Jedi Jew and the Bad Brahmin

I've been wondering, what if Mark Foley were a Democrat? What would the Republican leadership, like Hastert, Reynolds, and the rest, have done? Methinks they would have trumpeted it to the skies, no warning, no nothing. Same for Dobson and the other Republican-leaders -who-claim-to-be-nonpolitical-in-their-roles. Foley would have been pilloried. Dobson would not have dismissed it as a "joke."

Total hypocrisy. All these people care about is Republican power.

Dear Senator Frist,

I heard you on TV last weekend, declaring that flag burning and gay marriage were two of the most important issues facing the American people.

I wanted to write to you and say how glad I am to hear that you have solved the really pressing problems that America confronts today.

However, I am very disappointed that the liberal news media chose not to cover the fact that you have balanced our trillion-dollar deficit, revived the tanking stock market, reversed the export of all of our good jobs, and subdued the inflation that has been lately been creeping upon our economy.

I'm disappointed that the liberal media ignored your solution to out-of-control fuel and utilities prices; and more so that none of the companies that deliver those commodities seem to know about your solution, either.

I'm also very disappointed that your solution for the 46 million Americans who cannot afford health insurance has not been acknowledged or acclaimed.

It's good to know that the troops remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan will have adequate armor, and that they will no longer have to pay for their own uniforms. It's good to know that they will return soon from their president's war of choice; and that those who are wounded or traumatized by what they have seen will receive the medical and psychiatric treatment they will need.

And it's good to know that you've finally stopped the secret police reading my email and listening to my telephone conversations.

I'm thrilled that the Congress has reasserted its Executive oversight role, and that we once again have a Government of the People, where the President must act within the law. I'm glad to know that we are so free, and that our government is so trustworthy that we can now discard the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution.

I'll get over my dismay that you didn't receive proper credit for attending to the many daunting challenges that our country faces. What I'll never be able reconcile though, is how you can minister so zealously to the evil passions of the most fearful and ignorant among us, while expecting the more thoughtful among us to believe that you actually care about our country and Promoting its General Welfare, and yet, you still are able to walk so proudly by day and sleep so soundly at night.

Heckuva job, Fristie!

[jj]

Jedi Jew commented below on the Competitive Enterprise Institute's ads claiming that "carbon dioxide is life" - my two cents (which I sent to CEI) are below.

Your statement that "carbon dioxide is life" is at best disingenuous and at worst a deceitful, intentionally misleading apologia for the fossil fuel industry. I refer you to the story of Lake Nyos in Cameroon, where on August 21, 1986, a huge CO2 bubble rose from the lake and killed 1,700 people. ( http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Glossary/Lakes/description_volcanic_lakes_gas_release.html)

Sounds like "carbon dioxide is death," doesn't it?

You probably know that story yet chose your oversimplified statement about CO2 anyway. The reality is that our atmosphere requires a healthy balance of carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, and even small amounts of argon and other gases. Fossil fuel burning over the last 150 years has shifted that balance to a degree where we have to mitigate its effects.

You may want to cover this truth up, but you have a responsibility to tell the truth and not propagate misleading lies.

Soapblox.net is reporting that the Ku Klux Klan strongly supports Marilyn Musgrave, U.S. House Representative of Colorado's 4th district. Interestingly, Musgrave's spokesman suggests that the Klan's website is not legitimate. But the comments section below the Soapblox piece notes that the site is registered to the Knights Party, a party that is essentially the KKK. And if you google "Knights Party" and go to their website, you get the KKK, including links to jewelry, T-shirts, and other merchandise, and links to their main page. Whether or not this is the legitimate KKK website, it might as well be.

Support Angie Paccione for Colorado's 4th District!

The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which cynically pushes a message that global warming is a completely natural phenomenon, and not related to human activity, has produced two 60-second television spots focusing on the alleged global warming crisis and the calls by some environmental groups and politicians for reduced energy use. The ads are airing in 14 U.S. cities from May 18 to May 28, 2006. View the ads here.

As it turns out, the CEI receives significant financial support from Exxon Mobil. According to The Washington Post...

"The Competitive Enterprise Institute, which widely publicizes its belief that the earth is not warming cataclysmically because of the burning of coal and oil, says Exxon Mobil Corp. is a "major donor" largely as a result of its effort to push that position."

"I think what attracted them to us was our position on global warming," said Sam Kazman, CEI's general counsel. "And we hope to get support from other industries that agree with us."

