Deregulation of electric power transmission gave us an electric power transmission criminal organization named Enron. Areas like Dubai that exist only to launder money (no questions asked) made it possible for Enron’s criminal activity to continue undiscovered for a time.
It is amazing what can happen when you put Billions of dollars into a legitimate business and walk away without ever taking a look at what they are doing with it. I am talking about the deregulation of international financial markets resulting in organized crime becoming the major player in international financial markets.
In my view an unintended outcome of the deregulation theories of Conservative Republicans has, along with the break up of the Soviet Union, led to the unprecedented control of the world economy by international organized crime.
The implementation of Conservative Economic Theory did not work in the early Twentieth Century. Those “Robber Barons” were aptly named. And the USA needed a “New Deal” from Franklin Roosevelt to dig out from under the devastation caused by the Conservatives. It remains to be seen whether voters will understand that the present economic failure of the United States is due to putting Conservative theories into use. Or, will they will blame it on immigration, environmentalists or gay marriage.
We need some kind of “New Deal” to break the downward economic “flat spin” that our country and most of the world economy is in. We may need a world wide “New Deal” to get us out of the coming “Great (Twenty First Century) Depression. Can we do it or will we be stuck with a world of nations that have morphed into extensions of crime syndicates.
From Today’s New York Times in Opinion- Tom Friedman:
June 29, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Anxious in America
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Just a few months ago, the consensus view was that Barack Obama would need to choose a hard-core national-security type as his vice presidential running mate to compensate for his lack of foreign policy experience and that John McCain would need a running mate who was young and sprightly to compensate for his age. Come August, though, I predict both men will be looking for a financial wizard as their running mates to help them steer America out of what could become a serious economic tailspin.
I do not believe nation-building in Iraq is going to be the issue come November — whether things get better there or worse. If they get better, we’ll ignore Iraq more; if they get worse, the next president will be under pressure to get out quicker. I think nation-building in America is going to be the issue.
It’s the state of America now that is the most gripping source of anxiety for Americans, not Al Qaeda or Iraq. Anyone who thinks they are going to win this election playing the Iraq or the terrorism card — one way or another — is, in my view, seriously deluded. Things have changed.
Up to now, the economic crisis we’ve been in has been largely a credit crisis in the capital markets, while consumer spending has kept reasonably steady, as have manufacturing and exports. But with banks still reluctant to lend even to healthy businesses, fuel and food prices soaring and home prices declining, this is starting to affect consumers, shrinking their wallets and crimping spending. Unemployment is already creeping up and manufacturing creeping down.
The straws in the wind are hard to ignore: If you visit any car dealership in America today you will see row after row of unsold S.U.V.’s. And if you own a gas guzzler already, good luck. On Thursday, The Palm Beach Post ran an article on your S.U.V. options: “Continue to spend upward of $100 for a fill-up. Sell or trade in the vehicle for a fraction of the original cost. Or hold out and park the truck in the driveway for occasional use in hopes the market will turn around.” Just be glad you don’t own a bus. Montgomery County, Md., where I live, just announced that more children were going to have to walk to school next year to save money on bus fuel.
On top of it all, our bank crisis is not over. Two weeks ago, Goldman Sachs analysts said that U.S. banks may need another $65 billion to cover more write-downs of bad mortgage-related instruments and potential new losses if consumer loans start to buckle. Since President Bush came to office, our national savings have gone from 6 percent of gross domestic product to 1 percent, and consumer debt has climbed from $8 trillion to $14 trillion.
My fellow Americans: We are a country in debt and in decline — not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline. Our political system seems incapable of producing long-range answers to big problems or big opportunities.
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Another Bad Deal for Baghdad
I would be surprised if the present leaders in Iraqi do not fall all over each other grabbing for a part of the $50 B bribe. I would also be surprised if our House and Senate lift a finger to stop the Bush/Cheney $50 B bribe that is otherwise known as the “strategic alliance”.
Think of it as a $50 B gift to an organized crime system that is created by and defended by the USA.
Jim
June 17, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Another Bad Deal for Baghdad
By KARL E. MEYER
WITH only perfunctory debate, the Bush administration is pressuring a divided Iraqi government to approve a security agreement that could haunt Washington’s relations with Baghdad for years to come. The “strategic alliance” that President Bush is proposing eerily resembles, in spirit and in letter, a failed 1930 treaty between Britain and Iraq that prompted a nationalist eruption in Baghdad, a pro-Nazi military coup and a pogrom that foreshadowed the elimination of Baghdad’s ancient Jewish community.
