Blueprints for Governing

Anyone catch Dennis Blair's testimony this week before the House Intelligence Committee? Blair confirmed that the Feds do indeed have a policy of assassinating Americans overseas "as required by the war on terror." He went on: "assassinations would be justified if US citizens were taking action that threatens Americans." Isn't there some kind of law against this?

[Yeah. I think it's not exactly new news, but was picked up more widely after the media reported Blair's most recent comments. Interestingly, to me, the U.S. government hasn't admitted (yet) to torturing Americans at black sites, but I suspect that that's happening too... g.]

While I understand that simplistic solutions often fail, in this case there is one that I can't help thinking would do a lot. In Canada there are limits on election spending. Here are the ones per riding for 3rd parties:

http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=fin&document=limit_tp&dir=lim&lang=e&textonly=false

I think you will be amazed at their size. But we still manage to run perfectly good elections!

From here, though, it does appear that your country's political system is so hopelessly corrupt that the odds of putting these sensible limits into place are less than a snowball's in Hell.

The recent health bill fiasco was the final proof that I needed to convince myself that, very sadly, this is so.

I think Americans tend to thing in terms of "systems" — they are like mechanics. In reality, systems are preceded by mentalities, by culture. The culture is the problem. It is a sick culture: a wretchedly low level media, wretched education, ignorant and well-entertained populace, rife with crime, drugs, slums, homeless, domestic violence, psychological illnesses, violence dealt out abroad, pornography, and the list goes on — all often very well hidden, to be sure. The population is obese,not merely in the physical sense, which is merely a sign of a greater and interior problem. And yet, not people worship each other or celebrate each other more. It is pathetic. America is patently decadent. That is the problem, and the state of its institutions and "system" reflect it.

If we elected some legislative bodies by proportional representation (using, for example, the parliaments of Netherlands or Israel as a model) the beginning of a political leadership from the sane part of the population could be developed. The few decent D's and R's are overwhelmed by the corruption of those parties.

Not everyone in the US is as anon above describes; PR at least has the possibility of creating a rallying point for those who understand-or who are open to understanding-the nature of the Zeitgeist/Regime.

Not a panacea, of course, but I think it holds more promise than campaign finance reform. And feasible in small-to-medium size states with initiative and referendum.

[Excellent point. Our 'first past the post' electoral systems are critical in skewing our expression of democratic representation. g.]

I wouldn't hold the legislature of Israel up as a shining example of functionality. At the moment it appears to be dominated by minute parties of fanatics, thus the continuation of the appalling settlement project.