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With this button We also generally do not reprint work unaltered that has appeared first elsewhere in the generally accessible media; even if it's by our editors and our friends and close associates. Yet we see good writing that is relevant to questions of current interest that cannot be fitted into upcoming issues. And our editors and our friends and close associates would on occasion like to make their work available through Monthly Review, even if for some reason it has appeared elsewhere. Since we're informed that our website is now registering some 15,000 - 20,000 hits monthly, it seems worth it to attempt to put up on the site work that falls in the above categories. We'll start with the recent change in regime in the Empire of the United States. So far the most unexpected aspect of this change has been the degree to which the actual mechanics of the victory of Bush II has shaken elite consensus on a most central U.S. ideological assumption—the God-given superiority of its adaptable, flexible constitutional democratic republic; model for the entire world and the heavens above if not also the underworld below. From the Supreme Court all the way to first-year Law School students come cries of angry disillusioned protest; cries that have lasted now for going on two months. Below we post the best discussion that came our way (by Monthly Review friend Ed Greer, a teacher of the law and practicing lawyer) of the startling dishonest crudity with which the extreme-right majority of the Supreme Court decided the U.S. election. We then post a view (by Monthly Review editor Bob McChesney, and first published in the Madison Capital Times) of what action needs follow from this electoral travesty—an unyielding resistance to every attempt by this illegitimate imperial government to act on its reactionary program as if it had a valid "democratic" mandate. Less surprising than the continuing anguish of the better and decent part of the U.S. legal profession have been the actual appointments so far of Bush II. One important appointment, the head of the Federal Communications Commission, has not yet received the attention we think it deserves. Bush II has appointed Powell II to this position which enjoys considerable (if indirect) police power over the shape of permitted public discourse. Check out Bob McChesney's account of just who Powell II is (first published in Newsday). A Silent
Coup d’État: Only in America Saturday morning, December 9, 2000, I awoke with a sense of dread. Not since the week before the overthrow of the Allende government had I experienced that precise sensation. Before the day was done, my fear had come true: I experienced a coup d’état in my own country. PUBLISHED ON DECEMBER 16, 2000 IN THE
MADISON CAPITAL TIMES Imagine the following hypothetical scenario: It is the Nicaraguan presidential election of 1990. On one side are the incumbent Sandinistas, on the other side their opposition, which is supported materially by the United States. The Sandinistas lose the popular vote by 4,000 votes, but, due to an arcane electoral system, they win the election by a total of 41 votes in one of the provinces. This in a nation of three million. But there are numerous irregularities, as faulty equipment and ballots and questionable practices mean that thousands of votes—disproportionately from the stridently anti-Sandinista districts—are not included in the tally. The governor of the province where many irregularities occur is Sandinista candidate Daniel Ortega's brother. The official specifically in charge of seeing that it is a fair vote is the campaign manager for the Ortega's campaign in her province, and a die-hard party activist. PUBLISHED ON JANUARY 25, 2001 IN
NEWSDAY All you need to know about Michael Powell, whom President George W. Bush promoted this week to chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, can be summed up by the statements of close FCC watchers. "He's a listener, an advocate, an effective policymaker," said one. "Michael Powell has demonstrated a keen intellect and a firm grasp on public policy issues," said another. "It's rare that you have somebody in public office who is so favorably regarded by all constituencies and competing industries," added yet a third person. |
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