Friday, December 31, 2004
You call this moral values?
WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican leaders are considering a change in House ethics rules that could make it harder to discipline lawmakers.
The proposal being circulated among House Republicans would end a general rule against any behavior that might bring "discredit" on the chamber, according to House Republican and Democratic leadership aides. House members would be held to a narrower standard of behavior in keeping with the law, the House's rules and its ethics guidelines.
MSNBC Ethics and government accountability groups say these events are a sign of weakening ethical restrictions. "We're seeing an easing of ethical standards and disclosure standards," said Charles Lewis, who runs the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity. "They can dress it up any way they want, but they're trying to increase the employment opportunities for their officials."
For example, the Office of Government Ethics has proposed, and Bush supports, legislation to ease financial disclosure requirements for government officials, reducing the amount of conflict-of-interest information that candidates and their families must report. The House recently passed a version of the legislation.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Last month, some Penn Hills School District board members objected that Santorum's children attended the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School at district expense because Santorum's family mostly lives at a $757,000 home in Virginia.
"Taxpayers have enough of a responsibility for trying to educate kids who are bona fide, legitimate residents," he said. "They shouldn't have to be paying for kids who aren't residents of that district."
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Dennis Hastert is considering replacing the chairman of the ethics committee, which admonished Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is the focus of a grand jury probe into his campaign finance practices.
Hastert has not yet made up his mind about whether to replace Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., when Congress reconvenes on Tuesday, his spokesman said.
"The speaker thinks that Chairman Hefley has done a terrific job," Hastert spokesman John Feehery said Thursday. "If he makes that decision, it will be because of the rules, not for any other reason."
Comment: Rules? Oh, only when it's convenient. So much for being the paragons of morality. Rather, they are the exemplars of the double standard.
Mr. Petulance.
The proposal being circulated among House Republicans would end a general rule against any behavior that might bring "discredit" on the chamber, according to House Republican and Democratic leadership aides. House members would be held to a narrower standard of behavior in keeping with the law, the House's rules and its ethics guidelines.
MSNBC Ethics and government accountability groups say these events are a sign of weakening ethical restrictions. "We're seeing an easing of ethical standards and disclosure standards," said Charles Lewis, who runs the nonprofit Center for Public Integrity. "They can dress it up any way they want, but they're trying to increase the employment opportunities for their officials."
For example, the Office of Government Ethics has proposed, and Bush supports, legislation to ease financial disclosure requirements for government officials, reducing the amount of conflict-of-interest information that candidates and their families must report. The House recently passed a version of the legislation.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) Last month, some Penn Hills School District board members objected that Santorum's children attended the Pennsylvania Cyber Charter School at district expense because Santorum's family mostly lives at a $757,000 home in Virginia.
"Taxpayers have enough of a responsibility for trying to educate kids who are bona fide, legitimate residents," he said. "They shouldn't have to be paying for kids who aren't residents of that district."
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Dennis Hastert is considering replacing the chairman of the ethics committee, which admonished Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is the focus of a grand jury probe into his campaign finance practices.
Hastert has not yet made up his mind about whether to replace Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colo., when Congress reconvenes on Tuesday, his spokesman said.
"The speaker thinks that Chairman Hefley has done a terrific job," Hastert spokesman John Feehery said Thursday. "If he makes that decision, it will be because of the rules, not for any other reason."
Comment: Rules? Oh, only when it's convenient. So much for being the paragons of morality. Rather, they are the exemplars of the double standard.
Mr. Petulance.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Ethics Committee to Investigate McDermott
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House ethics committee will investigate Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., to determine whether he violated standards of conduct when an illegally recorded telephone conversation was leaked to reporters during a committee investigation.
McDermott was ranking Democrat on the ethics committee at the time, and the panel was investigating the conduct of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
Sounds like payback to me. It's also the beginning of "House" cleaning paving the way for Patriot II.
Rescind the Patriot Act!
by Will Christensen
National Vice Chair,Independent American Party
http://www.usiap.org
A new Intelligence Bill was passed by Congress this December
which incorporates many of the aspects of the Patriot II Bill.
Our Liberty is being eroded by these Acts which promise security
at the expense of basic Freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
It is time to act to preserve our Freedom
At the following URL is a Bill to rescind the Patriot act, the Bill
that passed Congress in the hysterical aftermath of the 9/11 attack.
When the Patriot Act is rescinded, many of the abrogations
of our Freedom in other Acts will be rescinded as well,
for they rest on the foundation of the Patriot Act.
This Bill chops at the roots of the "Police State Tree"
rather than hacking at the branches.