The outline of the deal, which has not been made public, has been described by a high-level Iraqi insider, Ali A. Allawi, a moderate Shiite who was a post-invasion finance minister. Writing this month in The Independent of London, Mr. Allawi noted a disturbing parallel between the proposed alliance between the United States and Iraq and the earlier treaty that formally ended Iraq’s post-World War I status as a British mandate.
“The treaty gave Britain military and economic privileges in exchange for Britain’s promise to end the mandate over the country,” Mr. Allawi wrote. “The treaty was ratified by a docile Iraqi Parliament but was bitterly resented by nationalists. Iraq’s dependency on Britain poisoned Iraqi politics for the next quarter-century. Riots, civil disturbances, uprisings and coups were all features of Iraq’s political landscape, prompted in no small measure by the bitter disputations over the treaty with Britain.”
Under the 1930 pact, Iraq had to consult Britain on security issues and allow it the use of Iraqi airports, ports, railways and rivers. Two major military bases were leased to the British, who were empowered to station their forces throughout Iraq. British personnel were granted immunity from local prosecution.
Almost 80 years later, the Bush administration seeks a startlingly similar arrangement. While not formally a treaty (having been carefully crafted to avoid the requirement of Senate ratification), the wide-ranging pact that the United States proposes nearly replicates the 1930 accord. According to press reports based on leaks from the Iraqi
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/opinion/17meyer.html?hp
Think of it as a $50 B gift to an organized crime system that is created by and defended by the USA.
Jim
June 17, 2008
Op-Ed Contributor
Another Bad Deal for Baghdad
By KARL E. MEYER
WITH only perfunctory debate, the Bush administration is pressuring a divided Iraqi government to approve a security agreement that could haunt Washington’s relations with Baghdad for years to come. The “strategic alliance” that President Bush is proposing eerily resembles, in spirit and in letter, a failed 1930 treaty between Britain and Iraq that prompted a nationalist eruption in Baghdad, a pro-Nazi military coup and a pogrom that foreshadowed the elimination of Baghdad’s ancient Jewish community.
The outline of the deal, which has not been made public, has been described by a high-level Iraqi insider, Ali A. Allawi, a moderate Shiite who was a post-invasion finance minister. Writing this month in The Independent of London, Mr. Allawi noted a disturbing parallel between the proposed alliance between the United States and Iraq and the earlier treaty that formally ended Iraq’s post-World War I status as a British mandate.
“The treaty gave Britain military and economic privileges in exchange for Britain’s promise to end the mandate over the country,” Mr. Allawi wrote. “The treaty was ratified by a docile Iraqi Parliament but was bitterly resented by nationalists. Iraq’s dependency on Britain poisoned Iraqi politics for the next quarter-century. Riots, civil disturbances, uprisings and coups were all features of Iraq’s political landscape, prompted in no small measure by the bitter disputations over the treaty with Britain.”
Under the 1930 pact, Iraq had to consult Britain on security issues and allow it the use of Iraqi airports, ports, railways and rivers. Two major military bases were leased to the British, who were empowered to station their forces throughout Iraq. British personnel were granted immunity from local prosecution.
Almost 80 years later, the Bush administration seeks a startlingly similar arrangement. While not formally a treaty (having been carefully crafted to avoid the requirement of Senate ratification), the wide-ranging pact that the United States proposes nearly replicates the 1930 accord. According to press reports based on leaks from the Iraqi
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/17/opinion/17meyer.html?hp
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
the Change is for real
Some saw the chance of the first woman President of the United States and others saw the chance of the first black President of the United States. Those that are somewhat color blind heard another first; a message not heard since the 1940’s: government for the common man.
When the excitement of a woman and a black person becoming POTUS wears off we will be left with a decision. Do we continue doing things the Nixon, Regan, Bush way? Or are we willing to support a White House and a political party that listens more to ordinary people and less to the military industrial complex, insurance companies and energy companies.
In the words of Democratic Party Chairperson Howard Dean:
“As of this morning, if you're a federal lobbyist, or if you control political action committee donations, we won't be accepting your contribution.
This is an unprecedented move for a political party to make -- one that has sent shockwaves through Washington and has turned the debate on clean campaigns upside down.”
