Populist Party Newsletter 03-01-07

"Whatever the issue, let freedom offer us a hundred choices, instead of having government force one answer on everyone."
--Harry Browne
 

Commentary by Michael Boldin

If I have my facts straight, George W. Bush has never killed a single person in his life. All the torture and death that people attribute to him has been carried out by people who were "only following orders."

Psychologically, I find this quite interesting.  As a person, it doesn't appear that Bush would or could hurt anyone, especially not innocent people.  But, as "commander-in-chief," he can order and oversee actions that result in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocents without even batting an eye.  A friend and critic of mine believes that leaders such as Bush assume full responsibility for the actions of a nation's military.  I strongly disagree.

We've all heard the excuses over and over again.  The soldiers aren't responsible because they're following orders.  The military isn't responsible because they have to obey the civilian leadership.  The President isn't responsible because he was given bad intelligence.  The intelligence agencies aren't responsible because they had bad informants, and made the best call they could under the circumstances.  And, of course, Congress isn't responsible either.  Why not?  I don't really know.  Maybe it's because they're utterly incompetent.

Seriously, though, we have a major problem here.

RESPONSIBILITY

So, who is responsible for the death and destruction in Iraq? 

Who? The pilots who dropped the bombs? The commanding officers?  The secretary of defense?  The President?  Or, as the war hawks would like us to believe, is it the people defending their homeland from invasion?  If they'd just stop resisting.our peace-loving, democracy-spreading military wouldn't have to defend themselves and kill these people, right? 

Who is responsible might not even matter, because the truth is no one will be held accountable, and there will be no trials or prosecutions for the countless innocents that have been killed in America's foreign wars.  The result is that the politicians are further emboldened to wage even more wars in the future.

Excerpted. Read the full article here:
http://www.populistamerica.com/leaders_dont_kill_people

The Publishing Industry Assault on Google Books
by Russell Cole

There has been much to do about the controversy over Google's plans to create a digital database of library books belonging to various affiliated libraries willing to denote their contents to Google's project. I suppose the issue comes down to the following significant - to varying degrees - concerns that run in contradiction to one another. On the one hand, some of the books that are published by Google in its service, Google Books, are the property of publishers. On the other hand, there is a public interest in making information as accessible as possible, reaching out to portions of the American public who might lack the resources or the affiliation with academic libraries required to acquire access to such published works.

I suppose it is not much of a guessing game to accurately predict my position on this issue. I value the benefits of an informed citizenry where wealth is not a prerequisite for the procurement of the necessary intellectual resources for one to elevate his or her understanding of matters of concern for the individual or for other segments of the population for whom the individual might empathize or sympathize.

Of course, we should not entirely ignore the plight of the publishers who have voiced opposition to Google's rendering of the intellectual products of authors - who no longer own their own thoughts after entering into the agreements mandated by the Publishing Industry - in the form of digital media.