The Grieving Road Show of the Culture of Life

It was bound to happen. The protestors outside the hospice of Terri Schiavo had to leave, or they had to be coerced to leave. Guards with plastic bullwhips were scattered over the property to entice the right-wingers to pack up the RV, the signs, the placards, the Holy water, and to move to Rome to protest the Pope’s condition. When word spread that the Pope was on a feeding tube travel arrangements were made as a representative from TWA circulated through the crowd with a laptop hooked up to a cell phone, a non-stop to the papal land to see the white smoke for just $1099.00. That price does not include a room but does offer a tour guide to lead you through the crowd to where the cameras are positioned. Talk of the statement released about Terri Schiavo should not be discussed except in hushed tones it is advised in the pamphlet.


- Chris Mansel

A Portion of the Soul Carries the Heart

America, above purpose, defines itself as the last toll on the road to democracy. It creates its own vision of an idea and betrays it as often as it recites it. Defying international law and reconsidering its reasons it invades and assumes the populations wealth. Natural resources, the acquiring of by force are not listed in the constitution or in any of its amendments. Democracy wastes itself on the definition of morality and indecision. Defending its agenda on the basis of the rights of the wealthy democracy completely undermines the rights of the poor to earn a living and concentrates itself upon the furthering of its principles of the class warfare it defends so abundantly through a two party system that only falls in the path of the law when it forgets itself and rushes ahead without the payment of graft and favors. William Julius Mickle wrote, “The less criminal spirits animate bees, singing birds, and other innocent creatures; while those of deeper guilt become wolves or tigers.” These wolves don’t disguise themselves and they eat their prey in front of the young to remind those looking that if you have none they will still take what you don’t have. The antidote to patience is not resolve, but action. Words define only what the memory will allow. Choice is the omnipresent wage that drives the open minded and cannot be assumed by anyone through force or by law. The ability to vote, to write in a vote, clarifies what the two party system might describe as an un-American activity. To not employ the television media for news is to off load the spin for the truth.

- Chris Mansel

Schiavo and the Chaos Outside

Terri Schiavo’s mind reduced to that of an infant would be horrified at the going on outside her window being carried out by people who have never even met her. Imagine a few hundred people you have never met speaking for you in front of the country. The press goes on and on about how long Terri has lasted now without the feeding tube. Her body has been fed this way for 15 years; it will take a while for it to realize it is no longer going to be fed any longer. Or maybe her body is hanging on and showing the chaos outside that she would have been better off without the feeding tube altogether. If life as we know it is a life of the mind where it guides our every action then what kind of life can it be without one? Like an orphan in a storm Terri Schiavo is somewhere between here and there, and unable to come out of the rain, just how many signs and television cameras will it take to bring her home?

- Chris Mansel

Emma Goldman

Speech Against Conscription and War by Emma Goldman
[Delivered at Forward Hall, New York City, June 14, 1917]

If the framers of the Declaration of Independence if Jefferson or Henry or the others, if they could look down upon the country and see what their offspring has done to it, how they have outraged it, how they have robbed it, how they have polluted it--why, my friends, they would turn in their graves. They would rise again and they would cleanse this country from its internal enemies, and that is the ruling class of the United States. There is a lesson you are going to learn and terrible as it is for us we nevertheless are glad that you will have to learn that lesson.

