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December 14, 2006

Onward Faithful Soldiers, Marching as to War

We've been waiting for weeks now for something to happen in Montana politics, and now something most definitely has. For the second time in two years, the House conservatives have pulled a harsh parliamentary maneuver that has created toxic feelings all across the state.

Speaker-elect Scott Sales of Belgrade is the new decider of House committees, which is where most of the legislative work gets done. Preparing to crank up January's four-month session, Scott decided the other day that ten democrats of forty nine would be shut out of the morning committees, which are the big five day a week committees, where taxes and spending and matters of crime and punishment, of life and death get decided on. Oh, and the booze and gambling and election laws, too.

A tenth of the state has been denied equal representation in the Legislature. Our most seasoned citizens cannot remember such a thing. Ever.

Sales of course is among the ringleaders of the hard line Montana reactionary right. Two years ago he was a talker in the campaign to connive the House Democrats out of their choice of Speaker, a maneuver that poisoned the mood of the assembly for many days.

Walking out of the caucus back in early December where he was elected by a few votes, Scott looked the reporters right in the eye and famously said, literally, that there would be a war. Right on his heels came his chief lieutenant Mike Lange of Billings, who said, literally, that they would offer no quarter.

Real warrior like, these two. And both quite firm in their faith, and inclined to just tell you how it's going to be. Which is their way or the highway.

To put the final spin on the dope-slapping of the same Montana electorate that threw out one of their friends just six weeks ago, Sales and crew have appointed the most right-wing legislator in America to run Montana's House Education Committee. Seriously, Rick Jore of Ronan believes in the theocratic platform of his fellow true believers. He's the Constitution party's only state legislator anywhere.

You have to admit that the name Constitution Party demonstrates that these guys do have some degree of humor.

Jore thinks that our community schools should be shut down. No kidding.

To complete the joke, Sales named Roger Koopman to be vice chair of that same education committee. This is the committee that will consider our full-day kindergarten proposal, which would give a serious economic boost to young families, to say nothing of a head start for thousands of kids.

For those of us who serve in the Montana House, this is a cold bucket of sobriety after the giddiness and exhaustion of the campaign.

Campaign's over, friends. Now it's time to do the people's business, and in this business, these guys want to play rough.

We are well into the seven fat years now, and should be fixing up and putting away for the coming lean years. We might do a lot now to invest in our schools, our health care, our energy systems. We could be taking care of veterans, our elders, and our environment. We could be insulating our houses. We might talk about how it should pay to work.

But instead, our conservative neighbors who run the Montana House are resolved to a program that starts with scorched earth.

Stay tuned. This show runs through April. Just wait til you hear the one about where the tax cut went.

Posted by Brady Wiseman at 11:37 PM | Comments (0)

December 04, 2006

All Talk And No Results on Trade

I had a rare opportunity yesterday to talk to the government officials who negotiate trade deals. Senator Baucus arranged for the negotiators for the Korea - US free trade agreement to be in Gallatin Gateway to actually meet the citizens.

This is highly unusual. These trade agreements are negotiated behind closed doors, on so-called 'fast track' terms, so that the elected officials of We the People have pretty much nothing to say about it.

So I got all dressed up and buzzed out to Gateway on a mission: avoid the Koreans, because I have no beef with them. Find the US negotiators and let them know what their work has done for my constituents.

First up was the assistant negotiator for this deal, a pleasant young lady who was more than happy to talk with me until I told her the truth. That 'free trade' deals have been a disaster for my community, my constituents, my state, and my country.

That the treaties exclusively benefit the 1% of Americans who invest for a living. That we can't get any factories built here because they've all been shipped to Asia.

And that even the white collar jobs are going now, meaning that prosperity through education is more and more of a mirage. That a previous deal, Nafta, destroyed the Mexican economy and produced 10 million economic refugees, who have now made their way north. That for my constituents, free trade means a lower standard of living and more and more debt.

She gave me the identical look I got from the Ivy Leaguers twenty years ago during my Wall Street days, when I tried to point out to them that the early versions of these exact same policies were going to produce exactly these results. It's like she was gazing at an insect before gluing it to the head of a pin. Interesting specimin, this look says. Silly idealist, to imagine that common people should actually benefit from the policies enacted by the elites.

So I moved on. Next up: Wendy Cutler, the chief negotiator. I gave her my most respectful and reasoned pitch about the results of free trade. To her credit, she listened, intently. But once I touched the live-wire issue - that only investors benefit from these policies, and that two thirds of Americans are moving backwards - my audience was over. I was dismissed.

Ms. Cutler told me it was too bad I hadn't heard the lecture earlier, because by golly, all of this is being addressed.

As if cutting wages and clobbering the American standard of living is not the plan, and hasn't been all along.

Well, that is the plan, and always has been. The corporate crowd has always been quite clear about this. Frankly, I'm over it. I believe it's time to start shouting from the rooftops. Free trade is a scam, and always has been. Flat earth, indeed.

There is an ironic conclusion to the tale. The next stop in my busy holiday season weekend was the cell phone store, because my cell phone won't turn on.

It turns out the the nice young folks manning the counter couldn't actually crack open the phone and fix it. If the phone won't turn on, they are meant to be thrown away. The only option for me, the lowly customer, was to pay the giant phone company more money, in one form or another.

So where was my less-than-a-year-old, high-tech, throwaway telephone made? You got it: Korea. It was Koreans who designed the phone, made its parts, assembled it, and tested it. All real jobs. Some of these folks were no doubt trained in US universities.

The well-meaning, enthusiastic, but ultimately helpless Americans just get to push the product across the counter, roll out the long-term, one-sided contract, and throw away the trash.

Posted by Brady Wiseman at 06:25 AM | Comments (0)