"Get out!"

The reaction in the Senate to a potential terrorist threat, when, what turned out to be a Cessna flew into secure airspace, was pathetic at best and ultimately comical. I don't know what was happening in the House, CSpan wasn't covering the house when it happened.

First, what is the plan? Capitol police, whom I respect greatly if only for the potential threats they must face regularly in protecting the majority of overpaid lawmakers who are less than adored, are also faced with a dilemma of actions. But judging by coverage and capitol hill's ubiquitous sampling of video cameras, it appears the plan is run about the building yelling, "Get out! Get out!" as if they had practiced by all learning the same part in a Tennessee Williams play.

Then, it was evidently 'cameras and children first' because the next thing available on televised news was low angle shots from video photojournalists who want us to believe that they had the presence of mind to keep the cameras rolling as they high-tailed it off of the immediate real estate. Great low angle shots guys...

And framed in the bouncing video images were scenes that could be used in the next (or the previous) Godzilla movies. "Run you bastards, run for your lives!! Where? How the hell do I know? We never got that far in Streetcar Named Desire!"

First off, "Get out?????" Now let me see, they knew it was a plane, and they had enough time to evacuate the building, so they basically had a fire drill. But now think back in ancient history to the Blitz in London. First off Parliament had the dignity to simply react (or not) to the the cool British air raid sirens.

In addition, I don't envision Parliament - the House of Lords or the House of Commons scrambling, like chickens out of the henhouse after a Weasel pops its head through a knot hole. No, if the inevitable were going to happen, they, in a dignified manner, would have proceeded - not outside - but to the nearest air raid shelter or subway 'tube.'

Actually, this may be a metaphor for congress' true colors. So many have a tough-guy bully attitude, but when it's time to get in line to meet their maker they're shaking like leaves ready to snap off the twig. Also it was the reaction of people actually taken by surprise - they really haven't taken their own rhetorical fear peddling bullshit seriously, because they've been making it up as they go along.

Most of DC has been protected airspace since shortly after January 13, 1982 when a Boeing 737, Air Florida's Flight 90, plowed into the Potomac due to improper de-icing prior to take off from Dulles Airport. It was then that people realized that, 'Wow, that airport is damned close to the city!'

Eighty-three people were on that flight and 78 died in the frigid water encrusted with ice. They were strapped in from take off when they went into the water, then they froze, as Coast Guard recovery reports said, "... you could see the last expression they had on their faces and their clenched fists..." when they died.


A few heads of a handful of survivors bobbed to the surface, and rescue workers were at a loss in the bitter cold - initially assuming it would simply be a recovery call with no survivors and not a rescue response. So a few tried to hurl lines to the survivors, but the frigid water and broken limbs prevented the living from a secure hold.

Then out of the crowd of onlookers, a splash as a 28 year old mail clerk named Lenny Skutnik has had enough, dives in and rescues a woman, Prsicilla Tirado, who had desperately tried to grab a life line.

Skutnik was making $14,000 per year, had a wife and two kids, saves a drowning, freezing flight attendant, gives his coat to another survivor who had broken both legs. Then, when approached by paramedics he at first refuses to go in an ambulance, not due to continued heroism, but because he wanted an assurance that he wouldn't be charged because he couldn't afford the medical bills. Later in an interview, he talked about his family and said, "Every once in a while you just have to close your eyes and blow a couple bucks," referring to the intermittent moments when he had saved enough and would take his wife and kids to dinner and movie.

Less than two weeks later, Skutnik was the uncomfortable guest of the Reagan's when the President delivered his State of the Union address. Skutnik only made 14 grand a year, but the political capital for Reagan was priceless as he introduced the self-effacing and visibly uncomfortable hero.

Ron got after the congress for the incredible deficit that existed (until Bill Clinton reversed that trend), and in the same speech he proposed a catastrophic health care plan for the elderly. Near the end he said:

In our Constitution, we the people tell the government what it can do and that it can do only those things listed in that document and no others.

Virtually every other revolution in history has just exchanged one set of rulers for another set of rulers. Our revolution is the first to say the people are the masters, and government is their servant.

And you young people out there, don't ever forget that. Some day, you could be in this room -- but wherever you are, America is depending on you to reach your highest and be your best because here, in America, we the people are in charge.

Just three words. We the people. Those are the kids on Christmas Day looking out from a frozen sentry post on the 38th Parallel in Korea, or aboard an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean. A million miles from home.But doing their duty.

We the people. Those are the warmhearted whose numbers we can't beg into count who'll begin the day with a little prayer for hostages they will never know and MIA families they will never meet. Why? Because that's the way we are, this unique breed we call Americans.