Please, before Congress convenes on January 4th 2005, do five things:
1. Click on this link:
http://usiap.org/ActionItems/PatriotBill/PatriotBillIntro.html
2. Click on the Bill link
http://usiap.org/ActionItems/PatriotBill/PatriotBillText.html
and read the USA Patriot Act Recission Bill of 2005.
Then print this bill on your printer.
3. Click on the Cover Letter link
http://usiap.org/ActionItems/PatriotBill/PatriotBillCover.html
and copy this to your word processor.
Fill in the date, your Representatives' name and District,
and your name and address. Then print and sign the letter.
4. Mail both the Bill and your letter to your Representative.
5. Send this message to everyone concerned about our personal Freedoms.
If we act quickly, we can head off further inroads on our Freedom
and roll back some of those that are already in place.
The large majority of the American people are opposed to the Patriot Act.
Over 350 cities, towns, counties, and states
have passed resolutions against this act.
We must supply the leadership that will get this monstrous attack
on our Freedom rescinded. Write your Representative today!
Congress is responsive when enough people contact them.
"When they feel the heat, they see the light!"
Will Christensen
National Vice Chair
Independent American Party
http://www.usiap.org
Be a pipeline not a bucket - Please pass this along
Enclosed is a speech by Ron Paul of Texas which discusses recent attacks
on our Freedom. We thank Ron Paul for his consistent courage
and leadership in the struggle to preserve and enhance our Freedom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2004/tst122004.htm
It Can't Happen Here
By Ron Paul
December 20, 2004
In 2002 I asked my House colleagues a rhetorical question with regard
to the onslaught of government growth in the post-September 11th era:
Is America becoming a police state?
The question is no longer rhetorical.
We are not yet living in a total police state,but it is fast approaching.
The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our
basic protections against government have been undermined.
The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create
whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer
- always at the expense of our liberty.
But security and liberty go hand-in-hand.
Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don't understand
that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure.
History proves that societies crumble when their governments
become more powerful than the people and private institutions.
Unfortunately, the new intelligence bill passed by Congress
two weeks ago moves us closer to an encroaching police state
by imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card.
Within two years, every American will need a "conforming" ID
to deal with any federal agency-- including TSA at the airport.
Undoubtedly many Americans and members of Congress don't believe
America is becoming a police state, which is reasonable enough.
They associate the phrase with highly visible symbols
of authoritarianism like
- military patrols,- martial law, and - summary executions.
But we ought to be concerned that we have laid the foundation
for tyranny by making the public more docile, more accustomed
to government bullying, and more accepting of arbitrary authority
- all in the name of security.
Our love for liberty above all has been so diminished
that we tolerate intrusions into our privacy
that would have been abhorred just a few years ago.
We tolerate inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties
in a manner that reflects poorly on our great national character
of rugged individualism. American history, at least in part,
is a history of people who don't like being told what to do.
Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government
and its agents to run our lives.
Terror, fear, and crises like 9-11 are used to achieve complacency
and obedience, especially when citizens are deluded into believing
they are still a free people. The loss of liberty, we are assured,
will be minimal, short-lived, and necessary.
Many citizens believe that once the war on terror is over,
restrictions on their liberties will be reversed.
But this war is undeclared and open-ended, with no precise enemy
and no expressly stated final goal.
Terrorism will never be eradicated completely;
Does this mean future presidents will assert extraordinary
war powers indefinitely?
Washington DC provides a vivid illustration of what our future
might look like. Visitors to Capitol Hill encounter
- police barricades,
- metal detectors,
- paramilitary officers carrying fully automatic rifles,
- police dogs,
- ID checks,
- and vehicle stops.
The people are totally disarmed;
Only the police and criminals have guns.
Surveillance cameras are everywhere,
-monitoring street activity,-subway travel,-parks,and federal buildings.
There's not much evidence of an open society in Washington, DC,
yet most folks do not complain - anything goes if it's for government
-provided safety and security.
After all, proponents argue, the government is doing all this
to catch the bad guys. If you don't have anything to hide, they ask,
what are you so afraid of? The answer is that I'm afraid of losing
the last vestiges of privacy that a free society should hold dear.
I'm afraid of creating a society where the burden is on citizens
to prove their innocence, rather than on government to prove wrongdoing.
Most of all, I'm afraid of living in a society where a subservient
populace surrenders its liberties to an all-powerful government.
It may be true that average Americans do not feel intimidated
by the encroachment of the police state.