Combine the blocking of lobbyist and special interest financed campaigns with the 50 State Strategy and I believe that you have the biggest change in modern American politics since Roosevelt and the New Deal. A woman or a mixed race man running in a presidential election will pale in comparison. K STREET in DC will change to k street in DC.
Your voice will heard, the Change is for real, Happy Days are Here Again
Any summertime event can be a voter registration event for you. You can make you own Register to Vote HERE T shirt with a magic marker; a visible sign on a bag or briefcase will work also. Just have a supply of voter registrations with you all the time.
Call the Democratic Party Headquarters for voter registrations at: 37 South High St., West Chester, PA 19382 (Phone) 610-692-5811 (Fax) 610-692-8474
If you are in the Coatesville area, email me at:
DemocratJim@gmail.com
There is lots of up to the minute information on the Chester County Democratic Committee website:
http://chescodems.org/
Listen more than you talk, you can learn something from anyone.
When the excitement of a woman and a black person becoming POTUS wears off we will be left with a decision. Do we continue doing things the Nixon, Regan, Bush way? Or are we willing to support a White House and a political party that listens more to ordinary people and less to the military industrial complex, insurance companies and energy companies.
In the words of Democratic Party Chairperson Howard Dean:
“As of this morning, if you're a federal lobbyist, or if you control political action committee donations, we won't be accepting your contribution.
This is an unprecedented move for a political party to make -- one that has sent shockwaves through Washington and has turned the debate on clean campaigns upside down.”
Combine the blocking of lobbyist and special interest financed campaigns with the 50 State Strategy and I believe that you have the biggest change in modern American politics since Roosevelt and the New Deal. A woman or a mixed race man running in a presidential election will pale in comparison. K STREET in DC will change to k street in DC.
Your voice will heard, the Change is for real, Happy Days are Here Again
Any summertime event can be a voter registration event for you. You can make you own Register to Vote HERE T shirt with a magic marker; a visible sign on a bag or briefcase will work also. Just have a supply of voter registrations with you all the time.
Call the Democratic Party Headquarters for voter registrations at: 37 South High St., West Chester, PA 19382 (Phone) 610-692-5811 (Fax) 610-692-8474
If you are in the Coatesville area, email me at:
DemocratJim@gmail.com
There is lots of up to the minute information on the Chester County Democratic Committee website:
http://chescodems.org/
Listen more than you talk, you can learn something from anyone.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Let's register more voters!
Hello Everyone~
What a week!!!:):):) Now that Barack is the *****Democratic candidate for November's election*****, we are gearing up and kicking-off our Summer Voter Registration Campaign Kick-Off.
Since everyone worked so hard on the primary, everyone deserves a well-earned rest from our election activities so we have devised a creative way to make things simple this summer.
All of us can attend summer events and register voters! Sound like fun? Read on...
Here is a list of fun events happening in our region.
What's the pay-off? Summer Fun+Newly Registered Voters+WE HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA AS THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! A winning combination...
Regardless what you do this summer, you can become a Summer Voter Registration Ambassador for Barack at family picnics, park visits, sports events, concerts, or when walking, fishing, shopping, filling up, etc., etc., etc.
If interested, we will get all the materials you need: Register to Vote Here T-Shirt and voter registration form packets. Here is our list so far...
What a week!!!:):):) Now that Barack is the *****Democratic candidate for November's election*****, we are gearing up and kicking-off our Summer Voter Registration Campaign Kick-Off.
Since everyone worked so hard on the primary, everyone deserves a well-earned rest from our election activities so we have devised a creative way to make things simple this summer.
All of us can attend summer events and register voters! Sound like fun? Read on...
Here is a list of fun events happening in our region.
What's the pay-off? Summer Fun+Newly Registered Voters+WE HELP ELECT BARACK OBAMA AS THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! A winning combination...
Regardless what you do this summer, you can become a Summer Voter Registration Ambassador for Barack at family picnics, park visits, sports events, concerts, or when walking, fishing, shopping, filling up, etc., etc., etc.
If interested, we will get all the materials you need: Register to Vote Here T-Shirt and voter registration form packets. Here is our list so far...