We the people. They're farmers on tough times, but who never stop feeding a hungry world. They're the volunteers at the hospital choking back their tears for the hundredth time, caring for a baby struggling for life because of a mother who used drugs. And you'll forgive me a special memory -- it's a million mothers like Nelle Reagan who never knew a stranger or turned a hungry person away from her kitchen door.

We the people. They refute last week's television commentary downgrading our optimism and our idealism. They are the entrepreneurs, the builders,the pioneers, and a lot of regular folks the true heroes of our land who make up the most uncommon nation of doers in history. You know they're Americans because their spirit is as big as the universe and their hearts are bigger than their spirits.

We the people. Starting the third century of a dream and standing up to some cynic who's trying to tell us we're not going to get any better.

Are we at the end? Well, I can't tell it any better than the real thing-- a story recorded by James Madison from the final moments of the Constitutional Convention -- September 17th, 1787. As the last few members signed the document,Benjamin Franklin -- the oldest delegate at 81 years, and in frail health-- looked over toward the chair where George Washington daily presided.At the back of the chair was painted the picture of a sun on the horizon.And turning to those sitting next to him, Franklin observed that artists found it difficult in their painting to distinguish between a rising and a setting sun.

Well, I know if we were there, we could see those delegates sitting around Franklin -- leaning in to listen more closely to him. And then Dr. Franklin began to share his deepest hopes and fears about the outcome of their efforts,and this is what he said: "I have often looked at that picture behind the President without being able to tell whether it was a rising or setting Sun: But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting Sun."

Well, you can bet it's rising, because, my fellow citizens, America isn't finished - her best days have just begun.

Ronny was despised by bunches of people, including Cosmo. But, man I'd vote for him now in a heartbeat if I knew the vote wouldn't be rigged - I'd vote for him in his current condition over the current administration. But remember 'trickle down economics?'

Little did we know that his VP was grooming his own demon spawn - much like mama Hitler doted on her Fuller Brush mustahio'd offspring - to destroy the same constitution that Ronny was talking about - "We the People" - indeed.

Hell later, with Ronny on ice they used the old man's body, or at least a casket to string out the grieving and to grab a chance at the last gold of the political capital pot that Ronnie could give. I saw Newt Gingrich rubbing the coffin like Aladdin's lamp, as if he was hoping to have some of the Reagan magic rub off on himself. I'm surprised they didn't have him lie in state at the grand opening of some shopping mall that Tom DeLay had invested in while they were at it.

So last week the reaction to a Cessna entering secure air space was something to see, and the faces of the senators told the whole story. Their expressions said, "Wait a second, everything we've been saying about terrorists has been bullshit. The plans we put in place...all bullshit using fear for cheap political mileage. I mean planes really don't fly into buildings unless we tell them to... Let me out! let me out! Get out of my way!"

And that campaigning echoes across the nation. A few weeks ago I took a train to Chicago. At Union station in various corridors a recording is triggered every so many minutes. It says, "beep - If you see a suspicious package or luggage, don't go near it but find station security or report it to police officers. - beep" and I said to my traveling companion, "Listen, those bastards have a political message playing every five minutes until the next rigged election."

My friend replied, "It won't work - you can only fear fear so long."

I asked her what she meant and she told me, "Look, Cosmo, if you put a rat in a maze and it never gets the cheese, after a while it just stops looking for cheese, and starts looking for a sure thing."

Sounds like a good analogy, except we're not the rats.

Best ongoing effort award...

Watertown Peace and Democracy Coalition stays visible. I hear there was a single counter-demonstrator as they marched against efforts to limit filibuster. Bold on both parts, but in true form they invited the prodigal along to continue the discussion. Kind of a metaphor for the demonstration's purpose - the ability to continue debate. They used giant puppets, too - great!

They earlier hosted a discussion/presentation by George Martin of Peace Action Wisconsin. George told me that he was thrilled with the turnout, even though the WPDC had expected more.

Rumor has it that WPDC will be hosting a screening of a talk by author David Ray Griffin, PhD who poses concentrated questions on the government's potential involvement in the events of 9-11. Let's all ask those questions and the other questions over and over until somebody gives us an answer. Great job WPDC! Stay viable, credible and above all, visible!
# # #
Bye for now,

Cosmo

Repair the vote FIRST!

There continues to be such talk about changing tactics in the Democratic party in order to have it appeal to more people, and I assume the reasoning for that is to win the next elections.

First, I don't want the Dems to change, and certainly don't want them to be more like the Republicans just to win more votes.

Secondly, that is not the reason why a the current administration was elected to the presidency twice. And if one ever wants a non-Bush non-neocon Republican to be president again, the voting situation MUST BE REPAIRED.

