Happy Bastille Day

Bruce Fein, the former Solicitor General under Reagan and constitutional scholar, appeared this morning on NPR to discuss his new book American Empire Before The Fall. He decried the massive expansion of presidential power and the fact that the use of military forces abroad no longer requires congressional approval. He pointed to the recent confirmation of General Petraeus, noting that no Senator asked him why we were in Afghanistan and when we were coming home. He quoted the Founding Fathers' about the dangers of perpetual war. On the show as a Georgetown University professor who claimed that the real dangers facing our constitutional order occurred under George W. Bush and that Fein was reacting to the election of President Obama. That's not fair to Fein, who testified before Kucinich's committee urging the impeachment of George W. Bush on the abuse of power. David Frum also appeared and made very rational arguments about why the United States really can't be called an Empire and insisted that the ppowers of the presidency are nothing like they were during the Cold War. David's arguments really need research because he argued that Cold War Presidents could wire-tap anyone without a court order and had almost total power when it came to war. He says that only with George W and Obama have the powers of the presidency come back close to their Cold War situation. Fein countered that the rule of law was being subverted by the powers being acquired by the post-2001 presidency and the insistence we are at war against a tactic--terrorism--than any nation-state. Therefore, since there is no standards for victory, we are committed to a perpetual war and even American citizens are targeted for assassination by the President without due process. He was referring to the American Muslim in Yemen.

In the afternoon, I moderated a panel on encouraging democratic change in Iran. Some of the discussion raised issues I posted before concerning pro-democracy programs. Members of Congress spoke about the need for Americans to speak out on human rights issues in Iran and to express solidarity with Iranians trying to change the nature of the government. One member recalled the efforts of the United States to support democratic change within the East Bloc and the Soviet Union. What struck me about the remarks was how ad-lib the efforts were to encourage democratic change then. Organizations used the kitchen sink approach with considerably less money than allocated to democracy assistance programs today and the local groups and civil society organizations controlled their own agenda when receiving this assistance. In other words, they owned the process more than emerging democrats do in the many efforts made over the last 10 years. The general conclusion was that negotiation, engagement are not incompatible with efforts to support Iranian democrats within the country.

The best moment for me was introducing civil rights legend John Lewis, who gave a rousing speech for human rights activism and the need for solidarity with all those oppressed in the world today. Lewis recited the various beatings and jailings he endured during our civil rights movement and urged the audience, "Never Give Up! Never Give Up!"

On that note, there is one positive development on our political landscape--the creation of the coalition of 175 groups under the umbrella name of "One Nation". After several months of internal negotiations, trade unions, civil rights groups, Hispanic advocacy organizations and other progressive movements finally recognized that there was too much at stake in this year's elections and beyond to allow the teahadists to dominate the discussion. Whether they can make the difference this year remains to be seen. But what makes them distinct from the teahadists, the coalition represents organizations and groups with vast grass-roots and community constituencies. It is the progressive answer to Obama's Coalition for America, which also has re-invented itself for the struggle in November. This is the way politics has to be done if one's ideas are going to succeed.

The NAACP passed a resolution asking that the teahadists remove the racists from their midst. You'll recall the teabaggers spitting at John Lewis and calling him racial epithets during the healthcare debate. The racist undertone of the tea party rallies has been obvious to any sane observer. What the NAACP asked is what any organization does--expel and denounce the extremists. This happened when the Republican Party was forced to denounce David Duke when he re-invented himself from Klansman and white supremacist to a conservative Republican. It also happened when yesteryear's conservatives booted out the John Birch Society from iits midst. But the NAACP resolution was met by Sarah Palin demanding an apology to the tea party. Right Wing radio has been non-stop racist rants from just prior to the election of Barack Obama and even yesterday Rush Limbaugh denounced the late George Steinbrenner for making African Americans millionaires. Apparently, it's now OK to be a racist.

Bruce Fein said something this morning that even if a majority voted away due process, that doesn't make it right. The Founding Fathers were deeply concerned about the majority oppression of the minority.

Meanwhile Senate Republicans continue to play little games with the Kagan nomination to the Supreme Court. Now they want her to pledge to recuse herself from any case having to do with the healthcare bill. Maybe Clarence Thomas should recuse himself because his wife runs a teabagger foundation with two large donors footing the bill.

A CBS poll says that only 13% of Americans believe Obama's policies have done anything for them. I am one of them. I got a tax cut this year--most who received a tax cut claim their taxes increased. Through streamling the FACSA process for applying for college aid, I got grants and loans equivalent of 20% of my son's education. With the Credit Card reform bill, my credit cards no longer have been jacking up my percentages as they did almost every month in 2008 and now they have to send me a bill giving me about 3 weeks to pay, instead of the 2 weeks of 2008 and 2009. This helps cash flow. I could refinance my house at rock bottom interest rates. The lost equity in my house has come back by 2/3rds. Under healthcare, I can cover my son until he is 26. If the full healthcare bill is implemented, I can't be denied coverage for pre-existing conditions and I will not go bankrupt if I have any serious illness. And, for my personal enjoyment, President Obama made the largest government grant for scientific research and development in the history of the world. So, thank you President Obama!

Another poll came out today that shows that the top priorities of the American People are 20% the economy, 20% jobs and only 5% the deficit. American people support tax hikes on the rich, and adopting the McColm plan of raising the cap on social security taxes. From the pundits and the media, you would think Americans are obsessively concerned about the deficit and the national debt.

A University of Michigan study just came out that showed that it really doesn't matter what the facts are--people will continue to believe what they want to believe. One example used was a question asked of Americans after Reagan severely cut the inflation of the Carter years. People were asked whether inflation has gone down or risen. The supermajority believed it had risen, despite this being one of the headline issues of the day. The Michigan study also showed that people who are shown to be wrong factually will double down on their original beliefs. So much for honest debate.

And with that we leave you with Mitch McConnell's insistance that tax cuts to the rich brought in vast government revenues during the Bush years. Ezra Klein debunked this myth as has the OMB. Challenged with the OMB findings, McConnell insisted on his original statement. Michigan researchers were right.