----------------Original Message Posted in Multiple Lists----------------- ------------------------Republication Authorized-------------------------- READ THIS ISSUE OF FINS TO CONSIDER: * The Long Chain of Deceit by America's Leaders * Inviting Ourselves To Participate in Government ========================================================================= FINS: Communicating the Emerging Philosophy of The Information Age FEDERAL INFORMATION NEWS SYNDICATE VOL I, ISSUE NO. 23 (116 lines) EMBARGOED UNTIL NOVEMBER 29, 1993 CLOSING THE "VALUES-GAP": Sustaining Confidence In Government By Vigdor Schreibman The New York Herald Tribune called it a "credibility-gap" in 1965, when President Lindon Johnson was driven from office by a chain of lies about the costs of the Vietnam War, which Johnson attempted to conduct at the same time he was building the Great Society. Then we had Watergate and the failed Nixon Presidency, followed by Jimmy Carter, an honorable man whose short lived Presidency was afflicted by the Arab oil embargo and the Iranian hostage crisis, themselves, spawned by an earlier generation of liars. Two decades after Johnson, came David Stockman's memoir, "The Triumph of Politics" (1986). Stockman recounted how he had promised a tax- cutting budget that would unleash the forces of production and, miraculously increase federal revenues, showing a twenty-eight billion dollar budget surplus by 1986. And with those calculations--making "voodoo economics" real--the revenue base of the United States was dramatically reduced, which is our country's fiscal nightmare come true. The scheme was sardonically referred to in the White House as the "Rosy Scenario." Back in 1980, when the "Rosy Scenario" was contrived, David Gergen was in charge of Ronald Reagan's, "First Ninety Days Project." Gergen introduced David Stockman to the B-grade Hollywood actor who became President of the United States. Together they stuck it to the country guided by the "supply side" cabal and their despicable politics of rich and poor, floated on soaring public debt. As we move to close the 20th Century, only the story boards have changed. David Gergen is Counsellor to the President, in the Clinton-Gore Administration. Now we have Al Gore's wondrous metaphors, the "information superhighways," and "reinventing Government." They were packaged with the firmament of Jeffersonian Democracy, as an "Agenda For Action" that can solve all our economic and social problems and "help unleash an information revolution that will change forever the way people live, work, and interact with each other." Call it the "Rosy Scenario," take 2. Examine, for instance, plans for public information, the information infrastructure, and the telecommunications infrastructure. According to the script written by Al Gore's National Public Review staff (not released to the public), public information owned by the American people will be converted (with great craft) into a lucrative commodity to be exploited both by public and private organizations. The information infrastructure, and the telecommunications infrastructure are being transformed to serve the narrow goals of a small group of monopolists and oligopolists, who are ready to turn cyberspace into a new global "wasteland" governed by the ethic of profit maximization. The detailed scenario for these innovations, titled "The NTIA Infrastructure Report" (1991), was written by the same "supply side" cabal at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. It is now being implemented with the concerted efforts of the Clinton-Gore team within the three branches of the Federal Government. Then there is the North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA), which Clinton introduced just the other day, a corollary to "reinventing government." The bill was driven by the fact that most American manufacturers are stuck in an incompetent command-and-control mode of business management. They are going broke in the global marketplace, and instead of correcting their arbitrary and inefficient management styles they would rather exploit impoverished third world labor forces as a way of continuing in business. NAFTA was largely rejected by the American people who understandably don't want their jobs sucked out of the country by Mexico's child labor, peon wages, union-busting, and friendly fascist government. Afraid to leave the decision to a clean ballot, Mr. Clinton resorted to "open government vote- buying and bone-breaking," offering "billions to buy Congressional votes and a fist in the face of American labor," as described by A.M Rosenthal, in The New York Times, Nov. 19th. Middle-class Americans are boiling over with frustration and anger at the pattern of deception that has defined this Nation's leadership during much of the last three decades. The machinations of the Clinton-Gore Presidency, and the turmoil that follows, will likely mark its collapse. The Presidential campaign for 1996 has already begun, with independent billionaire Ross Perot positioned as labor's savior. Making similar utterances, financier Felix Rohatyn, who helped rescue New York City from bankruptcy in 1975, suggests that when private institutions can't create adequate employment opportunities, it is the government's responsibility to solve the employment problem. In a lecture to be given next tuesday Nov. 30, at the Kennedy School of Government in Cambridge Massachusetts, he will argue that unless governments assume that responsibility, they may face "revolutions or fascism." The need for governance that can sustain our confidence is vital. Nevertheless, competent representative Government is not self executing. Moreover, those who wield power are not expected to invite our meaningful participation in the process of decision making that affects our lives. We should invite ourselves! We can do this first, by defining the existing realities, and alternative possibilities for a shared vision of the future of the "Information Age"; and secondly, by informing the citizenry and collectively choosing the preferred alternative. The Internet and all its civic institutions can provide a supportive milieu for encouragement and facilitation of this work. Who will follow FINS, in search of that vision? ---------- Federal Information News Syndicate, Vigdor Schreibman, Editor & Publisher, 18 - 9th Street NE #206, Washington, DC 20002-6042. Copyright 1993 FINS. Back issues of FINS may be retrieved by UCSF Gopher. Send for information. E-mail fins@access.digex.net. Membership rate: (omit from release to Internet).