Today's must see TV. Chalmers Johnson on Democracy Now!

Long interview by Amy Goodman.

like to read the words of anyone who can logically dispute what he describes - what has happened to us and what is happening.

One little tidbit - Laura Bush's story about there being only one bombing a day and how it gets all the attention. I think he said there are about 178 a day - did anyone catch that number?

K & R - catch it on radio, satellite, straaming, website transcript (when available).

I'm going to TIVO it for my wife.

Free Speech TV is the only reason I keep Dish Network.

From Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalmers_Johnson

From SF Chronicle:

HUBRIS OF EMPIRE
Chalmers Johnson argues that we are destroying the republic in favor of an imperial presidency
Reviewed by Troy Jollimore

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Nemesis

The Last Days of the American Republic

By Chalmers Johnson

Nemesis, as Chalmers Johnson reminds us, is the Greek goddess "of divine justice and vengeance," a deity who "punishes human transgression of the natural, right order of things and the arrogance that causes it." Invoked in the final lines of his previous book, Nemesis could be considered the presiding spirit over the three volumes ("Blowback" in 2000, "The Sorrows of Empire" in 2004, and now "Nemesis") he has come to refer to as the "Blowback" trilogy.
As in the previous books of the trilogy, Johnson, the president of the Japan Policy Research Institute and a former CIA consultant, continues to insist that we view the tragic events and ominous trends of recent U.S. history -- the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the quagmire in Iraq, the increasingly perilous financial state of the union, various governmental abuses of power -- not as random, isolated or unpredictable happenings, but as the near-inevitable outcomes of decades of American imperialistic misbehavior -- outcomes that may prove to be merely the harbingers of still greater woes:

"I believe that to maintain our empire abroad requires resources and commitments that will inevitably undercut our domestic democracy and in the end produce a military dictatorship or its civilian equivalent. The founders of our nation understood this well and tried to create a form of government -- a republic -- that would prevent this from occurring. But the combination of huge standing armies, almost continuous wars, military Keynesianism, and ruinous military expenses have destroyed our republican structure in favor of an imperial presidency. We are on the cusp of losing our democracy for the sake of keeping our empire. Once a nation is started down that path, the dynamics that apply to all empires come into play -- isolation, overstretch, the uniting of forces opposed to imperialism, and bankruptcy. Nemesis stalks our life as a free nation."

This passage, and there are many like it, may suggest that Johnson regards the country's doom as unavoidable. Other comments, however, remind us that Johnson intends the book as a call to arms. "I remain hopeful," he writes at the end of his prologue, "that Americans can still rouse themselves to save our democracy." It is a hope that the reader who makes it all the way through "Nemesis" may struggle to share. The litany of governmental misdeeds, ill-considered policies and ethical failures that makes up the bulk of the book may have a paralyzing effect on many readers, particularly given Johnson's frequent reminders as to how many of our government's most destructive activities lie beyond congressional oversight and are invisible to public scrutiny. (As he makes clear, not only do we not know what the CIA does, we don't even know how much money it spends doing it.)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/11/RVGE3NS1FL1.DTL&type=books

For those who've been busy and have missed hearing about his new book.