Duty to Warn
Perhaps, after all these years, Edmund Burke may have got it wrong: All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is not, as the wise Englishman once opined, for good men to do nothing. Sometimes men blunder into evil by the sheer force of their own cowardice. Evil was done in Massachusetts this week, and it was as unnecessary as it was pointless. >From the first, we need to tease apart the lie that the state legislature "made room" for civil unions; or worse, that they were trying to avoid "promoting gay marriage."
Richard Clarke in "Against All Enemies" paints a picture of wrong-headed leadership making bad judgment calls. Given the Bush objectives, however, this can all be seen as good judgment, casting an entirely different light on 9/11: It worked, didn't it? If the 9/11 Commission is to get to the heart of the matter, it cannot ignore this aspect.
Condoleezza Rice protests vigorously that the Bush team was doing everything it could to attack Al Qaeda, and it is within this arena that Clarke's criticism is contained. This is a debate about covering the dump to halt a plague of rats. The homeowner 9/11 survivors are all for that, but they want to know how the rats got into their house to kill the baby, and no one wants to talk about that. They put up a clamor and a study commission is created to find out. The question still hangs: How did the rats get in?
Condoleezza Rice protests vigorously that the Bush team was doing everything it could to attack Al Qaeda, and it is within this arena that Clarke's criticism is contained. This is a debate about covering the dump to halt a plague of rats. The homeowner 9/11 survivors are all for that, but they want to know how the rats got into their house to kill the baby, and no one wants to talk about that. They put up a clamor and a study commission is created to find out. The question still hangs: How did the rats get in?
America owes a debt to society, and what a debt.
December 31, 2003 the United States National Debt reached the $7 trillion mark.
President Bush didn’t mention it in his State of the Union speech and the Democrats didn’t bring it up in their response. But the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt keeps a running tab and lately it’s running like hell.
$7 trillion was hit just 22 months after the debt passed $6 trillion February 26, 2002. It was the first time in U.S. history that trillion dollar milestones were crossed in back-to-back calendar years.
By comparison, the trail of arrears from $5 trillion on February 26, 1996 to $6 trillion took six years.
But what does it mean? To a public confounded by conflicting facts and competing philosophies, what’s a trillion or two either way?
The answer is interesting.
While the debt itself is a 13-digit string beyond the math of mere mortals, the interest on the debt is quite another story. Like the finance charge on your credit card, it’s the right-off-the-top part of the bill before the principal is touched.
December 31, 2003 the United States National Debt reached the $7 trillion mark.
President Bush didn’t mention it in his State of the Union speech and the Democrats didn’t bring it up in their response. But the U.S. Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt keeps a running tab and lately it’s running like hell.
$7 trillion was hit just 22 months after the debt passed $6 trillion February 26, 2002. It was the first time in U.S. history that trillion dollar milestones were crossed in back-to-back calendar years.
By comparison, the trail of arrears from $5 trillion on February 26, 1996 to $6 trillion took six years.
But what does it mean? To a public confounded by conflicting facts and competing philosophies, what’s a trillion or two either way?
The answer is interesting.
While the debt itself is a 13-digit string beyond the math of mere mortals, the interest on the debt is quite another story. Like the finance charge on your credit card, it’s the right-off-the-top part of the bill before the principal is touched.
Bush is privatizing America. Most
Americans, and their elected
representatives in government believe that the free market system provides superior results in education through competition, supports the best doctors and health care in the world, and the most effective military machine on Earth. However, an analysis of the current system reveals serious flaws. Not only does the privatization of public institutions threaten the quality and accessibility of service, it allows a government to skirt responsibility, evade public scrutiny and control, and increases campaign contributions from companies benefiting from government contracts.
The current presidential occupant’s faith in the private sector surpasses many of his predecessors’. It is critical that the citizenry understand the danger of unyielding faith in the effectiveness of private, for-profit companies due to its destructive and anti-democratic nature.
The current presidential occupant’s faith in the private sector surpasses many of his predecessors’. It is critical that the citizenry understand the danger of unyielding faith in the effectiveness of private, for-profit companies due to its destructive and anti-democratic nature.
If "Building Seven" says nothing to you, you have lots of company. On 9/11 it caught fire and fell to the ground, all 47 stories. Yet today, two and a half years later, no one knows why--that is, unless they are privy to some inside knowledge. When World Trade Center Tower One (WTC 1) collapsed so inconceivably at 10:28 a.m., WTC 7, to its north, began sprouting fires that could be seen through windows, here and there. Seven hours later it was a heap of smoking debris that looked exactly like a demolition by use of explosives, a pile of rubble within its own footprint.
House Republicans bend rules, press for votes during wee hours to escape
the light of accountability.
Never before has the House of Representatives operated in such secrecy:
At 2:54 a.m. on a Friday in March, the House cut veterans benefits by three votes.
At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April, the House slashed education and health care by five votes.
At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed the Leave No Millionaire Behind tax-cut bill by a handful of votes.
