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Editorial See other Editorial Articles Title: Bush Is Wrecking Not Only America, But Japan (By a Former Class Mate of the Smirk) Bush Is Wrecking Not Only America, But Japan [Analysis] Tokyo and other Asian markets continue to fall Yoshi Tsurumi (internews) Email Article Print Article Published 2008-03-19 11:11 (KST) Recently, America's Federal Reserve rescued the bankrupt Bear Sterns, a large investment banker. It was the desperate attempt at arresting the global spread of US-made meltdown of global financial markets. However, Tokyo, and other Asian markets continued to fall. None trusted America's ability to repair the Bush-Cheney wrecking of the US and the world. Japanese financial institutions and pension funds have long been sweet-talked by the Wall Street into buying the now defunct sub-prime mortgage-backed securities. Japan should realize that the Bush-Cheney Administration is not dealing even with the symptoms of US-made problems - the fiasco of Iraq, healthcare, financial market meltdown, and deepening recession. Their root cause is none other than the Bush-Cheney Imperial Presidency that has wrecked American democracy. From September 1973 through June 1974, George W. Bush was a student of mine at Harvard Business School. He was one of a few misfit students who were sociopathic, intellectually shallow and emotionally distrustful of the democratic "New Deal" America. In my class, he called Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" a socialism. He was opposed to the Securities and Exchange Commission whose task it was to prevent the malfeasances of the Wall Street and other American corporations. During the presidential election of 2000, I warned Americans and Japanese alike that "if George W. Bush wins, he and the Republican Party are going to destroy American democracy, society, and economy. The Bush-Cheney Administration will push the US back to the corrupt Gilded Age." All my premonitions have come true. The Bush-Cheney Administration is patterned after the William McKinley Administration (1897-1901). It was the worst of the Gilded Age and saw to it that the government existed merely to help the greed of America's big businesses at home and abroad. In 2000, George W. Bush surrounded himself with Dick Cheney and other sociopathic neo-conservatives. They were determined to change the US presidency to an imperial sovereign above the US Constitution. The institutional bedrock of American democracy is the separation of powers among the three branches of the government - executive, legislative, and judiciary. The "rule of law" - no one being above the law - is the foundation of American democracy. However, the Founding Fathers of the US Constitution knew that from time to time a dictatorial charlatan may win the presidency. Accordingly, they built into the Constitution mutual checks and balances among the three independent branches. The vigilant and free press were to keep an eye on them. However, Vice President Dick Cheney and his neo-conservative cabal had long worked to promote and "imperial presidency" - the president possessing the "inherent and unrestrained power" to do anything he/she wants. This malicious distortion of the US Constitution is dubbed as the "Unitary Executive Theory." When applied to governing the US, it destroys democracy just as surely as the equally crackpot economics theory of "laissez-fare market fundamentalism" ("stockholder value supremacy system of corporate governance") destroys the American economy. Witness the present fiasco of fraudulent sub-prime mortgages and financial market meltdown under the Bush-Cheney crony capitalism. The Bush-Cheney Administration packed the Department of Justice and the White House with young legal cronies obsessed with the Unitary Executive Theory. Driven by the fear of hyped imminent terrorist attacks after the 9-11 devastation, the Congress, the Judiciary, and the media have become too compliant to be alarmed by the rise of the Bush-Cheney dictatorship. The Bush-Cheney Administration has deceived and intimidated Americans into supporting the occupation of Iraq for oil and military bases. The occupation continues to burden the US with enormous human and financial costs of the US and Iraq. It has caused oil prices to keep rising and the US dollar to keep falling. Its favored means of governance by lies and intimidation is the extreme secrecy and fear mongering. It has carried out massive warrantless surveillance of American citizens. It has routinely sabotaged and ignored laws and regulations created by the Congress and signed by the presidents and upheld by the Supreme Court. It has tortured prisoners of war. It has unilaterally abrogated US' international treaty obligations, thus encouraging North Korea and Iran to ignore their international agreements. It has aggravated global warming and damaged America's natural environment and made mining and other work places unsafe. It has alienated American allies and damaged America's national security. It is now destroying the American economy by having encouraged Wall Street and other corporate malfeasances and outsourcing well-paid manufacturing and services jobs abroad. To solve the globally spreading ills of the "Bush-Cheney" contagion, the US and Japan must repudiate the Bush-Cheney Imperial Presidency. The real solutions require America's to restore its democratic leadership at home and abroad. Are the three US Senators vying for the presidency aware? They should take to their heart what Albert Einstein once said, "You cannot solve the problems with same thinking and people that created the problems in the first place." Unfortunately, Senator John McCain, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, has already vowed to continue the disastrous policies of the Bush-Cheney Administration. He is beholden to the neo-conservatives that control the Republican Party. Senators Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama are still hunting their delegates for the Democratic Party's nomination. So far Clinton has won large "blue" states that the Democrats must win to capture the White House. Obama has run up more delegates by winning mainly small and large "red" states that the Democratic nominees have rarely won in the general elections. For the fall general election, McCain is counting on the reemerging American misogyny to derail Clinton. Or he is counting on Obama nominee driving racist Reagan-Bush Democrats of "blue" states to him - the repeat of Nixon victory over McGovern of 1972. It is no wonder that the internationalist elements of the Democratic Party including many expatriates in Japan are earnestly hoping to prevent Clinton-Obama internecine conflict from throwing the election to McCain. Yoshi Tsurumi, Professor of International Business, Baruch College, the City University of New York. Email: yoshi_tsurumi@baruch.cuny.edu
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#1. To: tom007 (#0)
From September 1973 through June 1974, George W. Bush was a student of mine at Harvard Business School. He was one of a few misfit students who were sociopathic, intellectually shallow and emotionally distrustful of the democratic "New Deal" America. In my class, he called Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" a socialism. He was opposed to the Securities and Exchange Commission whose task it was to prevent the malfeasances of the Wall Street and other American corporations. Classmate, student, who cares. Social Security is not even an issue here, and one can view it as a limited form of socialism, no doubt about that, ... same with insurance. The SEC opposition is far more telling.
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