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Stephen
Views the News  7/12/08

http://stephenviewsthenews.blogspot.com/

* Dear Senator Barack Obama - Your vote for the FISA bill
was a major disappointment to many of us who support your candidacy. At the
same time I cannot anticipate anything that you could do to lose my vote, given
the alternative. I accept the fact that “politician” defines your
career path and it requires tactics and decisions that cannot always satisfy
your core constituency. However, I believe you possess the integrity and a
sense of the law that mandates accountability for all branches of government. I
would hope that as president you will sanction the investigation of the many
areas where the Bush administration is suspected of having broken the law. At a
minimum, the exposure of wrong-doing would provide some level of accountability
for the Bush administration that was non-existent during its tenure. If trust
in our government and leaders is not restored the future will be even bleaker
than the current state of affairs. You sir, are the best hope that our country
has at this time. I wish you well in your candidacy and trust that you have the
ability and courage to fulfill the expectations that so many millions hold for
you and our country.

* It may be a headache but, its all in your head –
Phil Graham is McCain’s top economic advisor. The former senator and then
lobbyist for national and international banking interests earned millions of
dollars pushing for laws and policies that substantially contributed to the
current mortgage crisis. Given his substantial wealth it is no wonder that this
week he said that
we are a nation of whiners. Graham claims that the economic recession that
millions of Americans are experiencing is in fact a mental recession. The 10
percent of haves in this country would probably agree with this lobbyist leech.
The vast majority of Americans would conclude that Mr. Graham’s head is
up his assets.

* The Manchurian Candidates were elected – Vice
President Dick Cheney not only ignores the safety and welfare of Americans but
actually goes out of his way to ensure that we are at risk. The justification
for this seemingly implausible statement about a national leader was the
revelation this week that Cheney’s office deliberately
deleted congressional testimony of a senior government official about the
consequences of climate change on public health. A former senior EPA official,
Jason K. Burnett, said “the White House was concerned that the proposed
testimony last October by the head of the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention might make it tougher to avoid regulating greenhouse gases emitted
into the atmosphere.” Protecting the interests of Big Oil was more
important to the VP than the health and safety of fellow citizens. When the
history of the first decade of the 21st century is written I believe
that the damage to America
caused by Dick Cheney and George Bush will have far exceeded the damage
perpetrated by Osama bin Laden. Also to be ignobly immortalized will be a
Congress that was gutless and impotent opposing the Bush/Cheney juggernaut and too
often sucked at the teat of special interests.

* Foot dragging, incompetence, malfeasance? ~ meet the U.S
Justice Department – “More
than 900 cases alleging that government contractors and drug makers have
defrauded taxpayers out of billions of dollars are languishing in a backlog
that has built up over the past decade because the Justice Department cannot
keep pace with the surge in charges brought by whistle-blowers, according to
lawyers involved in the disputes.” Under the Bush administration we have
experienced the Justice Department acting as a political arm of the executive
branch of government. As the government cries poor mouth, lacking funds for
education, reducing Medicare payments to doctors and a litany of other
under-funded programs it allows available resources to be stolen by scumbags
with portfolio. I did not share the mild optimism that Michael Mukasey would be
an improvement over Alberto Gonzales since any Bush appointee must possess an
inherent Stepford quality. Both Attorney Generals have proven to be advocates
for a corrupt and incompetent administration, failing to investigate wrongs and
blocking the attempts of Congress to perform its fiduciary responsibilities.
The nobility of blind justice has tragically descended to merely blind.

* Fighting hunger with gourmet meals and droppings from the
southern end of a bull – The G8 is an organization of leading countries
that meet to address an array of world problems. Their recent meeting in Japan
focused on solving the global food crisis. “Delicious” would best
describe the gathering. The six-course lunch was followed by an 18-course
dinner that included white asparagus and truffle soup, almond oil foam and
tapenade, smoked salmon and sea urchin with hot onion tart, grilled bighead
thorryhead fish with pepper sauce, G8 Fantasy dessert and Le Reve Grand Cru
Brut/La Seule Gloire Champagne. Fighting hunger is a challenge. On the other
hand, “pathetic” would describe the G8’s commitment to
reducing world hunger. “In 2005, at the G8 summit in
Gleneagles, Scotland,
world leaders promised to increase global aid by £25billion a year by 2010 and
raise aid to Africa, the world's poorest
continent, by £12.5billion. But the bloc of rich nations is only 14 per cent of
the way towards hitting its target (60 percent into the commitment).”
“Fantasy” not only describes the G8 dessert.

* If not them, whom? – The Federal Bureau of
Investigation, which is part of the U.S. intelligence community, has
the lead responsibility for domestic surveillance of foreign intelligence and suspected
terrorist targets. Important and vital would best describe this critical role
in keeping us safe. However, a
new report by the Senate Appropriations Committee has determined that the
FBI headquarters in Washington,
D.C is somewhat lacking. “The
Hoover Building does not meet the
Interagency Security Committee’s criteria for a secure Federal
facility capable of handling intelligence and other sensitive
information.”  The most surprising part of this revelation is that it was
revealed. We have become accustomed to inadequacies, incompetence and
illegalities in the federal government being hidden from public view by classifying
the information as national security, state secrets, executive privilege and
none of your bees wax. In too many cases “embarrassment” is the
real motivation for hiding the truth but the shear volume of screw-ups does
result in a few leakers.

* Movie nostalgia ~ not the film, the venue of drive-in
theaters – Younger readers may have heard of but never experienced a
drive-in movie theater. My online friend Sue Katz has an interesting blog
entry at Consenting Adult that looks at the 75th anniversary of
drive-in theaters. It sure brought back some memories! Also of interest in the
article is a video that is a montage of intermission films that were shown at
drive-ins that as Sue says, “are a window on the social messages being
pushed during the 50s and 60s: from cold war patriotism to urgings that you go
to church and the PTA to proper drive-in etiquette.” Other messages
encouraged registering to vote and supporting the Boy Scouts. It led me to ponder
where one finds the message today for responsible participation in society?
Almost every waking moment is accompanied by some form of electronic
communication. To what end and to what value?

* “To educate a man in mind and
not in morals is to educate a menace to society.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858 – 1919) 26th
president of the U.S.