- July 17th Modena County Historical Town Tour (evening) 610-384-6777 or 470-7162 reservation/info
- June 7th French Creek State Park National Trails Day 10-4 July 21st Parkesburg Movies in the Park
- June 21st Honey Brook Fireman’s Carnival ALL DAY July 23rd Cochranville Fireman’s Carnival
- June 28th 9th Annual Fiesta Latina Coatesville Cultural Society July 24th Cochranville Fireman’s Carnival
- July 1st Parkesburg Fair 6:00-10:00 pm July 25th Cochranville Fireman’s Carnival
- July 2nd Parkesburg Fair 6:00-10:00 pm July 26th Cochranville Fireman’s Carnival
- July 3rd Parkesburg Fair 6:00-10:00 pm July 26th Gaelic Concert Coatesville Cultural Society 8:00 pm $15/kids free
- July 4th Parkesburg Fair 1:00-10:00 pm (fireworks) August 4th Parkesburg Movies inthe Park
- July 4th Good Neighbor Day Downingtown (table) 8:00 am-10:00 pm (fireworks)
- July 5th Parkesburg Fair 1:00-10:00 pm August 9th Valley Days (Westwood Fire Company) 12:00 -5:00 pm (table)
- July 12th Coatesville Concert and Fireworks Gateway Park 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm
- July 12th Coatesville Victorian Ice Cream Festival Gateway Park 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
- August 9th Hibernia Park Fiddler’s Picnic 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (table)
- September 27th Springton Manor Family Day 10:00 am to 4:00 pm $5 parking fee
Monday, June 2, 2008
Clinton moves to steal delegates
I think that most Democrats now understand that if we should nominate the Clintons for president:
· We will then face a nation full of extremely hostile Black voters.
· We will need to win the election without votes from people under forty years old.
The Clinton’s time would be better spent on how to overcome the hostility towards them in Harlem.
Betrayal is very hard to forgive.
Jim Pitcherella
Published on Capitol Hill Blue (http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont)
Clinton moves to steal delegates
As Barack Obama turns to concentrate on his general election challenge, his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is mounting a last ditch campaign to stay relevant in what is left of the Democratic presidential contest.
The former first lady enters this week with an insurgent strategy not only to win over undecided superdelegates but to peel away Obama's support from those party leaders and elected officials who already have committed to back him for the nomination.
"One thing about superdelegates is that they can change their minds," she told reporters aboard her campaign plane Sunday night.
Obama displays no signs of worry, pivoting toward his new contest with Republican John McCain and responding to Clinton with a shrug. And some of Clinton's own backers are saying the time is near for her to fall in behind him.
Obama, campaigning in Mitchell, S.D., confidently predicted Clinton "is going to be a great asset when we go into November."
"Whatever differences Senator Clinton and I may have, those differences pale in comparison to the other side," he said.
South Dakota and Montana, which hold primaries on Tuesday, are the last Democratic nominating contests. Obama is favored in both states and he goes into them with 2,069 delegates, 47 away from the number now needed to secure the nomination. Clinton has 1,915.5 delegates.
Obama has made up most of the ground he lost Saturday when the national party's rules committee agreed to reinstate delegates from Michigan and Florida. The party had initially refused to seat the delegates as punishment for scheduling their contests in violation of party rules.
With 31 delegates at stake Tuesday, Obama could close the gap further and cue undecided superdelegates to come to his side.
But Clinton argues she now leads in the popular vote — a debatable point given that she relies on Michigan and Florida outcomes. None of the candidates campaigned in either state and Obama received no votes in Michigan because he removed his name from the ballot. Clinton also continues to present herself as better able to confront McCain in the fall.
She and her campaign's national chairman, Terry McAuliffe, both made it clear Sunday night that Obama's supporters were now fair to pluck with those arguments.
To drive the point home, Clinton invited Virgin Islands superdelegate Kevin Rodriguez, a recent convert, to travel with her to South Dakota where she planned to campaign Monday. Rodriguez had initially supported Clinton, switched to Obama, and recently returned to her camp.
"This has been such an intense process," she said, "I don't think there has been a lot of time for reflection. It's only now that we're finishing these contests that people are going to actually reflect on who is our stronger candidate."
Her decision, if prolonged, is not likely to sit well with party leaders and some of her own supporters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have both
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/8142
· We will then face a nation full of extremely hostile Black voters.
· We will need to win the election without votes from people under forty years old.
The Clinton’s time would be better spent on how to overcome the hostility towards them in Harlem.
Betrayal is very hard to forgive.