Culture Of Life and the Sex Offender

Site of Reference: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000856102

There is nothing poetic in suffering. Pain endured out of some sort of bravery is as absurd as keeping someone alive who has no chance at retaining consciousness. Eight or nine days without food or water is extreme but is it so extreme for a body who has no idea that it is even functioning? The right wing, Culture of Lifers has said they will look at the actions of the Supreme Court in the Terri Schiavo matter closely. When Judge Rehnquist finally dies or resigns the pressure will be on President Bush to appoint someone his most ardent supporters will approve of. In the years to come it will not be good enough to profess to be a conservative, you will have to state categorically that you are a card carrying member of the Culture of Life. That means that in no circumstances do you side with anyone besides the zealots of the born again Christians now standing outside the Hospice in Florida.
One protestor, one Culture of Life member that has appeared on camera to support the religious right and the case for Terri Schiavo is Scott Heldrith, who is a registered sex offender. Editor and Publisher reports, “As protests outside the hospice housing Terri Schiavo in her final days mounted last week, numerous newspaper reports, many based on an Associated Press account, mentioned or quoted 10-year-old Joshua Heldreth and/or his father, Scott Heldreth. Josh was one of several youngsters arrested for crossing police lines in Pinellas Park, Fla., in an effort to take water to Schiavo. None of the stories revealed that Scott Heldreth, a religious activist and anti-abortion crusader, is a registered sex offender in Florida-- until The Charlotte Observer mentioned it on Sunday.”

The Culture of Life, the religious right have held signs and supported the words of a registered sex offender in their fervent prayers and emotionally draining nodding of heads and holding up of vigils. Who knows what Heldrith has done to his own son? Editor and Publisher also reports, “The former Naperville, Fla., resident remains listed on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's sex offender registry,” the Observer reported, “but he's not registered on North Carolina's; the N.C. equivalent applies to offenders convicted on or after Jan. 1, 1996.”According to the story, Heldreth claimed that his religious beliefs came to him while in jail. Before then, he said, "I basically agreed with everyone trying to kill Terri Schiavo." Then, he said, he accepted Christ and turned his life around.Heldreth declined to discuss the specifics of the incident that led to his jail time. Online research shows that Heldreth was arrested after an incident at Ohio University and charged with two counts of rape and one count of kidnapping."
Convicted of kidnapping, just what agents sent by Governor Jeb Bush wanted to do when they were faced with a wall of deputies from the Sheriff’s department. Governor Bush has got to be kicking the walls of his office that he can’t intervene. There are voters in that crowd of Culture of Life members outside the Hospice. Voters that backed his brother campaign for the presidency twice, the sea of white faces in the crowd is representative of this. Scott Heldrith whose sex crimes have gotten him listed as a sex offender in Florida but not in North Carolina where he lives protests for Congress to use the law to intervene. While nearby a school of six hundred kids have had to be moved to another location because the scene was to much for them, the signs and the crowd. Never mind that a registered sex offender armed with his son is that near six hundred children under the legal age of eighteen. The Culture of Life has their own religious activist and anti-abortion crusader in the crowd. Anti-Abortion crusader have been known to blow up building that inside housed medical workers they disapproved of, they have been known to kill doctors who performed abortions all in the name of god’s word which these days can be heard as a Culture of Life. How I have waited for the day when the Culture of Lifers would turn on one of their own.

- Chris Mansel

Rwanda

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-rwanda-flash.flash

This site shows the genocide in Rwanda that could have been prevented. Sadly it is happening again in Darfur. The site is powerfully moving.

Chris Mansel

Wal-Mart, Choice Point Inc and the Tick Tick Tick of the Clock

Site of Reference: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050326/D892B7R00.html

Choice Point, Inc and Wal-Mart, finally the Bush agenda all in one place and what do you get, a half-million dollars missing. Choice Point as you may know is the company entrusted to purge black voters from the 2000 election, employed by the Bush team. Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation and an endless supply of money may finally be drifting out into the open at the hands of now former employee and board member Thomas M. Coughlin. Remember that name Bush watchers as he will undoubtedly show up in a few documentaries in the coming years. The Associated Press reports, “The world's largest retailer said it asked Thomas M. Coughlin, who is also a former president and CEO of the company's stores division, to step down because of "a disagreement" over the results of the probe, which involves between $100,000 and $500,000, and his "response to questions concerning his knowledge of certain transactions," according to a regulatory filing.”
Guilty in the past of using sweatshops and child labor Wal-Mart is now guilty of one of their own board members not only cheating the employees or associates are they are called out of raises, promotions, etc., but of stealing $100,00 to $500,00. In Wal-Mart lingo it is called Internal theft and is dealt with harshly, sometimes the culprit is hired back after a short period of time at store level.