I was iffy on the 2000 election, but that iffy-ness was confirmed in 2004. There is just too much evidence, and it must be repaired if anyone ever wants something besides an administration of organized crime. How many rotations will it take before people take to the streets and shut down this country. In the Ukraine, they stopped everything because they knew the majority had not elected the person of choice. In Kyrgystan, same thing, and in a relatively gentle manner said - "Excuse me, we'll take the keys, thank you..."

Already the institution of filibuster has been threatened. What makes you think they are above trying to rescind the 22nd amendment of the constitution.

We currently have a president that was never elected. This is not a matter of simply not getting a majority of the popular votes -- it is fraud, deception and theft. This isn't news to many. Now the issue is a matter of the need to repair things before the next election.

Shortly after the November 2 '04 elections, Steven Freeman, a senior statistical researcher at the U of Penn did a study on the odds of exit polls in two states (Floriday and Ohio) being so far out of whack with the norm and out of context with a exit poll findings in all the other states. That study indicates that the odds of exit polls in those two states being that divergent from the historical reliability of exit polls, and with consideration that the exit polls in the other 48 states were inline with historical statistical accuracy of the past, were way off base. In fact the odds of that likelihood ended up being 250 million to 1.

Well columnist Russ Baker refuted this by questioning Freemans' work. Of course it is in the realm of many columnists to dub themselves experts in subjects upon which they comment - Cosmo has to be careful here - but there is a difference in saying "so-and-so says something" or "this event happened here" and actually taking on an expert in a different field.

Freeman countered the claim with a legitimate repudiation of Baker's espoused ignorance in the field of statistical research. Baker's interpretation of the study appeared to just be an effort to make it fit his columns needs. Freeman's reply included a concern many are facing when he said, "Baker's critique begins with a sloppy attempt to shoot the messenger, questioning my credentials."

Let's face it, guys who work with numbers and who make a statement about a study only have to wait a matter of minutes before there are a gazillion other guys who work with numbers out there with their calculators ready to confirm or dispute those findings. You see, unlike Diebold voting machines, these guys have to show their work...

Freeman, who originally played down his credentials and this study, backed up his authority and the substance of this work in that repudiation, including the value and accuracy of exit polls and polling practices. But he also counters the situation and phenomena of information aversion that has riddled our country's mentality of late by stating, "Scrutiny of an election with many unanswered questions does not damage public confidence in the democracy; absence of scrutiny does."


Well as it happened, many of the people who checked his work decided to jump on board the study, if for no other reason than to get their name attached to it.

Another study looked at the accuracy or possible anomalies of the 2004 exit polls.

They concluded that they couldn't find a statistical reason why Ohio and Florida's exit polls were inaccurate, but did note that they were basically messed up due to outside influences.

Another study headed up by John Simon agrees with the initial concerns of the Freeman study. The executive summary states:

• There is a substantial discrepancy—well outside the margin of error and outcomedeterminative— between the national exit poll and the popular vote count.
• The possible causes of the discrepancy would be random error, a skewed exit poll, or breakdown in the fairness of the voting process and accuracy of the vote count.
• Analysis shows that the discrepancy cannot reasonably be accounted for by chance or random error.
• Evidence does not support hypotheses that the discrepancy was produced by problems with the exit poll.
• Widespread breakdown in the fairness of the voting process and accuracy of the vote count are the most likely explanations for the discrepancy.
• In an accurate count of a free and fair election, the strong likelihood is that Kerry would have been the winner of the popular vote.

Reports of statistical studies on this matter have either confirmed Freeman's first assertions or gone even further in narrowing potential reasons why these polls didn't reflect reality (and with reference to the Bush administration, the word 'reality' should give everyone a clue). But these experts are not just interested in political outcomes, they want to know if systems previously proven correct or accurate weren't, or if they weren't, they want to know why. So they checked the formulae against the controls and they all say, either the stars lined up in a special way that day (ahem...) or somebody purposely influenced these numbers...

They have done their job, but the public must now do it's job! People must SCREAM that the emperor has no clothes. They must point to the elephant standing in the middle of the room, and they must insist that the voting process is safe. Harry Truman said that the voting booth is the most valuable piece of real estate in the nation and that if anyone sells it, the nation will cease to exist.

Almost prohetically Truman also said:

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
- August 8, 1950

So it appears to come down to "fix it/save it or lose it." We ramble on and spend untold amounts on potential terrorist threats with concern over potential physical harm, when the potential for harm both physical and to the existence of this nation sits in our ability to make voting results in this country accurate, to make each person's vote count and to be able to depend on the results.

Right now elections have degraded to a "Super Bowl" mentality, and half of the morons who voted for the current administration just wanted to be on the winning side. Duh!

