Wednesday, September 07, 2005

city of new orleans

The hurricane has revealed the major flaw in our way of life. Property rights extend to the ability to protect yourself from natural disaster and terrorism. Terrorism is not a nation state in uniform. Terrorism is a method; the method of the impotent. It is a criminal conspiracy and ought to be approached as such. This is the area which demands cladestine operations. Attacking the nation of Iraq as we have has alienated the Arab sentiment more than ever before. Not declaring war has become a nasty habit. A declaration of war is not just a matter of semantics. It is the only legal way the Constitution allows for applying violent force internationally. The size of the Congress has much to do with the runaway power the executive branch weilds. At the end of WWII; Germany and Japan were de-facto territory of the US. That is the nature of war; which can only end in surrender. When the weaker side runs out of ammunition. The experience of Viet Nam has not been heeded by our politicians. Much of the action of the Viet Cong fall into the category of terrorism. We didn't use the term as readily in the late 60's. The size of the Congress as dictated by the Constitution is that a Representative will sit for no fewer than 30,000 people. Currently the number of reps is constrained by a 1920's era federal statute which sizes it to the capacity of the Capitol Building. This is unacceptable. Too many states have more senators that reps. The gerrymandering of voter districts coeval with cencus taking gives power to a majority party to effect future elections. The cry for campaign finance reform is about the ability to control eletion results with money. We could allow for elections where the chips fall where they may. The status quo would be in jeapordy; this is a good thing. We build hockey rinks in the desert of Phoenix; we have the resources to construct a new meeting place for the House of Representatives. The collective fear many have about the right to abortion is caused by the abandonment of the legislative branch dicey issues. Allowing executive orders to exclusively control the actions of the military abroad is not the Constitutional paradigm. Anyone with a TV set could know the calamity beforehand that has visited the gulf coast. While the president is commander in chief of our forces INSIDE this country the delegation of authority to act in circumstances as urgent as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina is necessary when the life and death situation arrises. We have seen the vertical power structure caught completely flat-footed. It is for we unaffected by the storm itself as terrifying as the damage wreaked upon our neighbors. There is in military strategy the concept of "acceptable losses". I saay this extends to our highways where a number equal to the combat deaths of Viet Nam perishes every year. Whose purposes this fact serves is readily apparent; who profits from the one-person-to-a-car method currently in practice? Media seems to endorse car pooling for the purpose of lowering fuel costs alone. The relation of highway death to lowering the traffic is a blind spot. It is fair to say that the price of oil is fixed by the amount allowed on the market. It is pure price fixing. No one in Washington D.C. has the guts to confront this fact. The notion that government is going to have any say in the amount of oil we collectively consume is equivalent taking away our pistols. We need to wake up. Our attachment to structures like the Capitol and the Pentagon serves as an impetus for the terrorist to attack them; they believing their loss will affect our government or our determination to carry on. The awful delay in accomidating the people who were in the path of Katrina could have a remedy. It would involve legislation or a Constitutional amendmentto allow commanders to act within given perameters. The commanders in the field have to have some latitude. If the Airborne divisions of the Army and Marine Corps had acted sooner the loss of life from a poor evacuation effort and the lack of food or water for the infirm would not have occured. It is not impossible for this to happen without stripping the authority of the executive branch of government. The scrambling of super sonic aircraft above New York on 9/11 should have happened. President Bush was in Florida reading to children. Contigency plans in effect for these occasions must be allowed. Our safety from the weather and terrorism depend on timely response.