The ‘Separation of Powers’ Poppycock

Much is made of the separation of powers of the executive, justice and legislative branches of the government of United States, and its wonderful ‘checks and balances’. I have come to the realization that this is pure poppycock! In reality, the office of the President (Executive Branch) controls everything in this country. Take the Justice Branch for instance. The President appoints all the judges, including the justices of the Supreme Court. The President can nominate anyone as Supreme Court justice however limited ones legal background may be (remember Harriet Miers?). Is it any wonder that a Supreme Court stacked with justices appointed by Republican Presidents, intervened in the 2000 Presidential Election, and declared the Republican candidate George Bush the winner? On taking over the office, the President appoints a brand new team of U.S. Attorneys responsible for prosecuting the violators of the law in the country. As we recently found out, the President can also fire the US Attorneys if they do not prosecute their cases well (wink, wink). I do not know how anyone can claim that we have an independent judicial system in USA.

Of course, the Legislative Branch is expected to keep a close watch, and prevent any misuse of power by the Executive Branch. Is this really happening? The Republican dominated Congress under President Bush, rubber-stamped almost everything he wanted. Things are not different with the newly elected Congress with Democrats in control. Everyone is focused on getting re-elected which means not doing anything too controversial against the President. Despite of all the saber rattling about stopping the Iraq war, the Democrats meekly authorized the funding of the war as they did not want to be blamed for any aftermath of troop withdrawal. The biggest weapon the Congress has is its subpoena power, which allows them to call anyone to testify under oath. The only problem is that it is the Dept. of Justice, under the President, who can punish one for refusing to testify. In short, you can thumb your nose at the Congress subpoena if the President is on your side. Congress now wants to file charges of perjury against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. This means Dept. of Justice has to prosecute their own boss! How likely is that? What type of ‘check and balance’ is this?

Even the elections in this country cannot be trusted as they are supervised by people with clear political affiliations. Secretary Kathleen Harris who was in charge of the 2000 Florida election, was also the Chairperson of the Bush Campaign. She prematurely announcing Bush as the winner, is a sight I will never forget!

Anyone who claims that United States is one of the ideal democracies in the world, does not know what he is talking about.

The ageless politicians in India

In India, they just elected a 72 year old lady as their new President. She defeated an 84-year-old opposition candidate for a six-year term in the office! The longevity of politicians in India is truly remarkable Most of the Prime Ministers and Chief Ministers in that country hit their peak in their seventies! I wonder what is the secret for this phenomenon. It could be that in India, people consider older people to be wise and more cautious than the young. So age may never become an issue for a political office, unless the candidate is obviously senile. Also, I suspect that the older politicians in India are in better shape, as many have followed the austere eating habits of Mahatma Gandhi, and are used to walking a lot in grueling campaigns in their early years. Of course, the younger generation of politicians in India is different. They are used to the finer things in life. Most are overweight and out of shape, well on their way for a heart attack or stroke before reaching seventy!

My gut feel

Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff says that he has a ‘gut feeling’ that al-Qaida may strike USA this summer. He does not have a single evidence to validate this fear.. just a hunch based on the previous pattern of terrorist attacks in summer time (al-Qaida hates cold weather?). Is this what we should expect from the top guy of our national security which spends billions of dollars to detect and stop terrorist plans around the world? A gut feeling? Well, my gut feel is that Chertoff and his team are clueless, and he is doing a classic CYA in case something bad occurs in the coming months (‘I told you so!’). So far the biggest achievements of Homeland Security have been to trap some dumb guys in Miami who were hoping to get some money by joining al-Qaida, and a homeless guy in New York who wanted to blow up the gas lines to the JFK airport! (Of course, I am ignoring their timely security alerts to suit the political goals of the Bush administration)

The myth of 07/07/07

Today is 07/07/07, considered to be a lucky and auspicious day. It also happens to be my birthday. I hate to break this to the long line of people getting married or engaged today, expecting a ‘charmed’ life afterwards. There is nothing lucky about this day! It is like any other day. You can start something good on this day. But the rest of it is what you make out of it. I was lucky to be born to loving and well-to-do parents. But when I look at any of the ‘good things’ which have happened to me since, I find that there was hard work and careful planning behind it. I cannot think of a single event where pure ‘luck’ made my life better. In fact, any time I took a chance (by not doing the necessary effort or research required for the action), I have been ‘screwed royally’, as Americans will put it. At this stage of my life, I am thankful for many things in my life -- a loving family, good health, so on. But I do not think being born on ‘07/07’ has anything to do with it.