If you are as impressed by their scientific prowess as I was, I'm sure that they would love to hear from you, too.

Here's what I told them....

I watched your video on The Competitive Enterprise Institute's web site. I am truely amazed that you would sell the idea that carbon dioxide, (CO2) is good for people.

Carbon dioxide, while a necessary functional environmental component, is not good for humans or any other animals. It is an animal waste product. It is waste in exactly the same sense as are feces and urine. If enough CO2 accumulates in Earth's atmosphere, plants will flourish for a while, since plants inhale CO2 and exhale oxygen.

But if the CO2 concentration becomes sufficiently high, the plants will die. CO2 traps heat inside our atmosphere. It is a major source of planetary warming. A good example of planetary warming is the planet Venus, where CO2 is the main atmospheric constituent, and the average temperature is 872°F. Not a good model for a futuristic vision of Earth.

Earth can process a certain amount of CO2, interacting with water and plant life to convert it to oxygen and carbonate rock. But there is a point, perhaps a point already reached, where the rate of human CO2 production will exceed the rate at which Earth can recycle it.

This is not my opinion; it is sixth-grade Science class.

I don't believe that you really think carbon dioxide CO2 is good for you, but in case you do, here's a simple demonstration experiment that may change your perspective. (To ensure safe conduct of this demonstration, you must enlist another, trusted person to assist you. Take turns if you like, so each of you can enjoy the experience.)

1. Find an old refrigerator, big enough for you to climb inside. You can find one at a salvage yard or used appliance store. Maybe your neighbor, Jethro has one in his back yard.

2. Climb into the refrigerator, and let your helper shut the door from outside. Stay inside with the door closed for fifteen minutes, or until your helper hears you bang on the door to let you out.

As you inhale the oxygen inside of the refrigerator, your metabolism will gradually convert it to CO2, which you will then exhale. After a few minutes, there will be more CO2 than oxygen in your atmosphere. If CO2 is good for you, you will soon begin to feel so good that you won't want to leave the refrigerator. That's why you need another person with you; because if someone doesn't open the refrigerator and let you out, the CO2 will make you feel so good that you will suffocate.

If you want to wallow in your own waste, be my guest, but don't ask me wallow with you. Your advertisements demonstrate either absolute stupidity or or a diabolically porcine lust for profit, or both. I sincerely wonder if you have sense of responsibility to anything but yourselves.

[jj]

The "estate tax" has been fought by Republicans because, they claim, families are losing their family farms and businesses when the parents die. They have cut the tax to 0% for 2010 and hope to abolish it permanently.

But everything up to the first $1.5 million dollars doesn't get taxed! So if Grandpa's assets don't exceed $1.5M, no estate tax applies at all!

So... who do you think benefits most by repealing the estate tax? That's right, people with assets exceeding $1.5M.

And who do you think has been lobbying hard for the repeal of the estate tax? Eighteen families. The Waltons of Wal-Mart, the Gallos of Ernest and Julio, and even Campbell's soup . And they did it to save themselves $71.6 billion.

99.75% of Americans are not wealthy enough to qualify for this tax break, because our "estates" are worth less than $1.5M. In 2004, there were only 18,800 taxable estates in the whole USA. Not many in a country of 290 million people.

The estate tax was established in order to prevent the ascension of a nobility, where wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few families. It was intended to preserve healthy middle and working classes.

So let's just call it the no-royalty tax.

The US Senate just passed a resolution stating that the Pledge of Allegiance and national anthem should be spoken in English only. This despite the fact that supposedly the State Department website contained both in Spanish.

This is utterly ridiculous, on a par with "freedom" fries. Is our country so weak? Are Senators who voted for this that stupid? (don't answer that.)

Senator Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, who was opposed, noted that "E Pluribus Unum" is on our coins and is Latin for "one out of many". Should we recall all the coinage?

In the spirit of inclusiveness, here's the Promesa de Lealtad, the Pledge of Allegiance. Thanks to the Washington State Secretary of State's webpage.

Yo prometo lealtad a la bandera
de los estados Unidos de America,
y a la Republica que representa,
una Nacion bajo Dios,
entera,
con libertad y justicia para todos.

Just a quick thought: gas prices are soaring and oil companies are showing record-high profits. How does this fit together? This suggests to me that despite capitalism's strengths, it has some downsides. The profits that benefit a tiny few are causing great pain to a massive number of Americans.

