01/23/2003

Push Comes To Shove

The Bush Doctrine, as enunciated by the president, says the United States may launch a pre-emptive war against any nation, at any time, if the president determines that nation is a threat to the interests of the United States.

There has been – and continues – discussion about what that means for international relations. But what does the Bush Doctrine mean at home? Two stories in Washington, DC newspapers last week give some indication.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/16/2003

Ozzie and Harriet’s Bad Seed

Consider the case of Douglas Nelson. Mr. Nelson is spokesperson for a Washington-based trade association called CropLife. As a spokesperson, it’s Mr. Nelson’s responsibility to see CropLife portrayed favorably in the media, so he works with spin; he tries to put an attractive face on news concerning his trade association.

One person’s spin is another person’s deception. Trade associations are formed by companies that do not want the corporate brand associated with the dirty business of politics. The name “CropLife” itself is a form of spin, a pleasant disguise for a group of pesticide manufacturers – primarily Dow Chemical, the people who brought you dioxin and Agent Orange.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/09/2003

The German Example

I’m an American mutt. My German surname, which few people pronounce correctly on the first attempt, tells only half the story. My mother’s family is Irish; both parents are the children of immigrants. In the time and place I grew up, it was common for families to have mixed ethnicity, but strong ties to diverging European cultures. In my neighborhood, Rose Hansen, Ann Anderson and Lucille O’Brien were all nice Italian ladies.

The assorted nationalities – Irish, Polish, Italian, Ukrainian – had churches, social clubs, parades and feast days. Except the Germans. Each March, my family gathered for St. Patrick’s Day. Aside from being the Celtic high holy day, it’s my brother’s birthday. His name is Patrick. We ate corned beef and cabbage, played Irish music on the hi-fi, wore green ties, plastic derbies and cable-knit sweaters. It was not true Gaelic culture, but derivative, American-bred, Kiss-Me-I’m-Irish culture. We celebrated anyway.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/02/2003

More War Than We Bargained For

Happy New Year. There seemed little cause for merriment Tuesday evening; flawed as 2002 was, few of us were happy to see it give way to 2003. Nearly all of us expect this to be a year of war, the only question is: how many?

Just as Washington was dissolving for the Christmas holiday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in a reference to North Korea, claimed the United States could fight two wars simultaneously. I can’t give credit to Mr. Rumsfeld’s arithmetic, because if we come to blows with Iraq and North Korea this year, it won’t be two wars, it will be three. For 15 months, the Bush administration has been telling us we are at war with terrorism and in support of that war, we’ve sent troops to Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Georgia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Philippines. In the name of that war, the Bill of Rights has been sent to an undisclosed location.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
12/26/2002

An Upright Man

Seeking solace from the over-commercialization of the holiday season, I opened the Bible to refresh myself with the story of the homeless couple and the unwed mother giving birth to her child.

Instead of the traditional Christmas story in Luke, I read the book of Matthew and the character of Joseph, often cast as a hapless bystander, jumped out at me. In chapter one, Mary – a virgin – becomes pregnant through divine intervention. Let me quote:

“When his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph her husband, being an upright man unwilling to expose her to the law, decided to divorce her quietly.”
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
12/19/2002

For the Record

For good or ill, public life in America will henceforth not be the same. The last ten days have witnessed a remarkable exodus of newsmakers from the civic stage – Bernard Law, Henry Kissinger, Al Gore and Trent Lott. Mr. Lott, the Senate Republican leader, is not gone yet – not physically gone, but politically gone. It’s only a matter of time before the attendants come to remove the corpse.

Al Gore, the only one of the group to leave voluntarily, had enough insight to understand why he had to go. He will not run for election in 2004, he said, because elections are about the future and Mr. Gore’s past, particularly the election of 2000, is too great a burden to carry forward. The other three, Law, Kissinger and Lott, are just as burdened by their histories but seem unable to acknowledge the obvious. They go clanking into the night like the ghost of Jacob Marley, wearing the chains they forged in life, link by link and yard by yard.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
12/12/2002

Christmas Bogus

The holiday season is here and President Bush is evidently feeling merry, because he’s distributing bundles of cash – our cash – to his political appointees. No, that’s not right. The holiday season is here and we just found out President Bush is handing out bundles of cash to his friends. In truth, Mr. Bush found the Easter Bunny that laid the golden egg, because the bonuses have been going to the political hacks since Good Friday. Like the Easter Bunny, George W. hid his treats from the public.

What’s a political appointee? As the name implies, they’re among the top people in the cabinet departments – the under secretaries, the deputy administrators, the press spokespeople. In their positions, loyalty to Mr. B counts at least as much, if not more, than job skills. Political appointees are the government officials who – for example – decided to cut half a million poor people from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program the same week the thermometer plunged across the country. You know someone got a bonus for that.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)