Americans remain tolerant of what they see as mere nuisances
because they have been deluded into believing total government
supervision is necessary and helpful, and because they still enjoy
a high level of material comfort.
That tolerance may wane, however, as our standard of living falls
due to spiraling debt, endless deficit spending at home and abroad,
a declining fiat dollar, inflation, higher interest rates,
and failing entitlement programs. At that point attitudes
toward omnipotent government may change, but the trend toward
authoritarianism will be difficult to reverse.
Those who believe a police state can't happen here are poor students
of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny.
We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people.
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2004/tst122004.htm
National Vice Chair,Independent American Party
http://www.usiap.org
A new Intelligence Bill was passed by Congress this December
which incorporates many of the aspects of the Patriot II Bill.
Our Liberty is being eroded by these Acts which promise security
at the expense of basic Freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.
It is time to act to preserve our Freedom
At the following URL is a Bill to rescind the Patriot act, the Bill
that passed Congress in the hysterical aftermath of the 9/11 attack.
When the Patriot Act is rescinded, many of the abrogations
of our Freedom in other Acts will be rescinded as well,
for they rest on the foundation of the Patriot Act.
This Bill chops at the roots of the "Police State Tree"
rather than hacking at the branches.
Please, before Congress convenes on January 4th 2005, do five things:
1. Click on this link:
http://usiap.org/ActionItems/PatriotBill/PatriotBillIntro.html
2. Click on the Bill link
http://usiap.org/ActionItems/PatriotBill/PatriotBillText.html
and read the USA Patriot Act Recission Bill of 2005.
Then print this bill on your printer.
3. Click on the Cover Letter link
http://usiap.org/ActionItems/PatriotBill/PatriotBillCover.html
and copy this to your word processor.
Fill in the date, your Representatives' name and District,
and your name and address. Then print and sign the letter.
4. Mail both the Bill and your letter to your Representative.
5. Send this message to everyone concerned about our personal Freedoms.
If we act quickly, we can head off further inroads on our Freedom
and roll back some of those that are already in place.
The large majority of the American people are opposed to the Patriot Act.
Over 350 cities, towns, counties, and states
have passed resolutions against this act.
We must supply the leadership that will get this monstrous attack
on our Freedom rescinded. Write your Representative today!
Congress is responsive when enough people contact them.
"When they feel the heat, they see the light!"
Will Christensen
National Vice Chair
Independent American Party
http://www.usiap.org
Be a pipeline not a bucket - Please pass this along
Enclosed is a speech by Ron Paul of Texas which discusses recent attacks
on our Freedom. We thank Ron Paul for his consistent courage
and leadership in the struggle to preserve and enhance our Freedom.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2004/tst122004.htm
It Can't Happen Here
By Ron Paul
December 20, 2004
In 2002 I asked my House colleagues a rhetorical question with regard
to the onslaught of government growth in the post-September 11th era:
Is America becoming a police state?
The question is no longer rhetorical.
We are not yet living in a total police state,but it is fast approaching.
The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our
basic protections against government have been undermined.
The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create
whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer
- always at the expense of our liberty.
But security and liberty go hand-in-hand.
Members of Congress, like too many Americans, don't understand
that a society with no constraints on its government cannot be secure.
History proves that societies crumble when their governments
become more powerful than the people and private institutions.
Unfortunately, the new intelligence bill passed by Congress
two weeks ago moves us closer to an encroaching police state
by imposing the precursor to a full-fledged national ID card.
Within two years, every American will need a "conforming" ID
to deal with any federal agency-- including TSA at the airport.
Undoubtedly many Americans and members of Congress don't believe
America is becoming a police state, which is reasonable enough.
They associate the phrase with highly visible symbols
of authoritarianism like
- military patrols,- martial law, and - summary executions.
But we ought to be concerned that we have laid the foundation
for tyranny by making the public more docile, more accustomed
to government bullying, and more accepting of arbitrary authority
- all in the name of security.
Our love for liberty above all has been so diminished
that we tolerate intrusions into our privacy
that would have been abhorred just a few years ago.
We tolerate inconveniences and infringements upon our liberties
in a manner that reflects poorly on our great national character
of rugged individualism. American history, at least in part,
is a history of people who don't like being told what to do.
Yet we are increasingly empowering the federal government
and its agents to run our lives.
Terror, fear, and crises like 9-11 are used to achieve complacency
and obedience, especially when citizens are deluded into believing
they are still a free people. The loss of liberty, we are assured,
will be minimal, short-lived, and necessary.
Many citizens believe that once the war on terror is over,
restrictions on their liberties will be reversed.
