of citizens--officials preying on citizens. The Stasi of yesteryear can and will emerge again onto the world stage if action is not taken. The mousetrap nears completion every day. Once it is sprung we’ll quickly find ourselves living what the movie depicts: where we can be dragged out of our home and tortured into giving information about our neighbors and co-workers. That’s were the status quo is aimed, and that’s where it’ll go unless something profound happens in American politics soon.
The Constitution is a cipher, mainly consisting of the word Shall, and last October 27th, 2006, something happened in American legal history that’s never happened before. It changed things forever. A federal lawsuit came before the Supreme Court and asked: Must Congress obey the convention clause of Article V, or not? In our entire history of over two hundred years of constitutional jurisprudence, the question had never been asked. Congress has never fulfilled its constitutional obligation, and the courts have now ruled it’s a Political Question, i.e. that politicians get to decide whether the U.S.A. "shall" have a convention. These are the facts and they are indisputable.
Whether you know it or not, if you’re an American citizen, you’re either Conventionist or Anti-Conventionist--in favor of holding our first-ever national convention, or against it. The Anti-Conventionists today, if they prevail, will be our Stasi tomorrow. Neo-Cons are all Anti-Conventionist and on January 22, 2002 Wolfowitz mentioned to Feith: "We don’t seem to be making much progress pulling together intelligence on links between Iraq and Al Qaida." This is the signature communication of any Stasi in any age, and even though the faces may change, Neo-Cons are still ensconced in public office. It can all seem so ominous and inescapable, but it’s not.
If America held a national convention, it would be free of politicians because delegates are not running for an office, merely a chance to speak their mind before the nation. Yes there would be a few shills for corporate interests, and religious fundamentalists, but in addition to that, honest, sincere, Americans with common sense. And each will get their turn. The convention cannot be controlled by any one group, and discussing something cannot somehow accidentally turn it into law of the land.
Once everyone had proposed anything they could possibly think of, the convention would end and everyone would go home. Then comes the ratification process. Since we need 38 states to agree to something before it becomes law, and with the country as polarized as it is today, that process is not going to take place over night. In fact it’s hard to imagine what at all might garner the approval of 75% of the country. Yet the convention itself would stop politics as usual, and Politics As Usual is what enables corporate interests to inch closer to a goal of being able to turn its back on this society and enslave it. Again, whether it is a conscious conspiracy or not is beside the point. The Military/Industrial complex is no one person’s or one group’s fault.
The website http://www.foavc.org may seem like some little bit of nonsense found out on the web, but it’s not. It’s that place where if enough of us sign our name, we will secure our freedom. There’s nothing our Stasi can do against a tipping point majority of genuine Americans all saying one thing.
The Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy will be publishing a paper by a former state supreme court judge and founding member of FOAVC, about Article V of the Constitution and the convention clause. That’s supposed to happen later this year, so we have some time, but not a lot.