Jim Pitcherella
Published on Capitol Hill Blue (http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont)
Clinton moves to steal delegates
As Barack Obama turns to concentrate on his general election challenge, his rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is mounting a last ditch campaign to stay relevant in what is left of the Democratic presidential contest.
The former first lady enters this week with an insurgent strategy not only to win over undecided superdelegates but to peel away Obama's support from those party leaders and elected officials who already have committed to back him for the nomination.
"One thing about superdelegates is that they can change their minds," she told reporters aboard her campaign plane Sunday night.
Obama displays no signs of worry, pivoting toward his new contest with Republican John McCain and responding to Clinton with a shrug. And some of Clinton's own backers are saying the time is near for her to fall in behind him.
Obama, campaigning in Mitchell, S.D., confidently predicted Clinton "is going to be a great asset when we go into November."
"Whatever differences Senator Clinton and I may have, those differences pale in comparison to the other side," he said.
South Dakota and Montana, which hold primaries on Tuesday, are the last Democratic nominating contests. Obama is favored in both states and he goes into them with 2,069 delegates, 47 away from the number now needed to secure the nomination. Clinton has 1,915.5 delegates.
Obama has made up most of the ground he lost Saturday when the national party's rules committee agreed to reinstate delegates from Michigan and Florida. The party had initially refused to seat the delegates as punishment for scheduling their contests in violation of party rules.
With 31 delegates at stake Tuesday, Obama could close the gap further and cue undecided superdelegates to come to his side.
But Clinton argues she now leads in the popular vote — a debatable point given that she relies on Michigan and Florida outcomes. None of the candidates campaigned in either state and Obama received no votes in Michigan because he removed his name from the ballot. Clinton also continues to present herself as better able to confront McCain in the fall.
She and her campaign's national chairman, Terry McAuliffe, both made it clear Sunday night that Obama's supporters were now fair to pluck with those arguments.
To drive the point home, Clinton invited Virgin Islands superdelegate Kevin Rodriguez, a recent convert, to travel with her to South Dakota where she planned to campaign Monday. Rodriguez had initially supported Clinton, switched to Obama, and recently returned to her camp.
"This has been such an intense process," she said, "I don't think there has been a lot of time for reflection. It's only now that we're finishing these contests that people are going to actually reflect on who is our stronger candidate."
Her decision, if prolonged, is not likely to sit well with party leaders and some of her own supporters. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., have both
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/8142
Friday, May 30, 2008
Prosecutors
When things got started here on this side of the pond, it was "I, Queen Elizabeth" who called the shots here in the American Colonies. Later on some of the locals got fed up with their contemporary version of Elizabeth. They took the risk of winding up like William Wallace “Brave Heart” of Scotland and challenged their current leader, King George. They challenged King George's updated version, "I King George". They did something new; they changed it to, "We the people".
In France, in England and here in the USA the Law is not mostly about property and kings. The Law as we know it began as a way to bend the will of property owners and kings to reflect the common good. The Law here is about community and the equal treatment of every individual in that community.
There are still remnants of the "might makes right" attitude of Dark Ages Feudal Kings in our society, but the concept of fairness permeates every pore of our culture.
Those people back in the 18th Century who challenged the “Rights of Kings” foresaw the very human possibility of those with property and power making themselves new ‘kings”. They put checks on unlimited power into the foundations of our government. One of the checks is our concept of the law.
One thing about prosecutors and police; the overwhelming majority of them are in it to enforce the law. "The law is not a cold, impersonal thing; it springs from that passion to respect every person equally, to establish fairness on life's playing field."
Sometimes political favoritism gets in the way of enforcing the law; but most of the time political favoritism ultimately loses the battle in a law enforcement officer's head. And that passion to establish fairness on life's playing field wins.
Jim Pitcherella
Published on Capitol Hill Blue (http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont)
It's hard to arrest a Congressman
Campaigning under the cloud of federal investigations is tough enough, but could Sen. Ted Stevens or Rep. Don Young have the added worries of an indictment before they face the voters of Alaska?
It's been 21 months since the federal corruption investigation surfaced in Alaska with a series of dramatic raids on legislative and other offices. Eight cases have been brought, resulting in convictions in all but one -- and that matter is still pending.
No one outside the government is privy to where the investigation is headed and whether it will eventually lead to charges against Stevens and Young, who deny wrongdoing but who won't discuss specifics about the allegations.