Come on people! We have lived through presidents we didn't necessarily vote for, but we all agreed that whoever it was was legitimately elected by a majority of the people. And so we lived together. And if it was an awful administration or simply didn't fit the nation's needs, no matter how slick the marketing prior to the next election, at the next election we knew we could simply vote the person out of office. But the current situation negates the wishes of the electorate and that capability.

The greatest irony here, even though they don't realize it, is that even the votes of the so called winners were rendered of no value in this situation. They just think they are the winners, and this satisfies that group. But tampered ballot counts render all votes cast invalid.

---
Bye for now,
Cosmo

Dammit!

The orginal title to this post was almost "What the f***!?!" and you may think it may be more appropriate if you are aware of the April 24 event being staged by the hypocritical Dr. Bill Frist, Senate Majority Leader and, in the Terri Shiavo case, The Great Wizard of Long Distance Diagnosticians.

Sunday he will lead a nationally telecast event called "Justice Sunday." Using the religious right platform to bring together the group of unwitting dupes to do away with "judicial filibusters" so that the minority party will have no leverage in any senate action, but specifically so that there will be no say in the confirmation of US judges and GW can say "...well I guess that nasty little problem of the courts is out of the way."

They have no shame!

I was going to cut and paste the entire column written by Frank Rich at the NYTimes over here, but instead here is a sample, and Ill give you a link to the rest at the end of that:

"...'Justice Sunday' is a humbug, albeit one with real potential consequences. It brings mass-media firepower to a campaign against so-called activist judges whose virulence increasingly echoes the rhetoric of George Wallace and other segregationists in the 1960's. Back then, Wallace called for the impeachment of Frank M. Johnson Jr., the federal judge in Alabama whose activism extended to upholding the Montgomery bus boycott and voting rights march. Despite stepped-up security, a cross was burned on Johnson's lawn and his mother's house was bombed."

The fraudulence of "Justice Sunday" begins but does not end with its sham claims to solidarity with the civil rights movement of that era. "The filibuster was once abused to protect racial bias," says the flier for tonight's show, "and now it is being used against people of faith." In truth, Bush judicial nominees have been approved in exactly the same numbers as were Clinton second-term nominees. Of the 13 federal appeals courts, 10 already have a majority of Republican appointees. So does the Supreme Court. It's a lie to argue, as Tom DeLay did last week, that such a judiciary is the "left's last legislative body," and that Justice Anthony Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, is the poster child for "outrageous" judicial overreach. Our courts are as highly populated by Republicans as the other two branches of government.

The "Justice Sunday" mob is also lying when it claims to...

Click here to get to Rich's column in the NY Times, this one titled A High-tech Lynching in Prime Time.

It is not only time to contact your own representatives in The Senate and the House, it is time to make noise with the other side. They have messed around with the Constitution, they have messed around the our voting booth and ballot boxes, they lied about WMDs and numerous other issues.

Let them know they can't mess with this one last effort to let a minority have a say in any debate. What next? Doing away with voting?

If I had my way, we'd be taking to the streets. It worked in the Ukraine, it worked in Kyrgystan and it worked here to help end US direct involvement in Vietnam. But it isn't likely to happen here and now until somebody cuts the cord on cable TV and confiscates all the video games. Until then the peoples' glaze- eyed appetite will be continually fed and the sleepy satisfaction from gluttonous mind numbing distractions will keep the masses at bay as our rights continue to erode.

As Rev.Martin Niemoller wrote in 1945:

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.

Since then someone wrote a current version dealing with what we face now:

When they took the 4th Amendment away
I was quiet because I didn't deal in drugs...

When they took the 6th Amendment away
I was quiet because I had never been arrested...

When they took the 2nd Amendment away
I was quiet because I didn't own a gun...

Now they have taken the 1st Amendment away
and all I can do is be quiet...

---
Bye, bye for now,

Cosmo

Jefferson suggested 'a little patience...'

Every once in a while a quote surfaces that is timeless, or possibly incredibly ahead of its time. Lately, I've been grabbing germane quotes and printing them on full page card stock to make mini posters. (Most people with computers and printers can do the same.) Then at opportune times and opportune places the poster can be put up in certain public locations. Some are very simple, like one with a clip-art of Jefferson that says, "Dissent is the greatest form of patriotism. -Jefferson"

I came across a quote by 19th century economist John Stuart Mill, and have likely insulted visitors to my office with a mini poster that that quotes Mill saying, "Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people... it is true that most stupid people are conservatives."

The following brief statement is attributed to Jefferson, but could have been written yesterday:

“A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.”
--Thomas Jefferson

Feel free to copy and paste this to make your own mini poster for yourself or to place strategically in a public spot.

Bye for now,

Cosmo

A billion of anything is hard to comprehend

It's hard to impress Cosmo, but someone made a comparison that put things in perspective. You may have noticed the tally board at what things are costing the US over in the left sidebar...

