News of the Month

July 12, 2003

Let’s start by tying up some loose ends on stories we reported earlier. Do you remember those two Air Force pilots who, numbed by the amphetamines the Air Force required them to take before a bombing mission in Afghanistan, accidentally bombed a group of Canadian troops? Well, last month, the Air Force dropped all charges against them. They’re still being punished; one is being “allowed” to retire, and the other is facing what the Uniform Code of Military Justice calls “non-judicial punishment” – confinement to quarters, loss of pay, etc. I guess the Air Force didn’t want to take it all the way to trial, where their policy of requiring their pilots to take amphetamines before long missions might become too public.

And here’s another follow-up. Do you remember, a few months ago, we discussed the so-called “Patriot II” act that had been secretly distributed to certain “in” members of Congress in February, but was also leaked to the Center for Public Integrity? Well, despite the denials by the Republicanazi hierarchy, it’s real, and it’s been introduced into Congress. In the Senate, it’s called S.22, “The Justice Enhancement and Domestic Security Act of 2003”; you can find it on the web at http://thomas.loc.gov, the Library of Congress (“loc”) legislative database site; enter “S.22” in the “Bill Number” field and you’ll find it.

So what is Patriot Act II all about? Simply, it’s all about taking away even more of our liberties in the name of a vastly overrated threat. In the words of the Boulder Daily Camera, it would “help transform the government into the big brother you never had.” The article continues:

“…the bill would prohibit the release of names of those being detained on suspicion of some form of terrorism. (It) would create a new and wholly unnecessary exemption to the federal Freedom of Information Act, which already allows the suppression of documents that might compromise national security. It would leave the government less accountable and, therefore, more prone to abuse.

“…(it) would enable the feds to collect DNA samples from people who are merely suspected – but not convicted – of being associated with terrorist groups. (It) would allow the government to see citizens’ credit reports without getting a court order. And it would nullify a broad range of court-ordered restrictions on police spying. Further, the bill would allow people in official positions to be imprisoned for revealing the existence of an anti-terrorism investigation. And it would enable the government to deport citizens who have joined or helped organizations the government has deemed terrorist.”

Next, some continuing news – the Republicanazis are still working to re-draw Texas’ US House districts, to give themselves even more power. Tom Delay’s first cut at a redistricting map has been modified, mainly to placate Austinites. Delay seems – emphasize seems – to have accepted that Austin’s people deserve their own representative in Congress. Why “seems?” The current thinking is that the House and Senate are already producing two different maps, which will force the issue into a conference committee. There the Repugs will introduce their original map (or one pretty close to it) and zip it through before anyone can see the game of Three-Card Monte being played right before their eyes. In business that’s called “bait and switch;” in politics it’s called Republicanism.

And, speaking of Tom DeLay, here’s an excerpt from an article in the New York Times on July 2. The article itself is chilling, but pay special attention to Mr. DeLay’s words in the quote from him at the end:

“In (his article) Welcome to the Machine, Nicholas Confessore draws together stories usually reported in isolation – from the drive to privatize Medicare, to the pro-tax-cut fliers General Motors Corp. and Verizon recently included with the dividend checks mailed to shareholders, to the pro-war rallies organized by Clear Channel Communications, Inc., radio stations. As he points out, these are symptoms of the emergence of an unprecedented national political machine, one that is well on track to establishing one-party rule in America.

“Of course, interest groups want to curry favor with the party that controls Congress and the White House; but as the (Washington) Post explains, (Republicans) have also used ‘intimidation and private threats’ to bully lobbyists who try to maintain good relations with both parties. ‘If you want to play in our revolution,’ Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, once declared, ‘you have to live by our rules.’ ”

“Our revolution.” DeLay is the man who said he saw the 2000 election as a choice between a “Biblical worldview and the worldview of humanism, materialism, sexism, naturalism, post-modernism or any of the other -isms.” And the Republican Party? Of course, it represents the Biblical worldview, God, and all things good, pure, and noble. This, of course, is the same Tom DeLay who wants to deny the people of Texas their right to select Representatives of their choice – but now we see that his megalomania isn’t just restricted to Texas, or the US; it extends to God herself! The Constitution? Separation of church and state? Outmoded! If you want to see what DeLay’s theocracy looks like, read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. That is where our demented House Majority Leader is leading us.

