It Can't Happen Here

That is the title of a 1935 novel by Sinclair Lewis set one year in the future -- in 1936. It is also the latest book I have started reading along with about eight other books I am trying to read at the same time!

I am only on the third chapter so naturally cannot give a full report. I can say, however, that this is Sinclair Lewis in his prime. The writing is clear, descriptive, lively, sharp-witted, often funny. In the opening pages, the main characters in a town in Vermont argue whether fascism could ever come to America. The town's pre-eminent banker says it could never happen in America, but if there ever were a dictator it could be a very good thing for efficiency and decency. The town's intellectual conscience argues that such a thing could indeed happen in the U.S. and gives as evidence the Ku Klux Klan, the monkey trial in Tennessee, the shooting of persons merely suspected of boot-legging, and other sundry examples.

Based on what I have heard about this book, and what I have already read, I am inclined to highly recommend it for your consideration.

U.S. Senate Votes for Subpoenas for White House Officials

Below is an excerpt from the Associated Press regarding the issuing of subpoenas of White House officials in an attempt to uncover the truth about the firing of U.S. attorneys:

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By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel, following the House's lead, authorized subpoenas Thursday for White House political adviser Karl Rove and other top aides involved in the firing of federal prosecutors. The Senate Judiciary Committee decided by voice vote to approve the subpoenas as Republicans and Democrats sparred over whether to press a showdown with
President Bush over the ousters of eight U.S. attorneys.
Democrats angrily rejected Bush's offer to grant a limited number of lawmakers private interviews with the aides with no transcript and without swearing them in. Republicans counseled restraint, but at least one, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, backed the action....

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We will undoubtedly hear more about this later. As part of the present discussion, Air America Radio show host Thom Hartmann has today asked why President Bush has not been subpoenaed. He then answered his own question by opining that Congress is using the "Patrick Fitzgerald approach" of being very careful as part of a step-by-step method.

This will be a most important issue to follow.

Global Swarming

Scientists are beginning to swarm around the issue of global warming as opponents to an "anthropogenic", that is, human-caused climate change have become more vocal (or the media has given them a louder voice) in recent days.

The article below does not resolve the issue but gives an interesting reason why we should proceed as if global warming is caused by human beings.


http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/031907EC.shtml

A Reader Writes on Global Warming

I have received an interesting e-mail from a reader regarding the subject of global warming. This is something of a follow-up to an earlier letter from the Brazilian engineer, Mr. Frangetto.

What I am posting now is only the beginning of the letter, unedited. I plan to post the rest of the letter in edited form later.


I do not agree that global warming is primarily cause by sun activity. Because only in last century we have a significant growing up the temperatures and CO2 emitions together.

Global Warming Contrarians

In recent weeks I have begun to read alternative reports on the issue of global warming, otherwise know as climate change. These reports run counter to the assertion that the rise in world-wide temperatures over the last century or so are primarily caused by human activities, specifically through the issuance of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Now comes a documentary from Channel 4, the public affairs broadcast station in Great Britain. The page linked below tells more and includes a further link to the documentary. At the time of this writing I have not yet viewed the video. However, this documentary is not the first time I have been exposed to the viewpoint that many scientists claim global warming is actually primarily being caused by an increase in solar activity as part of a naturally-occuring cycle.

As this is a blog and not an on-line encyclopedia, I claim no special right of veracity on this issue. However, I am convinced of the necessity to take a closer look at this issue before coming to a conclusion.

I close with a statement from an engineer from Brazil by the name of Frangetto, who has been researching this topic. His view is his own and does not necessarily represent the view of this blog. I offer it as an additional viewpoint on the subject.

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Global Warming has many causes: solar activity, the cycle of Earth's inclination each 25,000 years, CO2 production, for example. I´m studying this in very deeply. I don't know Gore, I am not anti-Gore, and I don't like conspiracy theories. America has many of them (web sites with this bad information, too).

I believe in one practical fact, this is real:

-My city doesn't have winter any more. The temperatures is 5 degrees Celsius above last year.
-The ocean,... near my home, is up 2 meters. Last year the sea reached the street. The people were scared.

Global warming has this origin:

-North America and Europe burn coal to produce Electricity. The factories burn oil to produce thermal energy in these reactors (industries not nuclear). The US is the worst country in Pollution.
-Europe, Asia, and China are second. The production of Electric Energy is the problem.

-Cars, trains, planes, etc. in the world create 30% of the pollution. The US political decision to add 20% ethanol in Gasoline is a market for Latin America to combat Hugo Chavez's Influence. 20% of 30% is only 6% better global pollution. We need to reduce much more than this in a few years.

-Brasil has a problem, too. We BURN our pastures to seedling new cultures. I don't talk of cutting the forests because all countries do that in the past (America, Europe, etc...)....



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http://www.channel4.com/science/microsites/G/great_global_warming_swindle/index.html

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Next week: I plan to deal further with the firings of United States attorneys, an issue I have already dealt with here earlier.

Washington Is Roiling

The American system is beginning to function again.

Those parts of the U.S. Constitution which were designed to prevent runaway power on the part of the Executive are beginning to function once again thanks to the new Democratic majority in Congress. We can be grateful to persons, such as Senator Charles Schumer, who are leading the way in understanding what is behind the recent purging of U.S. Attorneys. This purge, reported on here some weeks ago, is now seen as emanating from the White House, and specifically from Karl Rove. Though still an allegation, early evidence does, in fact, point to the White House. Congress seems set to investigate the politicization of the law enforcement function of the Executive branch. Let the investigations go forward, and let the rule of law be upheld (that is, law democratically enacted).

The Idea Behind the British Empire Lives On

Over the course of the last few years, I have slowly come to the realization that the economic principles which supported the British Empire for centuries were not extinguished in the years following World War II. Like most Americans I have tended to uncritically accept that America successfully freed herself for all time from British rule during the Revolutionary War.

What I have come to see rather recently, however, is that powerful forces in England never accepted this outcome and from the beginning set out to recapture the colonies, if not politically, at least economically. After over two hundred years of steady effort, the work has born fruit in a world-wide scheme called globalization lead by oligarchs in Europe and America.

I have just become aware of a book which presents some of the history of the effort to subvert the American democracy. The book is Anglo-American Establishment by Quigley. I have read a thorough review of the book and look forward to reading it for myself. From reading the review, it is already clear to me that men such as Cecil Rhodes, William T. Stead, and Reginald Baliol Brett (later to be advisor to King Edward VII) conspired to bring the United States under the sway of international and specifically British financial interests once and for all. To a frightening degree they and their successors have been successful.

It is these interests to which the current U.S. administration is tied. Is it merely happenstance that the American Bushnell (Bush) family is descended from royal blood? The desire for privilege and all the powers and advantages such a position accords does not die easily. Books such as Anglo-American Establishment help show specifically how the imperial system has in some large measure persisted and out-lasted the American Revolutionary War.

I believe it is time to once again defend the American Revolution. It was for this purpose that the "Battle for Seattle" was waged in 1999 although the organizers perhaps did not say this explicity. With the world a bit wiser in 2007 than in the immediate aftermath of September 11, 2001, it would seem a good time to renew the fight to preserve an America and a world owned by all its people, not a select few. I look forward to writing more about this subject in the future.