Global
Larry Beinhart, author of "Wag the Dog" and "The Librarian," has done us a remarkable service with the publication of a new small nonfiction book titled "Fog Facts." He has given language to a new and critically important concept, that of the fact that is neither secret nor known. By "fog facts," Beinhart means to indicate pieces of information that have been published on back pages of business sections of newspapers or picked up by a columnist or two, information that has perhaps been circulated on the internet by those with a passionate interest in the issue and enough free time, information that is accepted as known and established by reporters, editors, producers, and pundits, but which the vast majority of the public has never heard about and would find incredibly important and shocking.
I half-suspected NPR to exhume Henry Kissinger (he is dead, isn't he?) the other day when they did a promo about a story on "Iraqization," but no, they spared us the sonorous tones of Doctor Strangelove, only to give us his pin-headed sidekick, former Nixon Defense Secretary, Melvin Laird.
Since it's clearly too much to expect National Pentagon Radio to invite an eminent historian like Howard Zinn or someone of similar ability onto our airwaves to explain the likely pitfalls of Bush's plan to hand over Iraq to our hand-picked Iraqis, it falls to the Itinerant Scribbler Corps to put Laird's interview into historic perspective.
"Eventually we have to get out as soon as our job is done." Laird began, omitting, of course, any mention of exactly what that job might consist of.finding WMD's; freeing Iraqis from despotic torture chambers; militarily securing a strategic, oil-rich region?
Since it's clearly too much to expect National Pentagon Radio to invite an eminent historian like Howard Zinn or someone of similar ability onto our airwaves to explain the likely pitfalls of Bush's plan to hand over Iraq to our hand-picked Iraqis, it falls to the Itinerant Scribbler Corps to put Laird's interview into historic perspective.
"Eventually we have to get out as soon as our job is done." Laird began, omitting, of course, any mention of exactly what that job might consist of.finding WMD's; freeing Iraqis from despotic torture chambers; militarily securing a strategic, oil-rich region?
I wish for you all as the New Year encroaches,
Bold and creative strategic approaches
To defeating the lies by election officials,
Whose major concern is filling their satchels
With bundles of goodies like payoffs and bribes,
And friendships with vendors who do not subscribe
To audits or paper or trivial matters
Like accurate results and similar blather,
But push for solutions to fill up their coffers
Like touchscreens and printers and other such offers
Of machines that lose votes and breakdown and fail;
Who sell us elections without paper trails.
And no one would listen for years upon years
To the small group of people expressing real fears
Of votes lost and stolen, of breakdowns and freezes,
of vulnerable systems with holes like Swiss cheeses.
But then in a twinkle in 2005
When scarcely a soul thought freedom alive,
Santa came through -- A surprise in his sack!
He brought in a Finn to conduct a bold hack.
He brought in his elves in the form of investors
To sue for their rights ‘gainst crooked divestors.
He brought a suprise, an election top honcho
Bold and creative strategic approaches
To defeating the lies by election officials,
Whose major concern is filling their satchels
With bundles of goodies like payoffs and bribes,
And friendships with vendors who do not subscribe
To audits or paper or trivial matters
Like accurate results and similar blather,
But push for solutions to fill up their coffers
Like touchscreens and printers and other such offers
Of machines that lose votes and breakdown and fail;
Who sell us elections without paper trails.
And no one would listen for years upon years
To the small group of people expressing real fears
Of votes lost and stolen, of breakdowns and freezes,
of vulnerable systems with holes like Swiss cheeses.
But then in a twinkle in 2005
When scarcely a soul thought freedom alive,
Santa came through -- A surprise in his sack!
He brought in a Finn to conduct a bold hack.
He brought in his elves in the form of investors
To sue for their rights ‘gainst crooked divestors.