Oh – one more thing about DeLay’s proposed $7 million redistricting scheme. (And that doesn’t count the $2-3 million taken from already under-funded Texas programs to pay for the special session itself.) The Legislature held hearings around the state 2 weeks ago, to get “citizen input” about it. Of course, no hearings were held in Austin; they already know what Austin thinks, and they’re not interested. One citizen recorded what happened at the Brownsville event; here’s a summary of her report:

One of the Republicans couldn’t make it, so there was no quorum, meaning the meeting was not an official hearing by the Texas House. Reps. Crabb and Krusee, however, decided to convene the meeting despite the lack of a quorum. Crabb advised the audience that the meeting was unofficial and not for the record, but Krusee said repeatedly to those in the room not to be concerned about the lack of quorum; he would make sure that all comments were entered into the official record. Krusee, disconcerted by the outraged response by the citizens in attendance, ran out of the room into a hallway, and called the Governor’s office. He was heard shouting into his cell phone, “Get me the Governor! I need to speak to the Governor immediately!” At 2:30, Crabb and Krusee started the meeting. (We can’t call it a hearing because, despite Krusee’s angry declarations to the contrary, it was not a legal hearing because of the lack of a quorum.) Let me quote one particularly damning paragraph of the observer’s report directly:

“Then, an Hispanic gentleman from the GI Forum walked to the microphone. All the other members of the Forum lined up behind him with their signs. … Krusee was absolutely determined to force us to accept the ‘legality’ of the ‘hearing.’ He asked the man to state his name, address, and Social Security number, although he had never asked another witness to do so, and one’s Social Security number is not required in order to speak. The man refused, saying again that this was not a legal meeting; therefore, he was not required to identify himself. Krusee asked again for this information. Again, the man refused, saying it was not a legal meeting and he had a First Amendment right to say whatever he pleased. He then began to talk about how Hispanics were not stupid people, and realized what the current redistricting plans would do to them. Krusee then completely lost his temper. He stood, looking down on the group of about 25 Hispanic Americans with an expression of (what I considered) absolute hatred upon his face. I was stunned by his venomous expression. He then glared at the person in the sound booth in the back of the auditorium, and drew his hand across his neck in a slashing motion, telling the sound man to turn off the microphone. In less than 10 seconds, the microphone went dead. As Krusee disappeared in fury behind the curtain, the GI Forum members called out for us all to join in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance; then once again, joined by Crabb, they sang “God Bless America.”

One other little tidbit from the Republicanzais’ power-grab, then we’ll move on. It seems there’s a rule in the Texas Senate that 2/3 of the Senators have to vote for bringing any issue before the Senate. This would mean at least 21 Senators would have to vote to bring up redistricting; trouble is, there are only 19 Republicans in the Senate. So, the Republicans, in true political style, are doing their best to bribe 3 specific Democratic Senators. To quote an article from the New York Times on the Texas situation:

“Those said to be considering such a vote (for bringing the issue up in the Senate) are Ken Armbrister of Victoria, Frank Madla of San Antonio, and Eddie Lucio, Jr., of Brownsville. In return, Republicans are said to be dangling support for medical schools for the border region and El Paso to entice Mr. Madla and Mr. Lucio, and more federal money for Texas to satisfy Mr. Armbrister.”

Now, who can offer Texas more federal money over this issue? Take a guess. People who, as Rev. Garrett said this week on his show, “are so blinded by their partisanship that their citizenship takes a back seat.” Sound like anybody you know?