But this war is undeclared and open-ended, with no precise enemy
and no expressly stated final goal.
Terrorism will never be eradicated completely;
Does this mean future presidents will assert extraordinary
war powers indefinitely?
Washington DC provides a vivid illustration of what our future
might look like. Visitors to Capitol Hill encounter
- police barricades,
- metal detectors,
- paramilitary officers carrying fully automatic rifles,
- police dogs,
- ID checks,
- and vehicle stops.
The people are totally disarmed;
Only the police and criminals have guns.
Surveillance cameras are everywhere,
-monitoring street activity,-subway travel,-parks,and federal buildings.
There's not much evidence of an open society in Washington, DC,
yet most folks do not complain - anything goes if it's for government
-provided safety and security.
After all, proponents argue, the government is doing all this
to catch the bad guys. If you don't have anything to hide, they ask,
what are you so afraid of? The answer is that I'm afraid of losing
the last vestiges of privacy that a free society should hold dear.
I'm afraid of creating a society where the burden is on citizens
to prove their innocence, rather than on government to prove wrongdoing.
Most of all, I'm afraid of living in a society where a subservient
populace surrenders its liberties to an all-powerful government.
It may be true that average Americans do not feel intimidated
by the encroachment of the police state.
Americans remain tolerant of what they see as mere nuisances
because they have been deluded into believing total government
supervision is necessary and helpful, and because they still enjoy
a high level of material comfort.
That tolerance may wane, however, as our standard of living falls
due to spiraling debt, endless deficit spending at home and abroad,
a declining fiat dollar, inflation, higher interest rates,
and failing entitlement programs. At that point attitudes
toward omnipotent government may change, but the trend toward
authoritarianism will be difficult to reverse.
Those who believe a police state can't happen here are poor students
of history. Every government, democratic or not, is capable of tyranny.
We must understand this if we hope to remain a free people.
http://www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2004/tst122004.htm
Oil demand up in China
Posted: Monday December 27th, 2004, 2:35 PM
at bakersfield.com | Oil News
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he expects trade with China to more than double to $2.7 billion next year on increased sales of oil products.
Trade between the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and China, the world's second-largest energy market, will grow from $1.2 billion this year and $150 million last year, Chavez said in a speech in Caracas on the state-owned television station after a four-day trip to China.
at bakersfield.com | Oil News
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he expects trade with China to more than double to $2.7 billion next year on increased sales of oil products.
Trade between the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and China, the world's second-largest energy market, will grow from $1.2 billion this year and $150 million last year, Chavez said in a speech in Caracas on the state-owned television station after a four-day trip to China.
Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Who will speak for you?
I went on a journey today which started with this at Washington Monthly which goes like:
My reaction to Kristol and PNAC has always been one of revulsion, but today it reached a new level of shock and awe at the complete insanity of such a course of action. To me, the whole NeoCon agenda puts America squarely on the suicidal path of militarism and war atrocities that brought down the ancient Assyrian Empire. You think I'm just being chicken little? Well...
Then I found myself at Information Clearing House going through the entries listed below. The entry that finally made me reach the level of total horror was the one about the guy strapped to a gurney and shipped off to Germany for a psyche evaluation. Had a dream that went something like it recently, must be why I'm sensitive to it.
Then I went looking for:
This is how it starts. A sound bite here, a policy change there, under the radar movement of putting people in place on school boards or parents doing home schooling to get rid of science and inject theology, overtaking the media to control information, packing legislatures with wolves in sheep's clothing, placing civil servants in key positions, duping a large segment of the population into believing something that is against their self-preservation while reducing the news, entertainment, and advertising to the worst common denominator, and then finding the right person and the right event to galvanize a full-blown doctrine that spells doom for us all. The Niemoller quote is for those who won't believe that such evil is possible in America. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are not aberrations. They are actual doctrine.
Add into this mix the religious fanaticism of the Christian Rapturists and their desire to bring on the holocaust of Revelations through the use of nuclear devices. Read Rachel.org's Fiery Hell on Earth, Part 5: A Marriage Made in Heaven if you think I'm making this up.
The Rapture is the perfect cover for the NeoCons to finally get to wage nuclear war that they were denied during the Cold War. They will finally get to consummate their lust for world domination.
When my thoughts reach this point I get a wave of fear at such insanity. Everything else falls away. All political talk fades into the background as I wonder what sane, life-loving people can do against such suicidal/homocidal insanity. Then I realize that too few have a clue of the coming danger just as the Germans and Europeans did not fully understand the coming horror of Hitler, Naziism, and the Final Solution. At this point, it's not politics anymore. It's life and death just as it was for those who died in the camps and gas chambers. Except that ours will be more like the two bright flashes over Japan. Don't think it can happen? I sincerely hope and pray you are right. Because if you are not, who will be left to speak for you?