A weirder thought: what if we are so dependent on gasoline that it's no longer a commodity for which the consumer can shop for the lowest price? What if it's a utility, like electricity or water? And (scary music) what if it were made a state enterprise and regulated like the utilities in most towns?

Murray Waas of the National Journal is reporting that Scooter Libby has testified that President Bush authorized the leak of Valerie Plame's name to the media. (Correction: "..President Bush authorized the leak of the National Intelligence Estimate.") I have three questions.

1) Does the president have the power to declassify at will?
2) If so, was this leak an appropriate use of that power?
3) What did the president mean when he said the following on Feb 11, 2004?

"If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of.

"I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job.

"I want to know the truth," the president continued. "Leaks of classified information are bad things."

He added that he did not know of "anybody in my administration who leaked classified information."

These are lies and deceptions to the American people, if what Libby says is true.

Dear Senator Salazar,

I recently wrote to urge you to support and vote for Senator Feingold's Resolution for Censure. I must say that I found your reply less than encouraging.

There is no doubt that the president has broken the law. He has openly and notoriously admitted so on national TV. I see no reason why the Congress should not document this in the Record.

Many people seem to believe that to attack this president in even the slightest way will backfire, by causing the Republicans to rally around the Dear Leader. Given the numerous polls that indicate that nearly 70% of Americans generally disapprove of his policies, I do not see the downside for us.

When you were running for election, my friends and I canvassed Colorado Springs neighborhoods on your behalf. It was not always pleasant, here in the Conservative Holy City.

You were elected, and now, it's time to fight for the values of the people who fought to help you into office.

I know and appreciate that you are working on many worthy initiatives. Water and forest Management, Veterans Support and other noble causes are important to me too; but they will fall by the wayside if we don't restore our Government of the People.

I become sick when I remember that we allowed President Clinton to be impeached because he lied about an affair with an intern. Surely, the president's open and notorious disregard for the US Constitution is worthy of a slap on the wrist. It is time for Democratic Representatives to stand up for what Democrats, and most Americans believe in.

Please get on board, and support Senator Feingold's Censure Resolution.

Yours truly,
[jj]

Here's an excerpt of a letter I sent to Senator Ken Salazar of Colorado.

Dear Senator Salazar,

Please support Senator Feingold's censure of President Bush. The president has broken the FISA law. It is not fair that the rest of us have to follow the law and he gets to pick and choose when he follows it and when he doesn't.

I know you are a moderate guy. But a censure resolution is not an extreme thing. It simply tells the president that broke the law and misled the people - which he certainly did. He said that wiretapping required a court order, and all the while he was doing wiretaps without a court order.

Senator Salazar, his actions are a huge slap in the face to the rule of law. The rule of law implies that we follow the law in all its particulars, whether or not we agree with it or could work more efficiently without its hindrance. And while protecting the US from terrorists should be the president's priority, he had a perfectly legal way to conduct the wiretaps - by getting a court order. He chose to ignore that.

Do you remember in 2004 how no one was brave enough to criticize the president and the war, until Howard Dean came along and did so? That opened the door to a healthy debate on the war and on our nation's present and future. Please, Senator, be brave enough to support this censure. It will open the door to a healthy examination of what our Constitutional rights are and what the rule of law really means.

I know the Senate is in the midst of hearings on the wiretap program. Maybe this censure feels premature because those hearings are ongoing. But the president's misleading us - telling us he needed a court order while secretly not getting a court order - is still censurable right now.

Please take this step. Support the censure. It is not extreme or crazy. It holds the president accountable. If the president is not accountable, this nation is a dictatorship.

Thank you for reading. I send you my best wishes.

Sincerely, etc.

Dear Senator Roberts,

I am very disappointed that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence rejected a proposal by Vice Chairman Sen. John D. Rockefeller to conduct a Congressional review of the NSA warrantless spying program. As Chairman of the Committee, I trust that you can take significant credit for that outcome.

From reading the news, and other research, I estimate that more than 60% of Americans are feeling the way I do. We were really hoping that this time, our Congress would stand up for its People. The President of the United States first told us that "Wiretaps require a court order," and he later admitted on national TV that he had been authorizing and conducting warrantless domestic surveillance activities for nearly four years. One of those statements is a lie, which the president told all of the People.