The AP also reports, “The Securities and Exchange Commission document does not directly state what role, if any, Coughlin, had in "the alleged unauthorized use of corporate-owned gift cards and personal reimbursements that appear to have been obtained ... through the reporting of false information on third-party invoices and Company expense reports."
In a separate statement, Bentonville-based Wal-Mart said that it did not expect any adverse financial impact from the investigation. The company did not name or otherwise identify the three fired employees and declined further comment Friday.
The fact that he is also on the board of Choice Point, Inc who is employed to count, I mean purge voters names, those that are black or Hispanic, those that have committed crimes in the future, is very interesting. But watch as the long, long arm of money is stretched out to keep the story at a minimum. But the blood is in the water, and investigative reporters like Greg Palast who have already investigated Choice Point, inc in the past can circle’em like nobody else.

- Chris Mansel



Coughlin is voted Retailer of the Year in 2002 by Cal State University
http://www.calstatela.edu/univ/ppa/newsrel/retl2002.htm

An Interview with Coughlin “former store detective for Macy’s” in 2002
http://www.losspreventionmagazine.com/archives_view.html?id=738

Coughlin promoted to board of Choice Point Inc
http://www.choicepoint.net/85256B350053E646/0/FC0CE85B86B3F70685256B4F0056B98B?Open

Teresa Schiavo (part two)

In the report Dr. Wolfson calls Teresa by Theresa and Terri and it is a little misguiding. But his report is what we can go by to get around the media and its vision of what is happening. Below are a few quotes from the report.

“A particularly disarming aspect of persons diagnosed with persistent vegetative state is that they have waking and sleeping cycles. When awake, their eyes are often open, they make noises, they appear to track movement, they respond to deep pain, and appear startled by loud noises. Further, because the autonomic nervous system those brain related functions are not affected, they can often breathe (without a respirator) and swallow (saliva). But there is no purposeful, reproducible, interactive, awareness. There is some controversy within the scientific medical literature regarding the characterization and diagnosis of persons in a persistent vegetative state. Highly competent, scientifically based physicians using recognized measures and standards have deduced, within a high degree of medical certainty, that Theresa is in a persistent vegetative state. This evidence is compelling.

Terri is a living, breathing human being. When awake, she sometimes groans, makes noises that emulate laughter or crying, and may appear to track movement. But the scientific medical literature and the reports this GAL obtained from highly respected neuro-science researchers indicate that these activities are common and characteristics of persons in a persistent vegetative state.”

“Being with Theresa, holding her hand, looking into her eyes and watching how she is lovingly treated by Michael, her parents and family and the clinical staff at hospice is an emotional and experience. It would be easy to detach from her if she were comatose, asleep with her eyes closed and made no noises. This is the confusing thing from the lay person about persistent vegetative states.”

In the personal letter to Gov. Jeb Bush Dr. Wolfson writes, “This has been a challenging and intensive engagement, and I am available, should you believe it to be of value, to offer any additional insight or explication in the matter.” Now I am sure that when someone explained to Gov. Bush just what explication means it was redundant.


- Chris Mansel

The Wolfson Report on Teresa Marie Schiavo

Site of Reference:
http://www.myflorida.com/myflorida/governorsoffice/review_year/litems_report.html
(The link to the report is located at the bottom of the page in a PDF file.)


Dr. Jay Wolfson, DrPH, JD an Attorney and Counselor at Law P.A. was designated as the guardian and asked to supply a report to Gov. Jeb Bush. His report states, “It took Michael a long time to consider the prospect of getting on with his life-something he was actively encouraged to do by the Schindlers, long before enmity tore them apart. He was even encouraged by the Schindlers to date, and introduced his in-law family to women he was dating. But this was just prior to the malpractice case ending.”