It remains especially difficult to charge members of Congress for matters related to legislation. The Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause offers a broad shield against interference by the Justice Department and other agencies of the executive branch into how a congressman might have created, for example, an earmark that benefited a campaign contributor, family member or former aide -- matters that are part of the investigations of Young and Stevens.
Last year, that clause was cited by an appeals court in tossing out evidence seized by the FBI in a raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., the congressman famous for keeping $90,000 in marked bills in his home freezer.
Yet the government is pressing ahead, with grand juries continuing to hear evidence in at least Anchorage and Washington, D.C.
Questions about the timing of future indictments, should more be handed up by the grand juries, are being heard with increasing frequency in Alaska as the investigation drags on in relative secrecy and the elections approach. It's just three months to the Republican primary, where both Stevens and Young face opponents, and just over five months to the general election, where strong Democratic challengers await.
The Justice Department's policy manual for U.S. attorneys doesn't impose any restrictions on the timing of indictments in public corruption cases. A department spokeswoman in Washington, Laura Sweeney, said such decisions are made on a "case-by-case basis," much like the other factors that go into whether to indict or not.
The Alaska investigation is being managed by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, a headquarters unit of career prosecutors noted for working on its own timetable and setting its own priorities. But that section also has a record of not bringing cases against sitting politicians in the immediate run-up to an election.
Stevens, 84, is the longest-serving Republican senator. His Girdwood home was searched last summer by FBI and IRS agents investigating his connection to Bill Allen, the chairman of the now-defunct oil field services company Veco. That firm managed and paid some of the employees who worked on renovations that doubled the size of Stevens' home in 2000.
Young, 74, has never lost an election since he gained office in a special election in March 1973, when he replaced Rep. Nick Begich, the father of Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who vanished on a flight from Anchorage and was never found. Young is a subject of at least two federal investigations: the Veco case and an earmark he introduced for a highway interchange in Florida sought by a campaign contributor. Young is also connected to the long-running investigation of super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now in federal prison.
Investigations don't necessarily mean charges will be brought. Many more elected officials have been investigated than have been indicted. Yet political damage has already been done.
"A politician like Stevens or Young who is under investigation during an election year is in deep trouble," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics and a frequent media analyst. "It really does affect the likelihood of re-election."
"The feds are very conscious of what they're doing in an election year, and they know that if they indict or even investigate a senator or a congressman during an
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/8000
In France, in England and here in the USA the Law is not mostly about property and kings. The Law as we know it began as a way to bend the will of property owners and kings to reflect the common good. The Law here is about community and the equal treatment of every individual in that community.
There are still remnants of the "might makes right" attitude of Dark Ages Feudal Kings in our society, but the concept of fairness permeates every pore of our culture.
Those people back in the 18th Century who challenged the “Rights of Kings” foresaw the very human possibility of those with property and power making themselves new ‘kings”. They put checks on unlimited power into the foundations of our government. One of the checks is our concept of the law.
One thing about prosecutors and police; the overwhelming majority of them are in it to enforce the law. "The law is not a cold, impersonal thing; it springs from that passion to respect every person equally, to establish fairness on life's playing field."
Sometimes political favoritism gets in the way of enforcing the law; but most of the time political favoritism ultimately loses the battle in a law enforcement officer's head. And that passion to establish fairness on life's playing field wins.
Jim Pitcherella
Published on Capitol Hill Blue (http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont)
It's hard to arrest a Congressman
Campaigning under the cloud of federal investigations is tough enough, but could Sen. Ted Stevens or Rep. Don Young have the added worries of an indictment before they face the voters of Alaska?
It's been 21 months since the federal corruption investigation surfaced in Alaska with a series of dramatic raids on legislative and other offices. Eight cases have been brought, resulting in convictions in all but one -- and that matter is still pending.
No one outside the government is privy to where the investigation is headed and whether it will eventually lead to charges against Stevens and Young, who deny wrongdoing but who won't discuss specifics about the allegations.
It remains especially difficult to charge members of Congress for matters related to legislation. The Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause offers a broad shield against interference by the Justice Department and other agencies of the executive branch into how a congressman might have created, for example, an earmark that benefited a campaign contributor, family member or former aide -- matters that are part of the investigations of Young and Stevens.
