"They [lobbyists] roam the halls of Congress like a pack of ravenous wolves, licking their chops and turning the Democratic process into a mockery, a sham where thieves rule and any hope of good government lies trampled in a mass of bloody, unrecognizable pulp.”--Doug Thompson, publisher of Capital Hill Blue [2]

In justifying the keeping in jail of wrongly convicted David Milgaard, Saskatchewan Prosecutor Serge Kujawa stated back in 1991 “The whole judicial system is at issue -- it's worth more than one person” [3] Now, this kind of thinking is wrong. Personally, I find natural the understanding that justice cannot be above the individual rights of innocent people, however, this natural understanding seems to be bypassed by the experts of Saskatchewan Justice.[4]

The judicial Milgaard inquiry is proceeding after 35 years since his wrongful conviction. I find it regrettable that the inquiry has been paying so much attention to the loony behaviour of young Milgaard at the time of the murder of nurse Gail Miller, while the critical sloppy investigative work of the Saskatoon police is not prioritized.[5]

By the way, the Saskatoon police is in the news recently as the hearings for the discreditable conduct of Saskatoon police deputy chief Dan Wiks begin.[6] The Saskatoon police service is again in the news as the U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights abuses cites the corrupt behavior of the Saskatoon police in connection with the death of aboriginal teenager Neil Stonechild.[7]

We live in a complex hypocritical world. We must realize that Bush's justice system is worse than Saskatchewan's. In fact, in Bush's America, in an effort to save taxpayers money, they outsource abroad justice and torture as they did for Canadian Maher Arar.[8] [9] This brings me to highlight that Bush's justice system is embedded with its military industrial complex where the revolving door between industry and government materializes with the revolving door of war for business and business for war,[10] and with Bush's advancement of his Ownership Society,[11] that is further privatization.

Bush's 2006 budget of 2.57 trillion dollars includes approximately 840 billion dollars for military-related outlays, a third of the total budget![12] Further privatization (M&A ie mergers and acquisitions) is undermining employee pension benefits in many corporations,[13] in many states, and we can only speculate of the disastrous consequences of the possible privatization of Social Security.

The social perils caused by the military industrial complex can be understood by analyzing the business operations of The Carlyle Group, an equity private investment firm associated with the Bush family and powerful politicians around the world.[14] The Carlyle Group returned $5.3 billion to investors last year,[15] the best year ever, and has averaged a return on investment of 34% per year for many years.[16] The California public employees retirement fund CALPERS owns 5.5% of Carlyle and therefore this fund is making money out of crony capitalism and war.[17] CALPERS' predicament is doubly disruptive since Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is contemplating legislation to begin breaking up CALPERS into private personalized accounts.[18] So, no matter what happens to CALPERS, the military industrial complex is here to stay as a winner either as it wages perpetual wars or as it advances privatization.

We live in a complex social system. We will have a sense of justice only when the individual rights of innocent people are going to be above the power of the system (State); but how can you cope against the corruptive power of money and the killing power of guns of the system (State )? Let us begin thinking for ourselves!

References

1. Sterman, John D. Business Dynamics: Systems Thinking and Modeling for a Complex World The Rule of the Game, page 380, Irwin McGraw-Hill, 2000 http://www.mhhe.com/business/opsci/sterman/

2. Thompson, Doug Plague of the fatcat lobbyists March 1, 2005 Capital Hill Blue http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_6323.shtml

3. deSantis, Mario Milgaard's $10 million compensation: covering up the personal assets of our policing Saskatchewan Government June 25, 1999 Ensign

4. Steele, Sheila in the unhappy event you are charged with an offence in Saskatchewan, handle your own defence! http://www.injusticebusters.com/index.htm/court%20advice.htm

5. Steele, Sheila 2005: Year of the David Milgaard Inquiry: 35 years in the making http://www.injusticebusters.com/05Milgaard/Milgaard4.shtml

6. CBC News Chief says deputy knew officers were suspects March 1, 2005 http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=sabo-wiks050301

7. U.S. Department of State Canada Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2004 February 28, 2005 http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41752.htm

8. Herbert, Bob It's Called Torture February 28, 2005 The New York Times http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2903

9. Mayer, Jane Outsourcing Torture: The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program Issue of 2005-02-14, The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?050214fa_fact6

10. Preston, Bruce How the Bush Administration steals from the US people (and the world) October 2004 http://www.e-book.com.au/got2.htm

11. Sklar, Holly Is this your ownership society? February 25, 2005 Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0225-28.htm

12. Higgs, Robert Bush’s New Defense Budget February 14, 2005 The Independent Institute http://independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1464

13. Petillo, Paul RESHAPING THE FUTURE OF OWNERSHIP March 2, 2005 American Reporter http://www.american-reporter.com/2,594/29.html

14. CARLYLEGROUP.NET http://www.carlylegroup.net/

15. Carlyle News Carlyle Issues Summary of 2004 Investment Activity: $5.3 Billion Returned to Investors; $2.7 Billion Invested; $7.8 Billion Raised February 14, 2005 http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/news/l5-news3018.html

16. Burkeman, Oliver and Julian Borger The Ex-Presidents' Club October 31, 2001 The Guardian, http://www.carlylegroup.net/theexpresidentsclub.htm

17. Lazarus, David CalPERS, Carlyle profit from Afghan war December 2, 2001 San Francisco Chronicles http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2001/12/02/BU172807.DTL

18. Chorney, Tom Schwarzenegger to Hold Special Election: Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to Hold Election on Cutting Spending, Overhauling Pensions March 1, 2005 ABC New http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=543059

Photo credit: Maher Arar picture by Jonathan Hayward of Reuters