Another reason to vote Green

[Hugh Lovel]

From: "G�nther R." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Fw: [elcAll] POLITICS -- In the 2002 Election, The Issue is Unchecked Power
Date: Sun, 3 Nov 2002 21:31:28 -0500
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3

Another very good reason to vote green (please read article).

However, just like in 2000 every Green who votes green and not Democrat will be maligned.
True, if the Senate falls into hands of the Republicans --- God Help us.

G�nther





----- Original Message -----
From: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Sent: Sunday, November 03, 2002 8:25 PM
Subject: [elcAll] POLITICS -- In the 2002 Election, The Issue is Unchecked Power




Published on Wednesday, October 9, 2002 by CommonDreams.org

In the 2002 Election, The Issue is Unchecked Power

by Harvey Wasserman



Is this the most important election in US history?


With his TV talk of war, George W. Bush has blown smoke over what's really
at stake today: the future of democracy. Not in Iraq; here in the United
States.


Never in US history have we ever been closer to an unchecked one-man
one-party rule than right now. And as the world's sole military super-power,
we have made the crisis truly global.


The reality is simple: the right wing of the Republican Party controls three
of the four branches of government, and is just a single vote away from
taking the fourth. The Executive, the Judiciary, the media and the House of
Representatives are all in Republican hands. The Senate teeters on the edge.
And the USA Patriot Act, passed in the wake of September 11, has obliterated
most of the Constitutional guarantees that made this country a democracy in
the first place.


Should Congress go Republican in November, there will be no institutional
check or balance left to guarantee that the democracy born here two
centuries ago will survive.


First, the Republicans control the Executive Branch, which it took with the
first losing candidate in 120 years. Defeated in a popular election by more
than 500,000 votes, with many more not properly counted, the administration
is firing away with an aggressive far-right agenda that's kept the
opposition off balance.


Second, the Republicans control the Judicial Branch, which formally
installed Bush into the Presidency, and which is currently dominated by
right wing appointees---many for life---dating back to the Nixon Era.


Third, the Republicans control the "fourth branch of government." Virtually
all major US media is now owned by six corporations. With precious few
exceptions, there is no serious debate on the core issues that define
American life, and no mainstream coverage of the movements for peace, social
justice, environmental, labor, or minority rights to balance the constant
blare of right wing pundits.


All that remains in play---barely----is the Congress. The U.S. House is
firmly in control of the Republican Right. The minority Democratic
opposition is feeble, without strong leadership or direction.


Thanks to the defection of Jim Jeffords of Vermont, the Democrats hold a one
vote majority in the U.S. Senate. And that's all that now keeps the
Republican far right from total and unchecked control of every branch of the
United States government.


To this lethal mix has been added the USA PATRIOT Act, approved after
September 11, virtually obliterating the once-sacred guarantees of the Bill
of Rights. Put simply: the Executive Branch now has the power to arbitrarily
brand anyone a "terrorist" with no tangible evidence, and to have that
person imprisoned without formal indictment, access to a lawyer or even
public notification. Hundreds of unnamed alleged terrorists are thus being
held indefinitely in Cuba and perhaps elsewhere with no recourse. If
unchecked, such openly contemptuous disregard for the human rights
guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution will inevitably spread like a cancer to
the core of American liberty and dissent.


The structure of our basic rights is as tenuous under George W. Bush as
under many of the third world dictators installed by his father when he was
head of the CIA.


Any shreds of counter-balance left in the system will disappear if the
Republicans keep control of the US House and retake the Senate.


Globally, that extends to a Bush Doctrine touting the "right" to intervene
in any country, and remove any ruler it does not like, regardless of
national sovereignty or international law.


The timing of Bush's latest rhetorical escalation has nothing to do with
Iraq. Saddam Hussein is only the latest American-installed enemy of
convenience.


This anti-Iraq hysteria is about an aggressive, unelected US regime aiming to complete the coup d'etat it began two years ago.


America's domestic economy is shattered, its stock market in free fall.
Unresolved multi-billion-dollar scandals still taint Bush from Harken Energy
and Vice President Dick Cheney from Halliburton. Under this regime,
joblessness has skyrocketed and the quality of life has plunged.


The Bush remedy has been tax breaks for the rich and relentless assaults on
organized labor, gays rights, women's rights, minority rights and the
natural environment. His foreign policy has been to trash international
treaties on atomic testing, missile defense, global warming, international
justice and more.


Bush's latest war talk admits to no human or financial cost. He and most of
his cabinet are chickenhawks who avoided service in Vietnam. They are
selling a video game war in which Saddam Hussein magically disappears with
no American bloodshed, no crying widows, parents or orphans. The American
veterans suffering from Gulf War I don't exist. Nor does the chaos in
Afghanistan left after removing the Taliban and failing to find Osama Bin
Laden.


A real war against this particular Saddam Hussein could cost $100 to $200
billion the current US economy can't afford. It could destabilize global oil
supplies and infuriate much of the muslim world, 1.2 billion strong. The
real costs could include skyrocketing oil prices, economic collapse, and
terrorism escalated beyond our wildest nightmares, with the final demise of
liberty and peace.


The Republicans are running out the clock on the November election. They are
winning their bet against Democrats too timid to oppose a war that has no
clothes, and a declaration of global empire with no legs. After that comes
an endless procession of Orwellian enemies, conjured at will, a permanent
pretext for martial law.


The Harken-Halliburton attack on Iraq is Stage Two of the coup d'etat that
began with the installation of an unelected president. It could be completed
November 5 with the final capture of the House and Senate.


If that happens, Saddam Hussein will be the least of our worries.


Harvey Wasserman is author of AMERICA BORN & REBORN: THE SPIRAL OF US
HISTORY, and HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE U.S. E-mail:
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