By Staff
Fifteen years after William Greider's "Who Will Tell the People – the Betrayal of American Democracy," along comes Canadian journalist Naomi Klein with "The Shock Doctrine," exposing how an atmosphere of crisis provides cover not to have debates.
Here's a new term for us to learn: Disaster capitalists.
You know, guys like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, who pad their wealth waging endless war on terror.
Here at the Week in Revue, we've railed relentlessly about how the Bush administration is populated by revolutionaries – not Republicans – but Klein says most "people haven't fully grasped the revolutionary nature of the Bush years. They are leaving a hollow shell to their successors."
"Whoever comes in after the Bush administration … will find out how much power resides in this parallel contractor economy," she says. "The state doesn't even have the ability to oversee those contracts," let alone cancel them.
"This is one of their clever tricks," Klein says. "They privatize the war on terror and then say everything about this war is classified, so we don't even know what we have contracted out. Maybe you catch glimpses of it – the Abu Ghraib scandal breaks, and we find that some of the key people are contractors. We caught another glimpse of it when it became clear that the State Department can't function without Blackwater."
Klein forecasts a chilling amount of inequality ahead:
"We could have a fully privatized response to climate change, with a small group of people buying their way out for a couple of generations."
"Our world could look more like Baghdad," she says. "A green zone guarded by Blackwater and everything provided by Halliburton."
Blackwater, by the way, is vying for $15 billion in federal contracts for more of the failed 35-year, $500-billion War on Drugs.
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: "The candidate who looks the worst for wear in Iowa is Hillary Clinton … Rival candidates are literally tripping over each other in an effort to knock her wobbling campaign off its pedestal. For the first time since this race began, three major candidates (Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards) are in a three-way tie at the top of the Iowa polls. A primary season that looked like a prolonged slam-dunk coronation a month ago has morphed … In Iowa, all of Hillary's weaknesses as a candidate are on display – her short fuse, her instinctive pandering, her fierce desire to control every aspect of her environment, her familial penchant for smoking issues without inhaling them and her reflexive paranoia, doubtless brought on by a lengthy stint serving as the human whipping post of the conservative right."
– Matt Taibbi
in the Dec. 13 Rolling Stone
"The presidential candidate who has raised the most money from Washington lobbyists is not a Republican. The candidate who has raised the most money from insurance companies isn't a Republican. The presidential candidate who has raised the most money from defense contractors isn't a Republican. The answer to all those questions, you probably already know, is Hillary Clinton."
– John Edwards
"We haven't seen anything like this since the 18 1/2-minute gap in the tapes of President Richard Nixon."
– Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., accusing the CIA of a cover-up in destroying videotapes in November 2005 of the interrogation of two terrorism suspects. Human rights groups and lawyers for detainees were clamoring for information about the agency's secret detention and interrogation program. Congress and U.S. courts were debating where "enhanced interrogation" crossed the line into torture.
55: Percent of Americans who believe President Bush has committed impeachable offenses.
U.S. debt: reaches $9,000,000,000,000. Thank goodness conservatives are in charge, and not tax-and-spend liberals.
Brandon Inge wants the Tigers to trade him so he can start at third base for another club rather than ride the Detroit bench or revert to catching with the acquisition of All-Star Miguel Cabrera from the Florida Marlins. After the 2006 World Series, Inge, 30, signed a four-year, $24 million contract, then hit .236, with 14 home runs and 71 runs batted in.
New Dowagiac: The Dogwood crowd stayed downtown after the Christmas parade and jammed into Wood Fire. Franz Jackson and friends picked up where they left off Nov. 4 at his 95th birthday benefit at the middle school Performing Arts Center. A more intimate lineup included the legendary tenor saxophonist; Tad Calcara, the principal clarinetist for the Utah Symphony in Salt Lake City; Yves Francois on trumpet; pianist Jim Pickley; and bassist Darrel Tidaback.
Sorry, Sir Paul, but apparently you can reheat a souffle.
john.eby@leaderpub.com