Sirotablog
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. David writes about political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties.
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July 30, 2007 12:19 PM
Memo to Cons: States Still Exist In Tom Friedman's World
My Denver Post blog colleague David Harsanyi today falls prey to what has become a fairly typical and, frankly, boring media meme - the one about how only the Very Serious Foreign Policy People in Washington should have any say over Serious International Affairs even if those international affairs affect all levels of government, and even if those same Very Serious Foreign Policy People are the same folks who walked us into the worst foreign policy disasters in a generation. Writing about Colorado Democratic and Republican lawmakers looking at ways to divest state funds from holdings in Sudan and Iran, he says that "last time I looked, foreign policy was the bailiwick of the federal government" and that "barely any [state legislators] were elected to the state House" to deal with international issues.
Except actually, state legislators were elected to oversee, administer and deal with state resources, meaning we did elect them to decide - or at least have a say over - where those resources are invested. Making wars may be the bailiwick of the federal government, but in a globalizing world, states have an increasingly important role to play in international issues as those issues relate to their responsibilities to state taxpayers and constituents. And I'm not just talking only about divestment campaigns. I'm talking about the whole ball of wax that the good folks I work with over at the Progressive States Network deal with all the time.
To see what I specifically mean, check out my response to Harsanyi over at Politics West. This is an especially important point for Mountain West states that are facing massive forest fires and a National Guard depleted by the war in Iraq. It is also a critical issue considering the Colorado legislature's bipartisan international trade bill in 2006.
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About David Sirota
David Sirota is a political journalist and nationally syndicated newspaper columnist at Creators Syndicate. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Hostile Takeover. He lives in Denver, Colorado. His daily blog can be found at CREDO Action. He contributes regularly to the Denver Post's Web site, is a senior editor at In These Times magazine and is working on his second book. He has been profiled in Newsweek and the Rocky Mountain News and is widely known for his reporting on political corruption, globalization and working-class economic issues often ignored by both of America's political parties. Sirota serves as co-chair of the Progressive States Network, a 501(c)3 organization that supports state legislators and that is a partner of CREDO.
You can subscribe to Sirota's e-mail newsletter by going to davidsirota.com and signing up in the lefthand corner. To find out more about Sirota, download his official biography or see his recent media appearances. You can e-mail him at sirota@credoaction.com.
The views expressed on this blog are his own, and do not necessarily represent the views of Working Assets (publisher of CREDO Action) or the institutions Sirota works for.
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Recent Sirotablog entries
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Discussion
A Northern VA native follows the footsteps of Thomas Frank in describing his escape from red America to blue America only to come back and face the truth about liberalism. My guess so far is he learned that red or blue, the conservative ideology is in total agreement on both sides which is rather ironic. However, at least Joe Bageant has strongly proven that yes, Northern VA is still a wierd mixture of rural social conservatives and moderate social but economic conservatives that both make up the GOP. Here's his book Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
David, I see that you wrote a review of the book. My apologies for overlooking.
P.S.: I always said that NoVA has been getting a bad rap as it was. But truth be told, when I visit the place time again since I have to go back and forth on business trips from Hampton Roads to NoVA, just go on I-66 west or I-95 south for 40 miles and rural America is pretty much there as can be. I-66 is terribly crowded from Gainesville, VA to Washington D.C. that many residents I hear are planning to look at that part of the highway as I-666 ! Meanwhile, thanks to ILLEGAL labor infesting Prince William, Fairfax, and Loudon County as well as Arlington and Alexandria, lots of people are moving out to the Northwest quadrant of VA which includes Winchester, VA just to get cheaper housing even if their gas costs eat into their savings significantly.
Uh, people, don't look now but
Hillary MOTHERFUCKING Clinton Woos the Outsourcers that Workers Fear
Don't be surprised if Rudy Guliani or the eventual GOP nominee wins the right to further FUCK the country to DEATH !
max, the DC Democrats don't wanna travel even 10 miles from their home which might otherwise force them to fix the urban plight and traffic mess you've mentioned in the past let alone travel 40 miles from DC to the rural areas to take the time to figure out how to repair the poverty and insanity that exists at large.
The states are taking up Federal issues because both parties in D.C. are AWOL. The GOPers are led by a lunatic, the Democrats are spineless, corrupt twits who'd lose their ass if it wasn't attached to them.
As a result this has forced the states to make decisions on issues like immigration and defense and even foreign policy.
BTW this should worry people. Because it points to a collapse of the Federal gov't and you don't want that notion to spread to the investment markets for starters. The dollar and foreign confidence in it isn't very good at the moment. And the last thing you want to do is start a run on the dollar and have countries like China stop buying our worthless debt.
Why not? China is sitting there fueling our rising national debt, and making us a third world debtor nation.
What's is going to do? Trigger a Depression?
Most of us are already into a Depression, and the rich and greedy need a wake up call. If the Stock market crashes and a bunch of them jump out of their high rises or wherever, it's not a great loss.
Butte, you don't want a Depression not with todays America.
Thanks to both parties we've deindustrialized, we import almost all our clothes, consumer goods, food(especially meat) from Asia and South America, we're energy dependent in the worst possible way(being blackmailed by the Saudis). We have tens of millions on SSI, medicare, tens of millions of helpless people on welfare, a education system thats become a cancer that eats half of the state budgets.
With a country like that, once we go down we don't get back up. Especially if the dollar becomes worthless, which is a distinct possibility given the way we're deficit spending. Already the U.S. Comproller has declared the U.S. insolvent.
As for the rich, well they won't be harmed much. Most have way too much money to even notice a depression. Just take a drive to Telluride CO and take a gander at all the pimp and playaah houses up there. Those folks wouldn't notice depression at all.
Unless the people march up to their gated communities and burn the fuckers out, its party time with Paris as usual.
Sorry for being so gruff. It just breaks my heart to see how far our country has fallen.
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