And here is William Kristol on the future of our military presence in Iraq:By Bush Doctrine standards, Syria is a hostile regime....What to do?....We could bomb Syrian military facilities; we could go across the border in force to stop infiltration; we could occupy the town of Abu Kamal in eastern Syria, a few miles from the border, which seems to be the planning and organizing center for Syrian activities in Iraq...[D]emocracy promoting neocons like Kristol not only don't want U.S. troops to leave, they want to widen the conflict: to Syria right now and eventually to Iran and possibly Saudi Arabia — which "may ultimately be more serious than the Syria problem." But that can't happen unless U.S. troops have a permanent presence in Iraq.
My reaction to Kristol and PNAC has always been one of revulsion, but today it reached a new level of shock and awe at the complete insanity of such a course of action. To me, the whole NeoCon agenda puts America squarely on the suicidal path of militarism and war atrocities that brought down the ancient Assyrian Empire. You think I'm just being chicken little? Well...
Then I found myself at Information Clearing House going through the entries listed below. The entry that finally made me reach the level of total horror was the one about the guy strapped to a gurney and shipped off to Germany for a psyche evaluation. Had a dream that went something like it recently, must be why I'm sensitive to it.
Controversial U.S. Groups Operate Behind Scenes on Iraq Vote: ... in actuality, influential, US-financed agencies describing themselves as "pro-democracy" but viewed by critics as decidedly anti-democratic, have their hands all over Iraq’s transitional process, from the formation of political parties to monitoring the January 30 nationwide polls and possibly conducting exit polls that could be used to evaluate the fairness of the ballot-casting. Two such groups -- the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) -- are part of a consortium of non-governmental organizations to which the United States has provided over $80 million for political and electoral activities in post-Saddam Iraq.
In case you missed it: Why American Christian Fundamentalist's Support the State of Israel: In order for most of today’s Christians to escape physical death, two-thirds of the Jews in Israel must perish, soon. This is the grim prophetic trade-off that fundamentalists rarely discuss publicly, but which is the central motivation in the movement’s support for Israel.
[Note: there's another article at Clearing House that gets into the real guts of Christian Zionism and Dispensationalism.]
Permanent Jail Set for Guantánamo: Even as federal judges weigh whether the U.S. has the authority to detain and try suspects in the war on terror, the Pentagon is quietly planning for permanency at the U.S. detention center at Guantánamo Bay, The Herald has learned.
Intel Agent Strapped to Gurney and Flown Out of Iraq by U.S. Army After Reporting Torture of Detainees: A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq - even though there was nothing wrong with him. We speak with the reporter - former U.S. Army counterintelligence agent David DeBatto - who broke the story. Audio and transcript.
Then I went looking for:
First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up,
because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.
by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945
This is how it starts. A sound bite here, a policy change there, under the radar movement of putting people in place on school boards or parents doing home schooling to get rid of science and inject theology, overtaking the media to control information, packing legislatures with wolves in sheep's clothing, placing civil servants in key positions, duping a large segment of the population into believing something that is against their self-preservation while reducing the news, entertainment, and advertising to the worst common denominator, and then finding the right person and the right event to galvanize a full-blown doctrine that spells doom for us all. The Niemoller quote is for those who won't believe that such evil is possible in America. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo are not aberrations. They are actual doctrine.
Add into this mix the religious fanaticism of the Christian Rapturists and their desire to bring on the holocaust of Revelations through the use of nuclear devices. Read Rachel.org's Fiery Hell on Earth, Part 5: A Marriage Made in Heaven if you think I'm making this up.
The Rapture is the perfect cover for the NeoCons to finally get to wage nuclear war that they were denied during the Cold War. They will finally get to consummate their lust for world domination.
When my thoughts reach this point I get a wave of fear at such insanity. Everything else falls away. All political talk fades into the background as I wonder what sane, life-loving people can do against such suicidal/homocidal insanity. Then I realize that too few have a clue of the coming danger just as the Germans and Europeans did not fully understand the coming horror of Hitler, Naziism, and the Final Solution. At this point, it's not politics anymore. It's life and death just as it was for those who died in the camps and gas chambers. Except that ours will be more like the two bright flashes over Japan. Don't think it can happen? I sincerely hope and pray you are right. Because if you are not, who will be left to speak for you?