<<<<<

Look at that number grow and consider this:

-A billion seconds ago, it was 1959.
-A billion minutes ago, Jesus was walking the face of the Earth.
-A billion hours ago we were just coming into our own in the stone age.

BUT

-A billion dollars was just eight hours and 20 minutes ago for our government.

AND ANOTHER THING IMPRESSED COSMO

Today those gallant people in Watertown, Wisconsin -- more than 60 -- braved incredibly blustery weather to stage a Peace Walk.

Like many groups across the nation the Watertown Peace and Democracy Coalition thought that today, the second anniversary of the unjustified invasion of Iraq would be a good day to stage a demonstration.

Some say it's brave, some say it's noble, but at the very least it is admirable to see such a significant number make a visible statement in a town that is a bit right of Lake Wobegone. Bravo WPDC!

A show of support came in the form of a contingent of three members of the Madison chapter of the Veterans for Peace. They drove out to Watertown to take part on this chilly day. And for some activities like this Watertown can exude a chill even in mid-July. They of course weren't the only veterans to take part in the Peace Walk.

Reports indicate that there were really no hecklers with the exception of one person in a vehicle who honked and gave them a one finger salute. That pretty much sums up the opposite side of the dialogue. But one must give them credit for being able to actually use the large motor skills it takes to honk a horn, then the fine motor skills to display the one finger salute. They should pat themselves on the back...but that may take some practice, so maybe another day.

Alright, so I did a little surfing and that ubiquitous PJ (photojournalist - ha!) whose initials are LS was evidently in Watertown, because it didn't take much searching to find images from today's Peace Walk plastered all over one of his web sites. (Hey WPDC aren't we working on media reform here - granted LS doesn't have any web sites like Jeff Ganon's. At least I haven't found them yet.) Anyway, if you want to see images from today's Peace Walk click here.

Oh, and by the way WPDC, pat yourselves on the back. Good job!

Bye-bye for now,

Cosmo

Watertown, Wisconsin going to Peace(s)

It appears that Watertown,Wisconsin is indeed having a Peace Walk Saturday March 19. Another blogger points this out in an advance piece at Fieldtrips.
Nothing like plaigerizing your own material, because the same advance piece showed up in the Watertown Daily Times today.


Also, got word that a representative from Veterans for Peace
will be there. According to a note from one of the peace walk organizers, Don Kliese of the Madison chapter #25 of Vets for Peace will be a part of the event.

That's cool.

Might be some others from Madison, I hear. We'll see.

Bye-bye for now,

Cosmo

The same rules don't apply to everybody

It goes like this - the rules used to apply almost equally to everybody, and certainly were intended for everybody. Now they apply equally to most, except for those who don't have to follow any rules.

Let us refresh some memories first:

Cheney
(for those who really need to have their memories refreshed, Cheney is the current vice president and possibly the chief puppet master)

As the New Yorker explains:

Vice-President Dick Cheney is well known for his discretion, but his official White House biography, as posted on his Web site, may exceed even his own stringent standards. It traces the sixty-three years from his birth, in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1941, through college and graduate school, and describes his increasingly powerful jobs in Washington. Yet one chapter of Cheney’s life is missing. The record notes that he has been a “businessman” but fails to mention the five extraordinarily lucrative years that he spent, immediately before becoming Vice-President, as chief executive of Halliburton, the world’s largest oil-and-gas-services company. The conglomerate, which is based in Houston, is now the biggest private contractor for American forces in Iraq; it has received contracts worth some eleven billion dollars for its work there.

Cheney earned forty-four million dollars during his tenure at Halliburton. Although he has said that he “severed all my ties with the company,” he continues to collect deferred compensation worth approximately a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year, and he retains stock options worth more than eighteen million dollars. He has announced that he will donate proceeds from the stock options to charity.

Such actions have not quelled criticism. Halliburton has become a favorite target for Democrats, who use it as shorthand for a host of doubts about conflicts of interest, undue corporate influence, and hidden motives behind Bush Administration policy—in particular, its reasons for going to war in Iraq. Like Dow Chemical during the Vietnam War, or Enron three years ago, Halliburton has evolved into a symbol useful in rallying the opposition. On the night that John Kerry won the Iowa caucuses, he took a ritual swipe at the Administration’s “open hand” for Halliburton.

For months, Cheney and Halliburton have insisted that he had no part in the government’s decision about the Iraq contracts. Cheney has stuck by a statement he made last September on “Meet the Press”: “I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape, or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government.” He has declined to discuss Halliburton in depth, and, despite a number of recent media appearances meant to soften his public image, he turned down several requests for an interview on the subject.