He brought a suprise, an election top honcho
THOUGHT YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING THAT IN CLAY COUNTY FLORIDA, GREEN COVE SPRINGS, FLORIDA ,AFTER A RESIDENT HAD THEIR WATER TESTED AND IT BEGAN AN INVESTIGATION INTO ILLEGAL DUMPING IN SEVERAL OF THE LANDFILLS IN CLAY COUNTY. FOUND IN THE FILL WAS VOTING BALLOTS OF THE 2004 ELECTIONS. WHAT DID THEY DO WITH THE DUMPED BALLOTS?? GAVE THEM BACK TO THE VOTER REGISTERATION DEPT OF THE COUNTY SO THEY COULD DESTROY THEM.
AND WE WONDER WHY BUSH WON.
AND WE WONDER WHY BUSH WON.
Sometime around 1850 my great-grandmother’s second cousin, James Lord Pierpont, wrote a song that for more than a century has been sung the most often in celebration of Christmas, especially by children. The song is “Jingle Bells.” A quick glance at its lyrics, however, reveals that Pierpont never once mentioned Christmas.
“Jingle Bells” merely describes a winter scene and people frolicking in the snow, possibly on Washington’s Birthday (no, make that Presidents Day).
Dear Elections Assistance Commission
Today I write to express my disappointment with the non-responsiveness of the commission to the needs of the voters. You do well when it comes to the needs of the voting machine vendors, it seems, but the voters are being ignored.
You say that "the Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource for information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of Federal elections". I'm sorry to say that you fail as both a national clearinghouse and as a resource for information.
Today I write to express my disappointment with the non-responsiveness of the commission to the needs of the voters. You do well when it comes to the needs of the voting machine vendors, it seems, but the voters are being ignored.
You say that "the Commission serves as a national clearinghouse and resource for information and review of procedures with respect to the administration of Federal elections". I'm sorry to say that you fail as both a national clearinghouse and as a resource for information.
The illegal wiretaps authorized by the Bush Administration unnecessarily undermined American security by not following the legal requirements of court approval. The special law regulating national security wiretaps of potential foreign intelligence agents (and other potential enemies) permits wiretaps authorized by a special, highly secret court even after the wiretaps are in place.
The law gives the Executive Branch amazingly extensive powers and flexibility concerning national security wiretaps. There was simply no reasonable excuse for the Bush Administration for not following the lax guidelines established by this law. Not following the legal guidelines severely undermined the entire wiretapping operation by the National Security Agency. The Bush Administration demonstrated severe incompetence in the national security field with their obvious contempt for American law.
The law gives the Executive Branch amazingly extensive powers and flexibility concerning national security wiretaps. There was simply no reasonable excuse for the Bush Administration for not following the lax guidelines established by this law. Not following the legal guidelines severely undermined the entire wiretapping operation by the National Security Agency. The Bush Administration demonstrated severe incompetence in the national security field with their obvious contempt for American law.
Members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, led by ranking minority member John Conyers (D-MI) have now released their full 273-page report, The Constitution in Crisis, said to be more than six months in the making, on the Administration's use/abuse of pre-war intel, torture policies and much more.
Along with the report, Conyers has introduced three resolutions in the House which call for the Censure of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for failure to provide oversight materials to Congress and for "misstatements" in their lead-up to war. One of the resolutions also calls for the creation of a new "Select Committee" -- with subpeona power -- to discover whether there are grounds for Impeachment of both Bush and Cheney. This committee has been described to us by a Judiciary Committee staffer as "similar to the Ervin Committee on Presidential Campaign Acitivites that kicked off Watergate, to conduct further investigation of the matters described in the report." The committee would then refer evidence constituting impeachable offenses to the House Judiciary Committee.
Along with the report, Conyers has introduced three resolutions in the House which call for the Censure of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for failure to provide oversight materials to Congress and for "misstatements" in their lead-up to war. One of the resolutions also calls for the creation of a new "Select Committee" -- with subpeona power -- to discover whether there are grounds for Impeachment of both Bush and Cheney. This committee has been described to us by a Judiciary Committee staffer as "similar to the Ervin Committee on Presidential Campaign Acitivites that kicked off Watergate, to conduct further investigation of the matters described in the report." The committee would then refer evidence constituting impeachable offenses to the House Judiciary Committee.