Friday, December 15, 2006

THE UNBEARABLE HEAVINESS OF BEING RIGHT

My kids always hated me for being right;  one of them still does.  Often,  like today, I'd rather be wrong.

After writing, somewhat tongue in cheek, that we were being occupied by our own troops, what do I hear on Democracy Now but that the immigrant workers who were arrested at Swift plants across the country were subjected to a veritable invasion by uniformed immigration police in battle fatigues jumping on tables, brandishing weapons and quite brutally separating people out.  Maybe these troops just wanted to show that they can be as intimidating as those fighting in Iraq.  Apparently, 13,000 people were arrested, although less than 200 were suspected of using stolen identities.  Children were left in school with nowhere to go, one of those arrested was a nursing mother.

Serendipitously (it's so often like that), the latest issue of Harpers arrives in the mail with Chalmers Johnson's piece on where this is all leading: I'm always pleased when recognized observers confirm my convictions: According to "Republic or Empire, a national intelligence estimate on the United States," on the historical evidence, the choice being made in favor of empire to the detriment of democracy  is likely to result in economic and politics collapse, sooner  rather than later.

Why do so few people see this?  I think Barak Obama does, and I think he's the only one who has the inborn stature to perhaps turn things around.  The other day, Jack Cafferty asked listeners what Obama has that the other candidates don't have.  My answer is: that je ne sais quoi that makes a true leader, which we haven't seen in I don't know how long.

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