"term inflation"
Sorry. If I have, it's frustration at what appears to be an inevitable deflation in voter/taxpayer participation in the Geopolitical Nintendo played behind the Beltway, with little informed discussion. It's an attempt at accurately portraying what's really happening, in spite of the niceties of what's being said officially.
"Extortion" is my way of clarifying the lack of options - you pay taxes or go to jail, whether or not you agree those dollars should support those whose citizens bombed WTC. You pay for gasoline or don't show up a work, whether or not you agree with the results. No options, no discussion, no intention to allow changes, in spite of the wishes of the "little people" who own this country.
Perhaps that's inflamatory and inflated, but it fits the classic definition, if you view the process from that POV.
Most presidents test executive privilage, the Presidency increases power every administration, and is tending towards dictatorship, when war can be threatened on other countries without Congressional involvement as just another example. Not good. The oil debacle and Enron are simply other instances. They all include Congressional fingers in the pie, but the Presidency is the big chair at the head of the table sitting in on the feast. The real point is that we need a revolution in this country, to open all governmental records, restart the short-term progress made after Watergate, and avoid being a fascist state, the definition of which is when the government denies rights to the citizens which it keeps to itself. The power to keep secrets in the Information Age is the greatest power. Citizens keep their privacy, while government leaders should have none, in their official business. You can think of exceptions, but they are in a very narrow range of technology and short-term military nature, probably 1% of what is being hidden.
Since Congress and the Supreme Court can't balance the power of the Presidency, it's up to the people. As I say, the American Consumer is the most powerful force, since politics is failing to prevent supporting our enemies.
I don't consider the Taliban payoff response to be a refutation, I add it for further information. Without detailed auditable drill-down database of data already in electronic form, we have discovered we can not trust any data from the government, pro or con. "Trust but verify" fits all manner of bloated out-of-control bureacracies.
I'll add to that a formula:
Secrecy = Criminality, and
Criminality = Secrecy
Like Algebra, it's a transitive theorem <G>
The point about OPEC is that if there is any effect at all, it is to maintain price, not decrease it, obviously.
The point with the Daniel Pipes essay is response to your comment about Saudi Arabia being "moderate". The title of his essay is "There are no moderates:Dealing with Fundamentalist Islam", and it goes into detail why he believes this true. If so, we have no business giving aid and comfort, petrodollars, business deals, arms shipments, or foreign aid to Saudi Arabia, while they train their intelligencia in the ways of defeating the American "infidel" |