But as of yesterday reports indicate that of the $1.7 billion (THAT'S BILLION) that Halliburton has made in the oil for food program administered by the UN during the war in Iraq, somehow Pentagon auditors coundn't reconcile the books when the UN asked questions. BUT when the UN asked for the books, the Pentagon first handed the audit report over to Halliburton to correct a series of issues that added up to an unaccounted for $108 million that Halliburton had been paid. Ah, but what's $108 million compared to the billions - pocket change. A few erasures here, a few zeros there...

According to a Rueter's report:

U.N. auditors have been critical of delays in getting documents and asked for a full accounting on DFI funds, made up of proceeds from Iraq oil sales, frozen assets from foreign governments and surplus from the U.N.'s Oil for Food Program.

More than $1.7 billion in these Iraqi funds were paid to Halliburton to bring fuel to Iraq, which despite being oil rich suffered from a shortage of refined products.

CONCEALING QUERIED COSTS?

Waxman, who released copies of both the redacted and non-edited audits, said documents that were cut attempted to conceal the more than $100 million in queried costs. He asked for a special congressional hearing to discuss the issue.

Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney until he joined the race for the White House in 2000, has said it delivered fuel for the best possible price.

Halliburton spokeswoman Wendy Hall said the Freedom of Information Act allows the company to redact "confidential commercial information." She said the government made the final decision over what should be edited.

"Any attempt to criticize KBR for its role in this perfectly normal and legal part of the contracting process is unfounded and clearly not based in fact," she said.

Hall said KBR would continue to work with its client to prove "once and for all that KBR has delivered vital services for U.S. troops and the Iraqi people at a fair and reasonable cost, given the circumstances."

Army Corps spokeswoman Carol Sanders said the Corps was looking at a series of audits before starting final negotiations with KBR over prices.

KBR is the U.S. military's biggest contractor in Iraq and is under investigation by several U.S. government departments over whether it overcharged for some services.

Proprietary information is a right that is granted to companies who operate under goodfaith that they will play by the rules. But that was in the days when there was one set of rules for everybody.

When all of this is done, I suggested that Halliburton be liquidated to regain in restitution the surplus the US had before the Bush crime family...administration... took power.

Let's move back to the same set of rules for everybody.

War profiteering is illegal. In WWII the Truman commission, with Dems in the White House and a majority in congress, set up a bipartisan commission to investigate this manner of deceit, and it uncovered plenty. It saved many US war time dollars and many, many lives.

Now a majority is made up of the other party. Are they concerned about bipartisan independent inquiry? Nope - don't want to get their buddies in big business in trouble. Might put their post congressional retirement funds at risk I figure. Now for the rest of us: How is Social Security holding up today?

Bye-bye for now,

Cosmo

Cosmo doesn't like fascists

Well gang, we're gearing up for Iran. Wonder what the excuse will be... I don't mean the WMD type excuse. I don't think that they even worry about such things anymore. I'm wondering what the excuse of the people will be for not protesting and letting our government know that they work for us! I mean, come on people! We must get the attention of our elected officials. Oh, that's right, even that doesn't count anymore, because no matter which side of the aisle you're on your vote is worthless. They just make the numbers match up with whatever they want. With 250 million in the country, what the heck, let's have 422 million votes for our guy and say that God filled out the extra 77 million ballots 'cause he's on our side.

You may have wanted this guy to win the election, but guess what? Your vote had no more value than the opposition votes - it was just fiction. But what the heck, let's go with the super bowl mentality, at least your team won right? And your prez cares about as much about you as the super bowl winning (or losing) team members. Yep, you'll get it some day.

Here's a reference point by Dr Lawrence Britt titled 14 Common Characteristics of a Fascist Regime. That should send a little chill up the spines of even the people rooting for the other side.

Here is a site carrying a composite of the article.

And here is the original Britt article with some references.

Bye-bye,

Cosmo

Creative protests - Robin Hood where are you? Alright Watertown Wisconsin, let's see what you've got.

We really should have taken to the streets in November. If people are messing around with the voting process there will be no need for an election ever. 'Oh, ye of too much faith' in the government. You are using that complacent faith to rationalize so you don't have to get your lazy asses out and make some noise. And re-shaping or redefining the Dems - I can think of better ways to waste time while Dieboldt reconfigures voting machines to write better election result fiction

I hear that a group in Watertown Wisconsin is planning a demonstration on March 19. Good for them, because things of that nature are especially difficult when, even though Wisconsin was a blue state, small cities like Watertown are the well established red spots where a majority of citizens more and more could care less and less about anyone's freedom of speech if it goes against what they think. If you are around Watertown, get in touch with the Watertown Peace and Democracy Coalition (click) to see what they have planned.

There are a bunch of creative ways to demonstrate and protest.

One of my favorites is reported with instructions and examples on Freeway Blogger (click) and of course their motto: "Free speech: Use it or lose it" is one we should all adopt.

