The lengthy and heated budget storm in Washington is zig-zagging toward a compromise that will in the end not have much of an effect on reducing the federal government’s deficits or national debt. Any foreseeable compromise will also not rule out future budget stalemates (e.g. on raising the debt ceiling). Any compromise in the works will additionally not reduce unemployment and underemployment, not reign in rising health costs, and not ameliorate the crisis. The list of important neglected issues does not end there. The compromises being considered would not lower the poverty rate, food insecurity, or other unmet needs associated with low incomes (i.e., 200% of the poverty line and below).

More than a year ago, a reporter named Craig Unger asked me a brilliant question about the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. Referring to reports that the counting of votes was rerouted through SMARTech computers in Chattanooga, Tennessee, at precisely 11:14 PM EST, and the possibility that the vote count was altered thereby, he asked me about the forensic evidence we had photographed or otherwise uncovered in eighteen counties in Ohio. He asked me to look at the timeline. Did the counties in which we found evidence of fraud report their results before 11:14 PM, or after? And, if after, was the evidence consistent with an after-the-fact effort to get the election records to match an altered vote count?

Guest of Honor: Booker T. Washington, Theodore Roosevelt, and the White House Dinner That Shocked a Nation
Deborah Davis
Atria Books
No doubt the vast majority of Americans did not realize that October 16 was the one hundred and eleventh anniversary of the day that Booker T. Washington, a former slave, dined at the White House at the invitation of President Theodore Roosevelt. When I relayed this information to my students, they did not get the significance of the invitation or the dinner. After all, I had taught them that black people built the White House, and it is currently occupied by a black family. What was the big deal about a dinner?

I’ve been meaning to share this for a very long time, and while it seems like I've continually let life get in the way, it probably has more to do with the reluctance of reliving this time in my life. But in holding onto this for so long, I feel it is causing many beloved companion animals to have their last moments on earth in a state of fear and anxiety, unnecessarily, when those final moments could be spent in safety and peace. So, in remembrance to my beloved Bear, who I lost this time 8 years ago, and in service to those presently nearing their last moments with their beloved companions, I’m finally sharing my story.

When I found Bear, I was newly married and not even looking for a dog. In fact, I had set out to the AFB base animal shelter merely in support of my mom, as she sought after a cat. While she was in the cattery, for some reason I was compelled to walk the cages and see the dogs at the shelter. As I was visiting with the inhabitants, they were all enthusiastically greeting me at their kennel gates, with what I would describe as their best efforts at selling themselves for liberation from this place; all but one.

History is filled with examples of brave individuals who have broken the law to serve the greater good of humanity. In other words, whistleblowers expose crimes, even if they break a law in the process, and like a jaywalker who crosses street to stop a murder- they should be given medal for their heroism and pardoned the jaywalking ticket. Bradley Manning, who is alleged to have shared information with WikiLeaks that exposed spying, corruption, war crimes, among other tools of repression used by the global elite – is a shining example of one such individual who deserves to a ticker tape parade befitting a hero, not the over 900 odd days of imprisonment and torture that have lead up to his current hearing at Fort Meade.




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