Argentina Unveils Bill for Reform

Source: Wall Street Journal (wild spin job)

OCTOBER 29, 2009.
Argentina Unveils Bill for Reform
By MATTHEW COWLEY and TAOS TURNER

BUENOS AIRES -- Argentine President Cristina Kirchner unveiled a contentious bill to reform the political system, the latest in a monumental effort to push through legislation before the ruling party loses its congressional majority in December.

The bill would force all political parties to hold open primaries and would ban private campaign financing. It would also require political parties to have a minimum number of members, which would likely reduce the number of parties in the country.

"Today we're sending a bill to Congress to profoundly change the system of political parties in Argentina," Mrs. Kirchner said in a televised speech. "This will promote transparency and guarantee equality for all parties."

While supporters said the legislation would modernize the political system, critics said the government is simply rewriting the rules to tighten its grip on power ahead of a 2011 presidential election.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125678488331115093.html

---

http://www.vincentchow.net.nyud.net:8090/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/dizzy_girl.jpg

Im jealous.

I've been saying this for years. Why do you have to have a million dollars in hand, to even think about running for Congress? This is WRONG. It is anti-democratic. And it desperately needs to be changed. Among the Constitutional amendments that I would like to see is a complete ban on private money in all political campaigns, and commitment of a percentage of the federal budget to finance candidate access to the voters. It is time. Believe me. It is time. (But we first have to get rid of the private 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines!)

"...rewriting the rules to tighten its grip on power ahead of a 2011 presidential election." Why aren't our Democrats doing this? Getting rid of the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines? At least limiting the campaign filth? And working on other desperately needed election reforms, as well as on Constitutional amendments to ban "corporate personhood," to ban corporate 'news' monopolies, and to mandate funding of public access to our public airwaves?

We would have no trouble passing single payer health care, and numerous other beneficial programs and reforms, if our political system were democratic. It absolutely is not. It is well on its way to being just plain fascism (rule by the rich and the corporate, and their war profiteers). Elections are extremely manipulated. The spectrum of political opinion, and the field of issues, permitted on our public airwaves are extremely manipulated and narrowed. War profiteer power is over the top. They are running things--manufacturing wars of every kind (the "war on drugs," the "war on terror," the war on millions of innocent civilians in two countries). We the People HAVE NO SAY. That is very, very, very clear. And the collusion of most of our party's leadership in all this is also clear.

On the 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines issue alone, it is all too clear that our party leadership (for the most part) is also anti-democratic. And it isn't just that vote counting has been privatized--that's bad enough--it's worse: Voting systems in the U.S. are now monopolized by ONE very rightwing-connected corporation (ES&S, which just bought out Diebold), and run on 'TRADE SECRET' code (code that the public is not permitted to review) with virtually no audit/recount controls!

How can this be tolerated by the Democratic Party leadership? You tell me.

----------------------

Cheers to Cristina Fernandez, who is fighting a mighty battle against fascist propaganda and CIA plots out of Miami, in Argentina! The bad guys in cahoots with corpo-fascists here are out of get her. She has been a solid leftist in regional battles for democracy, economic/political integration and independence from the U.S. The rich landowners and corporate interests want to loot Argentina again--and see the Bushwhack-instigated worldwide depression as their opportunity. I hope that she and the left are able to push through these democratic reforms, so that Argentina can never again be turned into the "basketcase" it was, at the hands of the World Bank/IMF.