Privatization gone wild

The United States government has been privatized. It is now a corporation, formed to conduct business. The takeover is complete.

Since Ronald Reagan, every single administration, with the help of congress, has chipped away at the institutions of government, in essence redefining the role of government. For over thirty years, both conservative and middle of the road politicians have pushed the concept that "big" government is bad, bureaucratic, a waste of money. It is an ideology driven by the radical "free market rules all" camp à la Milton Friedman and Alan Greenspan.

We have witnessed the most radical culmination of this ideology under the Bush II era. Government hollowed out to the point that it can't fight its own wars, it has to use a privatized fighting force instead. Government gutted to the point that it can't respond effectively to natural disasters. Government so weak that it can't regulate important industries like banks. Government which no longer can govern.

In the past a revolving door existed between the private and public sector. In recent years, that door has been blown to pieces. Now there is a gaping hole. It is virtually impossible to differentiate between corporate executives, politicians and lobbyists. Hank Paulson? Dick Cheney? Rahm Emanuel? Erik Holder? Donald Rumsfeld? Who are they working for?

We are all now suffering the consequences of this dangerous merger of private and public. Former corporate executives run the government and former politicians run the corporations.

See here just one example of what happens when there is no one around to keep watch.

Throw a shoe at Bush

George W. Bush, a bad President. We all know how unintelligent the man is, but in the end, and at risk of insulting our President, he has a great deal of blood on his hands......and for what? Now you can throw a shoe at Bush. Good luck though, he's sneaky.

I love people who say that even though you disagree with Bush that this shoe thrower committed a great offense and this his actions were disrespectful. Are you kidding me? After all W. has done, why should anyone respect him?

GE loves war in Iraq

Now it's clear why at least one American media organization swallowed Bush's justification for war and helped sell the concept to the American people. General Electric, the mammoth company which pretty much makes and sells everything, including NBC Universal, has just won the largest single order in the company's storied history. Any guesses where? It has to do with a country in the Middle East.

You got it.....IRAQ! GE won an order to provide $3 billion in electricity-generating equipment and services to our new friends. Yes! Now that is imagination at work.

Pay close attention: This is how a good company makes tons of money.

Using your own network, NBC, you support an illegal war based on lies. Then you cover the run up to the war like a NFL pre-game show and the war itself like the game. Meanwhile, your GE Aviation department sells military engines for the F-16, the Apache and a number of other war making machines which will help America fight the war, kill innocents and completely destroy the infrastructure of the country.

Stay with me, this is when it gets good. Now that you've duped the American public into a war, supplied the military with their war machinery and destroyed the country, now it's time to go in and fix it. And that's where the big bucks come in. In this case, $3 billion.

Some would argue that there's no correlation between NBC's news coverage and its parent company's other business areas. Yeah right.

I can't say it better than Amy Goodman from Democracy Now. "The corporate media is an extreme media beating the drums of war," she says. "They offer us a monolithic view through a corporate lense. We need a media that covers power, not covers up for power."

Blagojevich arrested, went after Bank of America

Before the Governor of Illinois was arrested for corruption, he ordered state agencies to stop doing business with Bank of America because the bank closed All Republic Windows & Doors' line of credit. The bank's decision forced the company to close their doors and led to the layoff of 250 people, most whom have locked themselves in the factory in protest.

Now that the story has received national attention, Bank of America said Tuesday it would extend some credit to the company. For the first time in a long time we are seeing some in government stand up to their main masters - the multinational corporations.

This corporate backlash has been coming for a long time, and it is because everyday people have been demanding it. And wouldn't you know, it works.

It works. It works. It works. It works. That can't be said enough.

Do you think the Bank of America would have reconsidered extending credit to All Republic Windows & Doors if the employees, with the support of their union, weren't so brave in taking over the factory? Of course not.

In my view, the only way to save the country is to ratchet up the criticism and critique of the private sector, to stay on their case and to continue to take these types of actions. If banks, or any other corporations, which by the way are only allowed to exist because we let them, attempt to harm us, we can successfully force them to change, or else.

It works. This is the dirty secret that the powers don't care to share.

Government stakes in automakers?

This is great. America is turning into the new Sweden.

I've lived in Sweden for three years. In that time the government has sold a number of state-owned companies, including Vin & Sprit, the maker of Absolute Vodka. The argument by the "free market rules all" camp was that government should have no stake in large companies because they were inefficient at running them and a waste of tax payer money.

This privatization frenzy has been taking place for a number of years in many countries. It is surely one of America's greatest legacies.

But privatization is so 2007. The opposite is happening in America today. First banks, now maybe automakers. I'm starting to like this new American socialism. Maybe it's time to move home.

Nah, not yet. I think I'll wait until Ronald McDonald becomes a federal employee.