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peristaltorI've just about had it with the countless whining progressives that are bemoaning the Democratic Party's lack of action in this last year. Why? I'm no knee-jerk Republican (well, not any more). I do, though, recognize that every Democratic member of Congress -- not to mention the President -- has very good reason to tread carefully. Whoever is behind many of the questionable machinations and shenanigans this country has suffered in recent years seems to favor policies championed by the right side of the congressional aisle.
I'm not talking about the right-wing noise machine that passes for our mainstream mass media, either (well, not this time). I'm talking about incidents that made the headlines, yet never seem to be seriously investigated as far as the evidence suggests to me and others that they should be investigated.
One of the cover letters
Let's start with the anthrax mailings. Five people died, but countless others were scared shitless. Some of them were in Congress. Isn't it funny how quickly the reporting on the anthrax letters dropped when it was revealed that the spores came from the US arsenal? Oh, wait . . . the first letters went to reporters, didn't they? Which meant that all the clues that this was an inside job (as![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bradhicks so succinctly pointed out) went uninvestigated, all the obvious leads left unfollowed.
There's more to consider. For example, why didn't any Republican members of Congress receive sporey missives from powdery pen-pals? Why, if this really is the work of an Islamic extremist, did the letter above include the warning to "Take penicillin now"? Was the murderous Islamist terrorist afraid the recipient of this deadly spore-laden letter might die? Even beyondbradhicks' observations, this letter strikes me as meant for a recipient that survives. The rest of the package was meant as the real message.
But why? This section from Crossing the Rubicon should sum things up nicely:
Pragmatists. That's the only word I would choose to describe a civil servant under such an obvious siege. Yes, one could make waves and continue investigations and public castigations. Or one could find a blissfully empty mailbox. That's not a hard choice to make, in my opinion.
I still think it's amazing how little attention was publicly made at the time about the coincidence between the passage of the Patriot Act and the preceding congressional anthrax mailings. (Oh, reporters got the letters, too. Right.)
Still, should any Democratic Congressperson get funny mailings every time they stepped across an invisible line, even Fox News might get suspicious. So, what to do about those odd threats to one's dominance?
Let's consider the case of this man:
Oh, and how he died is quite interesting. As this fascinating article notes, several irregularities -- such as the cabin fire, why two experienced pilots failed so dramatically to keep their course just miles from the airport, why the eyewitness accounts of engine stoppage, and why no distress call was ever heard -- were not considered well or at all in the official National Transportation Safety Board report on the crash.
His crash raised interesting questions. For example, why is it that Democrats were twice as likely to die in small plane crashes than Republicans? Ah, but don't worry, Republicans do indeed die. Mike Connell died in his plane, for example, and he worked extensively with the Bush administration:
On this very topic a good friend of mine got into a recent heated debate. He thought the Dems to be pussies (his word) and sellouts for not taking a stronger stand on certain critical legislation. I agreed that their performance seemed lackluster, but felt they were doing the only job they could right now. In response, I wondered how dead he would prefer them. Sure, it's true that they probably all couldn't die; but that hardly matters to the few that succumb before the rest get the message.
While I realize this attitude seems defeatist, I welcome all and sundry to review the evidence I've presented themselves and, once you have, suggest how we as a nation might progress without at least recognizing that an enemy of our state, unseen and unaccountable (but whose presence we are able to infer) awaits to judge our progressive representatives' every action. We could soldier on, damn the consequences, as Senator Wellstone and his family did. We could, like President Obama, continue to maintain our presence in Afghanistan while taking what other steps can be taken to avoid the many collapses the previous scoundrels so ably constructed. Which ever path taken, pragmatism seems to me the most operative watchword to keep in mind.
We are used to rabble-rousing speakers who promise to clean house when elected. We seldom ask what happens to them once in office. The campaign speakers are, after all, taking the wholly American attitude that "The squeaky wheel gets greased." In this congress, in this political age, one would do well once in office to remember the very different Japanese adage, "The nail that stands tallest is the first struck."
I'm not talking about the right-wing noise machine that passes for our mainstream mass media, either (well, not this time). I'm talking about incidents that made the headlines, yet never seem to be seriously investigated as far as the evidence suggests to me and others that they should be investigated.
One of the cover letters
Let's start with the anthrax mailings. Five people died, but countless others were scared shitless. Some of them were in Congress. Isn't it funny how quickly the reporting on the anthrax letters dropped when it was revealed that the spores came from the US arsenal? Oh, wait . . . the first letters went to reporters, didn't they? Which meant that all the clues that this was an inside job (as
bradhicks so succinctly pointed out) went uninvestigated, all the obvious leads left unfollowed.There's more to consider. For example, why didn't any Republican members of Congress receive sporey missives from powdery pen-pals? Why, if this really is the work of an Islamic extremist, did the letter above include the warning to "Take penicillin now"? Was the murderous Islamist terrorist afraid the recipient of this deadly spore-laden letter might die? Even beyond
bradhicks' observations, this letter strikes me as meant for a recipient that survives. The rest of the package was meant as the real message.But why? This section from Crossing the Rubicon should sum things up nicely:
Getting (Former Senate Majority Leader Tom) Daschle (and his presidential ambitions) into line was a critical task (for the Bush administration), because major pieces of legislation like Homeland Security, various bioterrorism measures, and a multitude of investigations were soon going to fall within his grasp. . . .