Before we work too hard, here is a little site called the Dubya Brain Game.

Here are some potential bumper stickers/T-shirt slogans and designs:

Yee-ha is not a foreign policy
Bush and Truth direction signs pointing in opposite directions
Fear More Years
Why change horsemen mid-apocalypse?
No Surplus Left Behind
Winning hearts and minds. Losing Heads
Can you feel the Draft?
W04 - 4 More Wars
North Korea has nukes but no oil :(
Good thing he's compassionate
Iraqi oil. What's your dead child worth per gallon?
Wears a Wire in Debate
Halliburton Making a Killing
A vote for Bush dishonors our war dead
Threat Level: BUSH
Incompetence & Arrogance = Bush/Cheney
Bush '04, Draft '05
Bush thinks you're a chump
Good thing for Bush all those dead soldiers can't vote!
Operation Enduring Occupation
Fire the Liar
Real Men Admit Mistakes
A picture of Osama next to "I'm not in Iraq morons"
And finally: "Won't Get Fooled Again!"

Above "borrowed" from several web sites.

And here is another "Bush" video game...interesting.

And in case you hadn't seen the sites... A web site almost accidently sufaced when two college fellows felt the need to apologize to the world after the November election. They posted a couple pics of themselves with signs and put them on a page. In short order people began to send in their apologies and the site "Sorry Everybody" took off. Thousands have submitted pics with messages.

But in an effort to express understanding that the current administration does not represent all of the nation's people, another site surfaced "Apologies Accepted" and almost brought tears to my eyes with a variety of individual supportive messages.

On to demonstrations and protests: Well I'm brainstorming. Columnist Harley Sorenson had this set of ideas , but that was in 2003. Let's get to it.

Watertown Wisconsin and others will demonstrate on the anniversary of the 'Shock and Awe' campaign March 19. I hope they and others continue to make matters visible. After the March 19 someone should have a 'Quagmire Accomplished' rally celebrating that April day when more manure than historically documented before was shovelled off the carrier USS Lincoln.

Bye-bye for now,

Cosmo

Please feel free to comment. Comments marked anonymous have the source protected even from Cosmo.

Can it be done?

Well Ramsay Clark sent this out. Read it and check out the site. They've also got cool T-shirts, etc....

A message from Ramsey Clark:
IMPEACHMENT MORE URGENT THAN EVER

Dear VoteToImpeach / ImpeachBush.org Members,

We are urging all of those who are part of the impeachment movement to participate and bring the message of impeachment with signs and banners to the hundreds of local demonstrations that will be taking place on March 19/20, the second anniversary of the beginning of the criminal war against Iraq.

Between March 19 and April 3, Congressional representatives are scheduled to be back in their home district. It has never been more important for all people of conscience to hold demonstrations and rallies, and to lobby those representatives in their home districts during the March 19 - April 3 period. We are certain that impeachment activists from around the country will join us in organizing activities in the March 19 - April 3 period. Please notify the VoteToImpeach / ImpeachBush.org campaign about your local activity, and send in a report and photos, to ImpeachBush@VotetoImpeach.org.

The duty of the American People to compel the Impeachment of George W. Bush and his principal aides becomes ever more urgent as his mounting crimes take more lives daily, and threaten irreparable injury to Constitutional government, irreconcilable division within the nation and isolation of the U.S. in the community of nations.

Two years after the commencement of his War of Aggression, judged to be the "Supreme International Crime" at Nuremberg, the flow of blood in Iraq continues to rise and the threat of death is omnipresent.

The criminal policies of the Bush Administration which violate fundamental human rights are etched in memory worldwide in names like:

Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo as symbols of torture;

Falluja and Najaf as symbols of the indiscriminate destruction of civilian life;

Nicola Calipari, the Italian officer killed shielding the Italian reporter, Giuliana Sgrena, with his body, and scores of Iraqi families gunned down on highways as symbols of summary execution;

Unknown numbers of persons seized in the U.S., Canada, anywhere in the world and victimized by "Rendition" to abuse by foreign police as symbols of kidnapping.
A year after democratically elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti was told by President Bush he "has to go" and was forced on to a U.S. plane and flown to Central African Republic, violence continues to grow in Haiti and deaths rise into the thousands as Aristide supporters are systematically targeted and no relief is in sight for the people of Haiti.

Today President Bush threatens Iran ("all options" are available), North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela, among others. He tells Syria it must completely withdraw its troops from Lebanon even as 500,000 Lebanese, 12 percent of the entire population, take to the streets to protest U.S. intervention and a pro-Syrian Lebanese leader is reelected Prime Minister by the Parliament of Lebanon, which fears a U.S.-Israel occupation and wants Syria to stay and maintain stability finally established after years of Civil War and bedlam.

