Howard Dean Failed before Being in Office
http://www.ghandchi.com/256-Dean.htm
Howard Dean the Democratic Party forerunner showed today that he is out of touch with the state of high technology in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, although wanting to be seen as the candidate of the New Economy. He comes to California and speaks for voting against the recall of Gray Davis and says this is not because he supports Gray Davis but it is because he thinks recall is the attempt of big money against democracy.
Mr. Dean is wrong about the recall in California. The recall of Gray Davis is about frustration of the people with him for not defending the New Economy. Why is Gray Davis speaking against George Bush's economic policies only now and not before, when he is one month from being removed from office, to justify his failures in speaking for right economic plans and for not representing his constituency all these years. Why did he stay silent all these three years that California's Silicon Valley economy has been bleeding? Did he just notice Bush's economic policies are hurting the high tech?
Wasn't it Gray Davis's job to raise the issue of failing economic policies of Washington all these years, rather than trying to keep a nice agreeable face for all parties. He reminds me so much of President Khatami of Iran who tries to make all political factions of IRI (Islamic Republic of Iran) happy, but all he has for his constituency is smiles on camera to compensate for his miserable record of doing nothing for those who voted him to the office.
Although in my view, Bush Administration's support of democracy in the Middle East has been right, I am no defender of Bush Administration's economic strategies, and I have written on numerous occasions about the disaster their economic policies have caused for the Silicon Valley, US and world economy.
My issue with Howard Dean is that from the start he is using partisanship to decide to support someone like Gray Davis, and not using what is proper economics and politics in the 21st Century. Anyone with an interest in high tech should condemn Gray Davis for not speaking up for his constituency, if he had known all these years that Bush's economic strategy was wrong which he now says he had known all along.
And contrary to what Mr. Dean says, recall proves that US *is* a democracy where a governor can be recalled for his failure, just as Karl Popper noted that peaceful removal of Nixon from office was a proof of democracy.
What is at issue now is the correct policies to get the New Economy and high technologies back on their feet and I am glad Lieberman is discussing the right issues, and I hope these issues to come to the forefront of presidential election. High tech is what will determine the future of US and world economy and it is not just another sector of US economy.
Let me note that I agree with Dean about trying to get other countries to enforce the environmental, social and health standards. But as far as high tech's next move forward, the main problem for the growth of high tech is not about other countries grabbing a few remaining jobs from the Silicon Valley, by denying such high standards to their workers, which is true. The main issue is about *what* initiative the US government should take to revive the New Economy that has been bleeding. The New Economy is not like old smokestack industries to help keep afloat by preventing a few jobs going to Mexico.
The focus should now be on starting major New Economy infrastructure projects like fiber to every home inside the U.S. and to get all other countries to follow suit. Why doesn't Howard Dean speak about the fiber project? Because he has no knowledge of high tech and is out of touch with the reality of New Economy and high tech, and thinks old jargon of liberal democracy for dying smokestack industry is offering solutions for the evolving technologies of the future and can be considered as New Economy plans.
Fiber to every home is the project that can push the glacial change of post-industrial society and not the type of old smokestack industry solutions that basically have been attacking globalization all these years rather than having post-industrial plans to make global economy a success. High tech is not a dying industry to need such injections to keep going. It is a vigorous new way of life that has just started and the wrong economic policies of the last three years have hampered its growth.
If US starts the fiber to every home project and gets other countries to follow suit, it has created the right cooperation for solving problems and removing the obstacles in front of the New Economy and that is what is needed today.*
Recall of Gray Davis is not the challenge to democracy as Mr. Dean thinks, rather the failure of new economy is putting the future of democracy and progress at risk, not only in California and the US but worldwide and this is what presidential candidates who visit the Silicon Valley today can see with their own eyes.
Sam Ghandchi, Publisher/Editor
IRANSCOPE
http://www.iranscope.com
Sept 6, 2003
*As I have noted before, "I am not just proposing Broadband and patchworks like DSL or Cable modem using the current copper and coax cabling. To get copper or coax do a bit more is *not* creating what has already been postponed long enough to lay the *real fiber to every home* to qualitatively change communications and its possibilities".
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