Senator, do you represent the People of the United States; or do you represent the Secret Police?

I will spare you from the litany of instances I've observed, when you have supported the Administration's subversion of the US Constitution and the Rule of Law. It seems adequate to say that you have a consistent track record of having taken positions that favor the expansion of Executive privilege and power, while taking that privilege and power away from citizens. Your positions regarding warrantless domestic spying, Iraq intelligence, intelligence leaking and torture are contrary to everything I understand about the US Constitution and what it means to live in this country.

I believe that it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who told Americans that "We have nothing to fear, but Fear, itself." And I believe it was Benjamin Franklin who told us that if we gave up our Liberty for security, then we would have neither.

America and the world face a grave challenge from Terrorism. However, to meet that challenge, we need leadership; not governmental fear mongering.

We must play by the rules that have served us so well for nearly 220 years. If we must surrender our civil liberties to protect our national security, then I believe that the terrorists have already won.

As a US Senator, you are sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution, even if many citizens are sufficiently naïve that they would waive their Constitutional rights out of government-inspired fear. Your support for laws and policies that would nullify the Bill of Rights contradicts your Oath of Office, and it undermines the rights of all Americans.

Sincerely,

[jj]

Dear Senator Bunning,

You are widely quoted, having said, in support of certain controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, that "Civil liberties do not mean much when you are dead."

I offer a corollary to your hyperbolic statement:

Being alive doesn't mean much when you live under an authoritarian dictatorship. Life doesn't mean much when the secret police can listen to your phone, read your mail, and audit your library records. Being alive doesn't mean much when the secret police can apprehend you without warrant, probable cause, criminal charges or legal counsel, - indefinitely - while denying you all of the due process that our Constitution guarantees to everyone.

As a US Senator, you are sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution, even if many citizens are sufficiently naïve that they would waive their Constitutional rights out of government-inspired fear. Your support for laws and policies that would nullify the Bill of Rights belies your Oath of Office, and it undermines the rights of all Americans.

In applying PATRIOT Act, the president's warrantless-wiretap, and other off-the-record domestic spying programs, the criteria that may justify governmental waiver of a citizen's Fourth Amendment protections are nebulous, if they are defined at all.

Certain over-reaching provisions of the PATRIOT Act, as well as the president's no-warrant wiretap activities, the torture and humiliation of prisoners, and the existence of secret, offshore gulags are a black eye on America, and no one who loves the United States of America should lend countenance to such conduct.

I see no reason why the government cannot do its job and still play by the rules that have served us so well for nearly 220 years. If we must surrender our civil liberties to protect our national security, then I believe that the terrorists have already won.

Sincerely,

[jj]

The FY2007 federal budget includes a scheme to raise money by selling off as much as 800,000 acres of America's treasured public lands. I oppose any such sale, and I reject these plans to privatize our national lands.

I am dumbfounded that everything in America, including access to the White House and Congress, our seaports, and now, our natural resources and public lands, seems to be for sale to the highest bidder.

Those lands are national treasures, to be preserved for all, and to be handed on to Posterity.

It would not be conceivable to liquidate public lands, were America not a bankrupt nation. And we would not be bankrupt, had we not squandered our FY2000, $230-billion surplus on an illegal, undeclared war against an unarmed, third-world country, and had we not given several successive, massive tax cuts to multi-national corporations and the people who control them.

I'm going to quit my job. Then I'm going to buy a new car and a big house. Then I'm going on a 'round the world vacation. I'll live on borrowed money -- from China. Why not? That's the kind of book keeping that the whole country seems to be doing these days.

Actually, this land-disposal scheme is analogous to a drug addict or a compulsive gambler who mortgages his home to feed his habit.

Before we resort to selling off our family jewels, perhaps we should consider making the Mineral Industry pay the $7-billion in royalties that we recently waived from them. We might also hold accountable the war contractors who are responsible for the missing $9-billion in Iraq Reconstruction funds. If that won't restore our national solvency, perhaps we should repeal the tax cuts we've enacted during the past five years.

Members of Congress should live up to their charter to represent the People, and publicly declare their opposition to this idea, immediately. Our public lands are not the government's slush fund.

It's time to contact your Members of Congress. Tell them to start doing their job.

For more details about what you can buy, (for the right price), see America for Sale: A Congressional Report on How America Is Being Sold to the Highest Bidder, by the US House Rules Committee Democratic Staff.

[jj]