OK; on to some new stories. First, let’s take a look at a new federal program – a really scary federal program. From article in last week’s Village Voice:

“Everything is set for a new Pentagon program to become perhaps the federal government’s widest reaching, most invasive mechanism yet for keeping us all under watch. Not in the far-off, dystopian future. But here, and soon.

“The military is scheduled to issue contracts for Combat Zones That See, or CTS, as early as September. The first demonstration should take place before next summer, according to a spokesperson. Approach a checkpoint at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, during the test and CTS will spot you. Turn the wheel on this sprawling, 8,656-acre army encampment, and CTS will record your action. Your face and license plate will likely be matched to those on terrorist watch lists. Make a move considered suspicious, and CTS will instantly report you to the authorities.

“Fort Belvoir is only the beginning for CTS. Its architects at the Pentagon say it will help protect our troops in cities like Baghdad, where for the past few weeks fleeting attackers have been picking off American fighters in ones and twos. But defense experts believe the surveillance effort has a second, more sinister, purpose: to keep entire cities under an omnipresent, unblinking eye.”

What was it George Orwell called them in his book 1984? Anyway, to continue:

“Traditionally, the authorities have collected information only on people who might be connected to a crime. If there was a murder in the East Village, the cops didn’t bring in all of St. Mark’s Place; they interrogated only the people who might have information about the killer. Even the most extreme abuses of law enforcement power – like J. Edgar Hoover’s domestic spying on political activists – homed in on very specific individuals, or groups, that he imagined as threats to the state. He didn’t put the whole state under watch.

“September 11 changed that. Now, the idea is to find out as much as possible about as many people as possible. After all, the logic goes, the country can’t afford to sit back and wait to be attacked. Almost anyone could play a part in a terrorist plot. So the government has to keep tabs on almost everyone. CTS, a $12 million, three-year program (http://dtsn.darpa.mil/ixo/solicitations/cts/index.htm), is emerging as a potential centerpiece of that initiative. ‘Before, it was “let’s catch the bad guys and bring them to trial after stuff happens,” ’ Lewis said. ‘Now it’s “let’s look for patterns and stop it before it happens.” ’

“CTS is the brainchild of DARPA, the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. That’s the group of minds behind the notoriously invasive Total (sorry, ‘Terrorism’) Information Awareness cyber-database. TIA’s backers say the project will be carefully targeted, but privacy advocates say it could compile in a single place an unprecedented amount of information about you – your school transcripts, medical records, credit card bills, e-mail, and so much more. ‘LifeLog,’ currently in the early planning stage at DARPA (http://www.darpa.mil/ipto/Solicitations/PIP_03-30.html), would twist all these bits into narrative ‘threads,’ giving officials a chance to watch events develop. Along the way, LifeLog’s developers would like to capture the name of every TV show you watch, every magazine you read.”

Do you still think the Libertarian Party is just a fringe group? The Libertarian Party is the only party that’s been calling your attention to the increasing abuses of power by Emperor Bush and his junta, ever since they stole the 2000 election. There have been some individuals, like Alex Jones (www.infowars.com) and Mike Ruppert (www.fromthewilderness.com), out here beside us, but the Dems and Repugs have been doing the freedom-chopping, hoping you won’t notice it, rather than trying to stop it, or even warn you.

This next story’s hardly new – just more of the sickening same. Emperor Bush’s lies, told for the purpose of getting us into Iraq and his super-rich investors into mega-profits at our expense, continue to unravel. His office has had to admit that he told a lie is his last State of the Union address. Let me read you a description of it, from the GOP USA web site – even the more rational Republicans are getting sick and tired of his arrogance.

“In a stunning admission, the White House conceded that an intelligence report about Iraq’s attempted acquisition of uranium from Niger was false. President George W. Bush spoke of the ‘evidence.’ … A senior administration official said, ‘Knowing all that we know now, the reference to Iraq’s attempt to acquire uranium from Africa should not have been included in the State of the Union speech,’ of Iraq's pursuit of weapons of mass destruction in his State of the Union speech in January.”