For those who doubt President Bush's determination to continue his criminal enterprise consider only his three most important recent appointments: John Negroponte as director for all foreign intelligence where he can control information about foreign weapons of mass destruction and terrorist threats to the U.S.; John Bolton as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations to assure U.S. commitment to unilateral aggression and weaken UN opposition to U.S. aggression; and Alberto Gonzalez as Attorney General to validate violations of international human rights, the rule of law and the Constitution of the United States.

In his determination to be above all law, President Bush insists on U.S. power to continue violations of fundamental human rights in his war on terrorism; to violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by developing a new generation of extremely dangerous and usable tactical nuclear weapons while threatening to attack Iran, North Korea and others based on unverified claims that they are developing nuclear weapons; by direct obstruction of justice through bilateral agreements to refuse cooperation with the International Criminal Court; and by the U.S. withdrawal in March 2005 from International Court of Justice jurisdiction following a decision by that Court that State Courts in the U.S. must individually review the death sentences of 51 Mexican citizens following trials in which the U.S. violated rights of the accused under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The continuing boastful commitment of the Bush Administration to criminal aggression is a clear and present danger to the Constitution of the United States and the security of its peoples. The highest duty of the American people is to demand faithful performance of Constitutional duty by their elected representatives to assure that they uphold Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution which states "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

We must organize and act for the impeachment of George W. Bush and his principal aides by the House of Representatives and their trial by the Senate.

Vote to Impeach Now. Contribute to this national campaign. Organize meetings with your representative and present petitions from voters in your Congressional District demanding impeachment.

Action Now is Essential.

Ramsey Clark
March 10, 2005

Thanks to whomever sent that out -

Bye-bye,

Cosmo

Due process!?!

Today Reuters had this to report on an effort to stop an administration plan to keep some suspected terrorist prisoners under lockdown for life, even if/especially if the government lacks enough information to charge them. Even members of the administration's party have questioned this practice:

A leading Republican senator yesterday condemned as "a bad idea" a reported U.S. plan to keep some suspected terrorists imprisoned for a lifetime even if the government lacks evidence to charge them.

The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for those it is unwilling to set free or turn over to U.S. or foreign courts, The Washington Post said in a report yesterday that cited intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials.

Some detentions could potentially last a lifetime, the report said.

Influential senators denounced the idea as probably unconstitutional.

"It's a bad idea. So we ought to get over it and we ought to have a very careful, constitutional look at this," Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday."

Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, cited earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions. "There must be some modicum, some semblance of due process . . . if you're going to detain people, whether it's for life or whether it's for years," Levin said, also on Fox.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department declined to comment, and a Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the Air Force, had no information on the reported plan.

As part of a solution, the Defense Department, which holds 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, plans to ask Congress for $25 million to build a 200-bed prison to hold detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, defense officials told The Post.

The new prison, dubbed Camp 6, would allow inmates more comfort and freedom than they have now and would be designed for prisoners the government believes have no more intelligence to share.

The Post said the outcome of a review underway would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations.

One proposal would transfer large numbers of Afghan, Saudi and Yemeni detainees from the Guantanamo Bay detention center into new U.S.-built prisons in their home countries, it said.

This is not done in or by the US. It goes against the Constitution and the ideas the nation was built on.

Mark Twain's War Prayer

The War Prayer
by Mark Twain

It was a time of great and exalting excitement.

The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

God the all-terrible!

Thou who ordainest!

Thunder thy clarion

and lightning thy sword!

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time. If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the whole of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory -- must follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.

O Lord our God,

Help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells;

Help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead;

Help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain;

Help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire;

Help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief;

Help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst,

Sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter,

Broken in spirit,

Worn with travail,

Imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it –

For our sakes who adore Thee, Lord,

Blast their hopes,

Blight their lives,

Protract their bitter pilgrimage,

Make heavy their steps,

Water their way with their tears,

Stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!

We ask it, in the spirit of love,

Of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.

Amen."

[After a pause.]

"Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! -- The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.



___________________________________________________________________
Historical note:
"To Dan Beard, who dropped in to see him, Clemens read the 'War Prayer,' stating that he had read it to his daughter Jean, and others, who had told him he must not print it, for it would be regarded as sacrilege.

'Still, you are going to publish it, are you not?'

Clemens, pacing up and down the room in his dressing-gown and slippers, shook his head.

'No,' he said, 'I have told the whole truth in that, and only dead mean can tell the truth in this world. It can be published after I am dead.'"

Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain, A Biography (Harper & Brothers, 1912).

"War Prayer" and quotation from Paine's biography are from Mark Twain, The War Prayer (Harper & Row, 1971).