On October 15 (2001) it was disclosed that Daschle's office had received an anthrax letter. By the 18th of October it was disclosed that as many as 31 senate staff members had tested positive for anthrax.
The Patriot Act that eviscerated the Constitution was passed without debate on October 24th, 2001. Politically and physically frightened, a chamber full of pragmatists adapted to the new world by trading the Bill of Rights for their own political and physical security. In other words, Congress had gotten the message. . . .
Senator Pat Leahy of Vermont was also in a position to derail many of the unconstitutional actions and the legislation coming out of the White House. As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee he apparently had the power, the obligation, and the willingness to do so. He did it eloquently and with great fire until it was his turn to suffer. . . .
Leahy was especially irritated at (Attorney General John) Ashcroft's imperial refusals to come and answer questions before his committee. He sent several terse letters to Ashcroft and ultimately demanded that Ashcroft appear. When that failed, Leahy demanded a written response to important questions from the committee. Ashcroft ignored Leahy, but only up to a point.
On November 16 Senator Leahy received his own anthrax letter. And the anthrax sent to Leahy's office was incredibly powerful, concentrated at a trillion spores per gram. When, on December 6, Ashcroft finally made an appearance before the Judiciary Committee he was treated with kid gloves in an utterly appalling display of total surrender.
(Michael Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, New Society Publishers, 2006, pp. 270-271, emphasis by Ruppert.)
Pragmatists. That's the only word I would choose to describe a civil servant under such an obvious siege. Yes, one could make waves and continue investigations and public castigations. Or one could find a blissfully empty mailbox. That's not a hard choice to make, in my opinion.
I still think it's amazing how little attention was publicly made at the time about the coincidence between the passage of the Patriot Act and the preceding congressional anthrax mailings. (Oh, reporters got the letters, too. Right.)
Still, should any Democratic Congressperson get funny mailings every time they stepped across an invisible line, even Fox News might get suspicious. So, what to do about those odd threats to one's dominance?
Let's consider the case of this man:
After (Senator Paul) Wellstone violated Bush 41's sanctimonious White House protocol, (G. H. W.) Bush was overheard saying, "Who is this chicken shit?" . . . .
In a senate that is one heartbeat away from Republican control, (Paul) Wellstone was more than just another Democrat. He was often the lone voice standing firm against the status-quo policies of both the Democrats and the Republicans. As such, he earned the special ire of the Bush administration and the Republican Party, who made Wellstone's defeat that party's number one priority this year.
Various White House figures made numerous recent campaign stops in Minnesota to stump for the ailing campaign of Wellstone's Republican opponent, Norm Coleman. Despite being outspent and outgunned, however, polls show that Wellstone's popularity surged after he voted to oppose the Senate resolution authorizing George Bush to wage war in Iraq. He was pulling ahead of Coleman and moving toward a victory that would both be an embarrassment to the Bush administration and to Democratic Quislings such as Hillary Clinton who voted to support "the president."
Then he died.
Oh, and how he died is quite interesting. As this fascinating article notes, several irregularities -- such as the cabin fire, why two experienced pilots failed so dramatically to keep their course just miles from the airport, why the eyewitness accounts of engine stoppage, and why no distress call was ever heard -- were not considered well or at all in the official National Transportation Safety Board report on the crash.
His crash raised interesting questions. For example, why is it that Democrats were twice as likely to die in small plane crashes than Republicans? Ah, but don't worry, Republicans do indeed die. Mike Connell died in his plane, for example, and he worked extensively with the Bush administration:
Connell's companies GovTech and New Media Communications created scads of GOP and other far right websites and political database operations, the infamous secret GWB43.com parallel White House email system, the network firewall in Congress for the Judiciary and Intelligence committees, and, perhaps most notably here, the 2004 Election Night results reporting system for Ohio's fiercely partisan then Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell. That system has been alleged by some, including the attorneys bringing a long-standing election fraud lawsuit in Ohio, to have been used to manipulate final tallies as the country waited late into the evening for the Buckeye State to ultimately decide the Presidency that year. (Emphasis mine.)
On this very topic a good friend of mine got into a recent heated debate. He thought the Dems to be pussies (his word) and sellouts for not taking a stronger stand on certain critical legislation. I agreed that their performance seemed lackluster, but felt they were doing the only job they could right now. In response, I wondered how dead he would prefer them. Sure, it's true that they probably all couldn't die; but that hardly matters to the few that succumb before the rest get the message.
While I realize this attitude seems defeatist, I welcome all and sundry to review the evidence I've presented themselves and, once you have, suggest how we as a nation might progress without at least recognizing that an enemy of our state, unseen and unaccountable (but whose presence we are able to infer) awaits to judge our progressive representatives' every action. We could soldier on, damn the consequences, as Senator Wellstone and his family did. We could, like President Obama, continue to maintain our presence in Afghanistan while taking what other steps can be taken to avoid the many collapses the previous scoundrels so ably constructed. Which ever path taken, pragmatism seems to me the most operative watchword to keep in mind.
We are used to rabble-rousing speakers who promise to clean house when elected. We seldom ask what happens to them once in office. The campaign speakers are, after all, taking the wholly American attitude that "The squeaky wheel gets greased." In this congress, in this political age, one would do well once in office to remember the very different Japanese adage, "The nail that stands tallest is the first struck."