At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare privatization and prescription drug bill by one vote.
At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July, the House eviscerated Head Start by one vote.
And then, after returning from summer recess, at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq.
Always in the middle of the night. Always after the press had passed their deadlines. Always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed.
Never before has the House of Representatives operated in such secrecy:
At 2:54 a.m. on a Friday in March, the House cut veterans benefits by three votes.
At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April, the House slashed education and health care by five votes.
At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed the Leave No Millionaire Behind tax-cut bill by a handful of votes.
At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare privatization and prescription drug bill by one vote.
At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July, the House eviscerated Head Start by one vote.
And then, after returning from summer recess, at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq.
Always in the middle of the night. Always after the press had passed their deadlines. Always after the American people had turned off the news and gone to bed.
An internal memo has just surfaced suggesting e-vote manufacturer Diebold planned to overcharge the state of Maryland and make voter printouts “prohibitively expensive.” An employee named “Ken” wrote the Jan. 3 letter suggesting the company charge Maryland “out the yin” if legislators insisted on printouts.
Referring to a University of Maryland study critical of the company’s machines, he added: “[The State of Maryland] already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let’s just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts.”
He goes on to say “...any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive.”
Diebold, whose primary business has until recently been ATMs and ticket-vending machines (all of which produce paper printouts), made headlines last week when it dropped copyright-infringement suits against Swarthmore students who had published thousands of its internal memos on the Internet.
Referring to a University of Maryland study critical of the company’s machines, he added: “[The State of Maryland] already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let’s just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts.”
He goes on to say “...any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive.”
Diebold, whose primary business has until recently been ATMs and ticket-vending machines (all of which produce paper printouts), made headlines last week when it dropped copyright-infringement suits against Swarthmore students who had published thousands of its internal memos on the Internet.
Recently, the U.S. government officially acknowledged the presence of a lame cow slaughtered in Washington State that had the degenerative disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). This disease is caused by the prion, a recently understood biological concept, and represents a new threat to public health. The beef industry is guilty of distributing and actually speeding the evolution of this disease due to their grossly inhumane feeding and slaughtering practices. The majority of people are complicit in this crime because they pay to run the factory farms, slaughterhouses and rendering plants that dominate cattle farming today regardless of their inhumane nature.
I'm two states removed from California, and I don't know who I'd have supported in San Francisco's recent runoff election for mayor. But I know this: democracy lost.
Gavin Newsom won by a 53% to 47% margin, while his $3.8 million budget dwarfed that of his opponent, Matt Gonzalez, by a 10 to 1 margin. Gonzalez won about nine times as many votes per dollar spent and even Newsom's supporters would be hard-pressed to deny that money made the difference.
Though the race officially was non-partisan, Newsom is a Democrat and Gonzalez is Green. Democratic celebrities Bill Clinton and Al Gore stumped for Newsom, and the party brought in resources that overwhelmed Gonzalez' volunteer-driven campaign. Ironically, Gonzalez won support from the majority of Democratic voters, while Newsom was the clear favorite of Republicans (and was endorsed by the Republican party previously).
Gavin Newsom won by a 53% to 47% margin, while his $3.8 million budget dwarfed that of his opponent, Matt Gonzalez, by a 10 to 1 margin. Gonzalez won about nine times as many votes per dollar spent and even Newsom's supporters would be hard-pressed to deny that money made the difference.
Though the race officially was non-partisan, Newsom is a Democrat and Gonzalez is Green. Democratic celebrities Bill Clinton and Al Gore stumped for Newsom, and the party brought in resources that overwhelmed Gonzalez' volunteer-driven campaign. Ironically, Gonzalez won support from the majority of Democratic voters, while Newsom was the clear favorite of Republicans (and was endorsed by the Republican party previously).
ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, December 12th — An internal memo has just surfaced suggesting e-vote manufacturer Diebold planned to overcharge the state of Maryland and make voter printouts "prohibitively expensive".
An employee named "Ken" wrote the Jan. 3 letter suggesting the company charge Maryland "out the yin" if legislators insisted on printouts.
Referring to a University of Maryland study critical of the company's machines, he added: "[The State of Maryland] already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts."
He goes on to say "...any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive."
Delegate Karen S. Montgomery dropped the bombshell on Thursday amid negotiations with Diebold over its touchscreen voting machines.
An employee named "Ken" wrote the Jan. 3 letter suggesting the company charge Maryland "out the yin" if legislators insisted on printouts.
Referring to a University of Maryland study critical of the company's machines, he added: "[The State of Maryland] already bought the system. At this point they are just closing the barn door. Let's just hope that as a company we are smart enough to charge out the yin if they try to change the rules now and legislate voter receipts."
He goes on to say "...any after-sale changes should be prohibitively expensive."
Delegate Karen S. Montgomery dropped the bombshell on Thursday amid negotiations with Diebold over its touchscreen voting machines.