Last year, that clause was cited by an appeals court in tossing out evidence seized by the FBI in a raid on the office of Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., the congressman famous for keeping $90,000 in marked bills in his home freezer.
Yet the government is pressing ahead, with grand juries continuing to hear evidence in at least Anchorage and Washington, D.C.
Questions about the timing of future indictments, should more be handed up by the grand juries, are being heard with increasing frequency in Alaska as the investigation drags on in relative secrecy and the elections approach. It's just three months to the Republican primary, where both Stevens and Young face opponents, and just over five months to the general election, where strong Democratic challengers await.
The Justice Department's policy manual for U.S. attorneys doesn't impose any restrictions on the timing of indictments in public corruption cases. A department spokeswoman in Washington, Laura Sweeney, said such decisions are made on a "case-by-case basis," much like the other factors that go into whether to indict or not.
The Alaska investigation is being managed by the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, a headquarters unit of career prosecutors noted for working on its own timetable and setting its own priorities. But that section also has a record of not bringing cases against sitting politicians in the immediate run-up to an election.
Stevens, 84, is the longest-serving Republican senator. His Girdwood home was searched last summer by FBI and IRS agents investigating his connection to Bill Allen, the chairman of the now-defunct oil field services company Veco. That firm managed and paid some of the employees who worked on renovations that doubled the size of Stevens' home in 2000.
Young, 74, has never lost an election since he gained office in a special election in March 1973, when he replaced Rep. Nick Begich, the father of Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich, who vanished on a flight from Anchorage and was never found. Young is a subject of at least two federal investigations: the Veco case and an earmark he introduced for a highway interchange in Florida sought by a campaign contributor. Young is also connected to the long-running investigation of super lobbyist Jack Abramoff, now in federal prison.
Investigations don't necessarily mean charges will be brought. Many more elected officials have been investigated than have been indicted. Yet political damage has already been done.
"A politician like Stevens or Young who is under investigation during an election year is in deep trouble," said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics and a frequent media analyst. "It really does affect the likelihood of re-election."
"The feds are very conscious of what they're doing in an election year, and they know that if they indict or even investigate a senator or a congressman during an
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE AT:
http://www.capitolhillblue.com/cont/node/8000
Monday, May 26, 2008
The Obama Connection
I support Mr. Obama because he is going to the next President of the United States. I believe that he is because the political organization that he has built is a 21st Century political organization and the other candidates are back in the 1980’s.
When I saw what the Obama organization did in Chester County very early in 2008 I understood that nothing like this ever happened in Chester County. The possibility that any other candidate can beat the Obama organization in Chester County is just not there.
When you add that the Chester County Republicans are split almost evenly between McCain and Ron Paul (that is the Republicans who cannot vote for a Democrat). And that people are aware of the problems with certain Republican committeepersons you can conclude that:
We are looking at a landslide victory for not only Mr. Obama but all Democratic candidates in Chester County in November.
Jim Pitcherella
_______________________________________
May 26, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Obama Connection
By ROGER COHEN
It’s the networks, stupid.
More than any other factor, it has been Barack Obama’s grasp of the central place of Internet-driven social networking that has propelled his campaign for the Democratic nomination into a seemingly unassailable lead over Hillary Clinton. Her campaign has been so 20th-century. His has been of the century we’re in.
That’s not surprising. Obama spent only 10 years of his adult life in the split world of the cold war, double that in a post-Berlin Wall world of growing interconnectedness. MAC — mutually assured connectivity — has replaced the MAD — mutually assured destruction — of cold-war days.
For Clinton, born in 1947, that ratio is different. Her mental paradigm is division. When her husband last ran for president in 1996, the Internet was marginal. The thinking and people from that campaign have proved unable to fast-forward a dozen years. They’ve been left like deer blinded by the Webcam lights of the Obama juggernaut.
This cultural failure has been devastating for Clinton. As Joshua Green chronicles in an important piece in The Atlantic, Obama has used social networking and his user-friendly Web site to develop the money machine, and the youthful engagement, that has swept him forward.
Green notes, “Obama’s claim of 1,276,000 donors is so large that Clinton doesn’t bother to compete.” He gives some other Obama campaign numbers: 750,000 active volunteers and 8,000 affinity groups. In February, a month in which he raised $55 million ($45 million over the Internet), 94 percent of donations were of $200 or less, a number dwarfing small contributions to Clinton and John McCain.