The first lie. Jeremiah 14:14 provides us some insight to all this: “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them, or appointed them, or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries, and the delusions of their own minds.”

That speech, like most of his speeches, was full of lies, as we will find out over time. He still hasn’t found any of those weapons of mass destruction that, before his illegal war, he said were all over Iraq. American soldiers continue to die in Iraq – for a cause? Hmph! For the cause of letting his investors know that, even if he has to kill American soldiers to do it, Emperor Georgie will keep their ROI (return on investment) rolling in. The cost of the Iraqi occupation is over $2 billion per day. At that rate, 3 months of the occupation accounts for our nation’s entire $200 billion deficit this year – another gift from your emperor and mine.

The Republican flacks keep saying, “Support our troops!” … Well, what better way can you think of to support our troops than to bring them home – alive and unmaimed? And by “unmaimed” I mean physically unmaimed, but I also mean emotionally and spiritually unmaimed, as well. Of course, it’s too late for that; they’ve already learned to kill women and children, to destroy ambulances with their patients still inside, all to live in constant terror for their lives. That’s what I mean by emotional and spiritual maiming – even those who come back outside a body bag will be maimed in ways that chicken-hawks like Georgie, who deserted from the armed forces rather than fight, can never understand. Support our troops? Damn right – but let’s give them real support, not just some rah-rah rhetoric that promises the world, but delivers ... well, listen to what he’s delivering, from an article in last Thursday’s American-Statesman by Gary Chapman:

“Many veterans, like me (that is, like Mr. Chapman), are still shaking their heads in disbelief over President Bush’s recent bluster about the Iraqi opposition killing our troops one by one almost every day. ‘Bring ’em on,’ said Bush, sounding like a character out of a bad Hollywood movie or an ad for TV wrestling. … The Bush administration, playing Roman empire overseas, is starting to treat its own citizens like a Roman mob, manipulating us with spectacles, theatrics, and cheap taunts at an enemy while our soldiers are in harm’s way.

...

“The White House opposed a doubling, to $6,000, of the benefits paid to families when a soldier dies in combat. In October, the White House announced a planned rollback in monthly “imminent danger pay” and in family separation allowances, even though the military is turning to reserve forces. The White House also cut budgets for upgrading military housing, and it proposed caps in pay raises for the lowest ranks of enlisted personnel. It also whacked veterans’ benefits, cutting $14.6 billion over 10 years.”

As a veteran myself, this incenses me – and it should incense all of you, veteran or not. A man who is a deserter, according to the strict definition of the law, is doing everything he can to make sure that not one penny of the megazillions he’s channeling to his super-rich investors get to the men and women who are paying for that extra wealth with their lives. I guess the rich really are different from you and me – they see the rest of us as expendable pawns in their game of “he who dies with the most toys (and dollars) wins.”

Is it time to impeach the Emperor? There are an increasing number of people saying “Yes!” (Check out www.votetoimpeach.com.) But let’s stop and think – who’d follow him into office if we did? Dick Cheney, arguably the most corrupt public official this country has ever seen (and that’s saying a lot!). Yuck! OK; let’s run both of them out of Washington on a rail; who’s next? The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert. Trouble is, Dennis the Menace is the very epitome of a Radical Sacrilegious Right know-nothing. He’s against anything that even hints at individual freedom – from a woman’s freedom to decide her reproductive future to our freedom not to be continually spied on by programs like CTS. OK; three down – who’s next? The President pro Tem of the Senate, Ted Stevens. Nooo – he’s almost 80 years old, and got his job to get him off the Senate floor and up onto the podium so he’d be out of the way of the real work of the Senate. Next in line is the hero of Oil War I, Colin Powell. You see the problem. Oh – one other thing: the Senate just passed a bill moving the Director of Homeland Security from 18^th up to 8^th in line of succession, and the House is hard at work rubber-stamping it. And I thought The Blair Witch Project was scary.