Duty to Warn

During the Cold War, the CIA, in the words of long-time agent Ralph McGehee, practiced the art of "deadly deceits." Throughout the Third World, the secret spy agency engaged in covert operations, blatant acts of economic destabilization and wanton acts of mass violence.

In the 1970s, Idaho Senator Frank Church's investigatory committee established that the CIA also engaged in so-called "benign" operations including rigging elections. The agency used the term "demonstration elections" - elections that are superficially democratic but the results manipulated by the CIA.

AUSTIN, Texas -- It is insufficient to stand around saying, "I told you Iraq would be a disaster." Believe me, saying, "I told you so" is a satisfaction so sour it will gag you when people, including Americans, are dying every day.

            I think our greatest strength is still pragmatism. OK, this isn't working, now what? In an effort to be constructive, even in the face of a developing catastrophe, I have been combing the public prints in an effort to find something positive to suggest.

If you run a lootocracy, you have no conception of sufficiency. You set up the rules to grab as much money as you can, as if you've won a supermarket shopping spree. You also concentrate power, the better to arrange the world for your benefit. Unchecked by modesty, satiety, or shame, you take all you can get away with. You loot until someone stops you.

The word lootocracy was originally coined to describe the corrupt cartels that have ruled and plundered countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and some of the former Soviet Republics. But with an amazingly small amount of national debate, George Bush is installing a more global and sophisticated version-one where those on top can do whatever they choose without the slightest constraints. Bush began his presidency by giving the wealthiest five percent of all Americans massive tax breaks of $75 billion a year. He paid for them in part by cutting child abuse prevention, community policing, Americorps, low-income childcare, health care, housing, and even support for military families. This spring he passed another round of cuts, $35 billion a year targeted overwhelmingly to the same lucky lootocrats.

It seems fitting that a president who was brought into office because of a scandalous election would enact a law to overhaul the electoral process to make it easier for people to choose their leaders the second time around.  

  But that's not what the Omnibus Appropriations Bill, signed into law by President Bush in October 2002, will do. Instead, the law will force most states to switch from paper balloting to a fully computerized system---one that is currently rife with programming flaws and is incapable of being audited-that could call into question the legitimacy of future local and national elections and put the wrong candidates into office.

  The bill contains $1.515 billion to fund activities related to the Help America Vote Act, a federal election reform bill that provides money to states for the improvement of elections; including $15 million to the General Services Administration to reimburse states that purchased optical scan or electronic voting equipment prior to the November 2000 election.  

In a depressingly symbolic year for climate change, energy policy and public health, just a week after GM recalled the last cars its entire California fleet of 1000 Zero Emission electric vehicles to be destroyed (citing a "lack of demand"), and during the same year by which California air regulators had since 1990 required that 10% of all new cars be pollution free had not Governor Davis lifted the requirement upon taking office -  state air regulators have come out with a new standard for rating new cars that instead re-classifies gasoline-burning engines as "clean."

Say hello to the "Partial Zero Emission Vehicle," ("P-ZEV") a characteristically Moderate Democratic nomenclature to which the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Detroit automakers have agreed - a watered down version of the "Zero Emmission Vehicles" classification following Governor Davis' post-election decision to eliminate a 1990 requirement that, starting in  2003, 10% of all cars sold in California should have been Zero Emission Vehicles ("ZEV").

A national media spotlight has focused on the battle between the Constitution of the United States and some religious fundamentalists who viewed themselves as angels of Montgomery. The removal of a big Ten Commandments monument from an Alabama courthouse on Wednesday was good news for people who prefer democracy to theocracy.

     But as the holy smoke clears, news outlets might want to consider the concepts that have endured on those chiseled tablets -- in the context of the media industry itself.

     Before proceeding with this column, I wish to inform any litigious corporation among ye that I will be utilizing quotations from the Ten Commandments for “fair use” purposes in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107.

     Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. should note that while I do not have access to extensive financial and legal resources of the sort available to Al Franken and his publisher, I intend to defend myself fully against any claims that Fox News has a propriety interest in Exodus 20:1-17.

Call Senators Mike DeWine (614-469-5186) and George Voinovich (614-469-6697) to demand that the US government:

* Bring the Troops Home Now, End the Occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Pay Reparations to Iraqis and Afghans
* Stop US Military and Financial Support for Israel Until Israel Dismantles All the Settlements, Ends the Occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, and Abides by All Relevant International Laws, Including United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194
* Appoint an Independent Commission, and Hold Open and Public Hearings, to Investigate the Bush Administration's Lies That Misled Americans into the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq (Support H.R. 2625 and H. Res. 307)

Mike DeWine: 614-469-5186 (Columbus); 202-224-2315 (DC)
George Voinovich: 614-469-6697 (Columbus); 202-224-3353 (DC)
[Call the Columbus phone numbers while Congress is in recess.]

It is with great concern that we report to you that Mumia has developed a potentially serious health condition affecting his feet, which have swollen painfully, making him unable to walk. Mumia suspects it may be due to blood clotting, a situation which can be very dangerous.

Health conditions are serious matters for prisoners, and blood clotting can be fatal. Please flood the prison's phone lines and demand that Mumia be allowed to be examined by an outside doctor of his choice.

SCI Greene prison: (724) 852-2902 During the Day from 8:00am to 5:00pm, ask for Superintendent Folino

During the Night, 5:00pm to 8:00am ask for Captain Hall. If gone during late night, ask for current Shift Director.

In light of Mumia's health condition, please also contact these elected officials who are supportive of Mumia and ask that they put pressure on SCI Greene Prison and demand that Mumia be allowed to be examined by an outside doctor of his choice.

AUSTIN -- One problem I have with Arnold Schwarzenegger is that he looks like a condom stuffed with walnuts. I realize that is superficial, shallow and unbecoming to a semi-serious-minded liberal like myself, but there it is. The other is that he doesn't know what he's talking about when it comes to public policy.

Part I: Progressives and the Dean Campaign

     Let’s take Howard Dean at his word: “I was a triangulator before Clinton was a triangulator. In my soul, I’m a moderate.”

     Plenty of evidence backs up that comment by the former Vermont governor to the New York Times Magazine a few months ago. The self-comparison with Clinton is apt. “During his five two-year terms as governor,” the magazine noted, “Dean was proud to be known as a pragmatic New Democrat, in the Clinton mold, boasting that neither the far right nor the far left had much use for him.”

     Of course, what a mainstream publication is apt to call “the far left” often includes large progressive constituencies. In the battle for the ’04 Democratic presidential nomination, Dean clearly finds grassroots progressives to be quite useful for his purposes. But is he truly useful for ours?