Obama has been a classic Internet-start up, a movement spreading with viral intensity and propelled by some of Silicon Valley’s most creative minds. As with any online phenomenon, he has jumped national borders, stirring as much buzz in Berlin as he does back home.
He could not have achieved this without a sense of history, a conviction that the nature of the post-post-9/11 world — the one beyond war without end — is going to be determined by sociability and connectivity. In the globalized world of MySpace, LinkedIn and the rest, sociability is a force as strong as sovereignty.
I’ve searched in vain for a sense of this pivotal historical moment in Clinton. Her threat to “totally obliterate” Iran, her stomach-turning reference to the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as a reason to stay in the race, her Bosnian fabrications, all reflect a view of history as something that’s there for political ends rather than as a source of inspiration or reflection.
It’s history as “Me, me, me.” That tends to be blinding.
Her most crippling blindness has been to networks, national and global, the threads that bind and have changed society. As David Singh Grewal writes in his excellent new book, “Network Power,” a core tension in the world is that: “Everything is being globalized except politics.”
Grewal continues: “We live in a world in which our relations of sociability — our commerce, culture, ideas, manners — are increasingly shared,
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/opinion/26cohen.html?hp
When I saw what the Obama organization did in Chester County very early in 2008 I understood that nothing like this ever happened in Chester County. The possibility that any other candidate can beat the Obama organization in Chester County is just not there.
When you add that the Chester County Republicans are split almost evenly between McCain and Ron Paul (that is the Republicans who cannot vote for a Democrat). And that people are aware of the problems with certain Republican committeepersons you can conclude that:
We are looking at a landslide victory for not only Mr. Obama but all Democratic candidates in Chester County in November.
Jim Pitcherella
_______________________________________
May 26, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Obama Connection
By ROGER COHEN
It’s the networks, stupid.
More than any other factor, it has been Barack Obama’s grasp of the central place of Internet-driven social networking that has propelled his campaign for the Democratic nomination into a seemingly unassailable lead over Hillary Clinton. Her campaign has been so 20th-century. His has been of the century we’re in.
That’s not surprising. Obama spent only 10 years of his adult life in the split world of the cold war, double that in a post-Berlin Wall world of growing interconnectedness. MAC — mutually assured connectivity — has replaced the MAD — mutually assured destruction — of cold-war days.
For Clinton, born in 1947, that ratio is different. Her mental paradigm is division. When her husband last ran for president in 1996, the Internet was marginal. The thinking and people from that campaign have proved unable to fast-forward a dozen years. They’ve been left like deer blinded by the Webcam lights of the Obama juggernaut.
This cultural failure has been devastating for Clinton. As Joshua Green chronicles in an important piece in The Atlantic, Obama has used social networking and his user-friendly Web site to develop the money machine, and the youthful engagement, that has swept him forward.
Green notes, “Obama’s claim of 1,276,000 donors is so large that Clinton doesn’t bother to compete.” He gives some other Obama campaign numbers: 750,000 active volunteers and 8,000 affinity groups. In February, a month in which he raised $55 million ($45 million over the Internet), 94 percent of donations were of $200 or less, a number dwarfing small contributions to Clinton and John McCain.
Obama has been a classic Internet-start up, a movement spreading with viral intensity and propelled by some of Silicon Valley’s most creative minds. As with any online phenomenon, he has jumped national borders, stirring as much buzz in Berlin as he does back home.
He could not have achieved this without a sense of history, a conviction that the nature of the post-post-9/11 world — the one beyond war without end — is going to be determined by sociability and connectivity. In the globalized world of MySpace, LinkedIn and the rest, sociability is a force as strong as sovereignty.
I’ve searched in vain for a sense of this pivotal historical moment in Clinton. Her threat to “totally obliterate” Iran, her stomach-turning reference to the June 1968 assassination of Robert Kennedy as a reason to stay in the race, her Bosnian fabrications, all reflect a view of history as something that’s there for political ends rather than as a source of inspiration or reflection.
It’s history as “Me, me, me.” That tends to be blinding.
Her most crippling blindness has been to networks, national and global, the threads that bind and have changed society. As David Singh Grewal writes in his excellent new book, “Network Power,” a core tension in the world is that: “Everything is being globalized except politics.”
Grewal continues: “We live in a world in which our relations of sociability — our commerce, culture, ideas, manners — are increasingly shared,
READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/opinion/26cohen.html?hp
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