As soon as Michael Schiavo was encouraged to date by the Schindlers they challenged his guardianship. “As part of the first challenge to Michael’s Guardianship, the court appointed John H. Pecarek as Guardian Ad Litem to determine if there had been any abuse by Michael Schiavo. His report, issued 1 March 1994, found no inappropriate actions and indicated that Michael had been very attentive to Theresa. After two more years of legal contention, the Schindlers action against Michael was dismissed with prejudice. Efforts to remove Michael as Guardian were attempted in subsequent years, without success.” So after encouraging Michael to date so they could discredit him they were upheld in court.
The report states, “The court appointed Richard Pearse, Esq., to serve as Guardian Ad Litem to review the request for withdrawal, a standard procedure.” The next step was to say that there was responses from Theresa. “Mr. Pearse’s investigation concluded that the statements of Mrs. Schindler, Theresa’s mother, indicated that Theresa displayed special responses, mostly to her, but these were not observed or documented.”
It was concluded in court that Michael’s testimony to remove the feeding tube was not valid. “He concludes that Michael Schiavo’s testimony regarding the basis for his decision to withdraw life support-a conversation he had with his wife, Theresa, was not clear and convincing, and that potential conflicts of interest regarding the disposition of residual funds in Theresa’s trust account following her death affected Michael and the Schindlers-but he placed greater emphasis on the impact it might have had on Michael’s decision to discontinue life support. At the time of Mr. Pearse’s report, more than $700,00 remained in the guardianship estate.” So Mr. Pearse took the route of saying that after years of Theresa being feed by a tube his only reason to remove the tube was because he had money left in the guardianship. Never mind the love of a husband, a husband that was encouraged to date by her parents who are now suing him. Did the Schindlers want the money? “Mr. Pearse concludes that Michael’s heresay testimony about Theresa’s intent is “necessarily affected by the obvious financial benefit to him of being the sole heir at law…” and “…by the chronology of this case…”, specifically referencing Michael’s change in position relative to maintaining Theresa following the malpractice award.”
But the real smoking gun here is that Michael Schiavo did not want the money! “In response to Mr. Pearse’s report, Michael Schiavo filed a Suggestion of Bias against Mr. Pearse. This document notes that Mr. Pearse failed to mention in his report that Michael Schiavo had earlier, formally offered to divest himself entirely of his financial interest in the guardianship estate. The criticism continues to note that Mr. Pearse’s concern about abuse of inheritance potential was directly solely at Michael, not at the Schindlers in the event they might become the heirs and also choose to terminate artificial life support. Further, significant chronological deficits and factual errors are noted, detracting from and prejudicing the objective credibility of Mr. Pearse’s report.”
The report by Dr. Wolfson gets more interesting as it goes on, “Actions by the Schindlers to remove Michael as Guardian and to block the petition to remove artificial life support on a frenetic quality at this juncture. More external parties on both sides made appearances as potential interveners.” So if first you don’t succeed involve more people. In the hearing of Michael Schiavo heresay was not allowed in Michael’s testimony but when a hearing occurred that featured testimony by Theresa’s brother-in-law and his wife heresay was admitted, “The motion and hearing process continued through 2000. Then the Schindler’s sought to introduce new evidence that was believed to be of a sufficiently substantial nature as to change the court’s decision regarding the removal of the feeding tube. The hearings and testimony before the trial court leading to the decision to discontinue artificial life support included admitted heresay from Theresa’s brother-in-law (Michael Schiavo’s brother) and his wife (Michael’s Schiavo’s sister-in-law) along with testimony from Michael. The testimony of these parties referenced specific conversations in which Theresa commented about her desire never to be placed on artificial life support. The testimony reflected conversations at or proximate to funerals of close family members who had been on artificial life support. The context and content of the testimony, while hearsay, was deemed credible and consistent and was used by the court as a supporting bases for its decision to discontinue artificial life support.” So heresay is allowed from everyone but Michael, the husband who knew Theresa best.

- Chris Mansel

The Bloggers Don’t Have A Board Of Directors

It has been in the news recently and quite an argument has ensued because of it. What is a journalist? Is a blogger a journalist? Do you have to work for a paper that has to have a board of directors who are invested in other areas? Do you have to have an executive editor who can be swayed by the opinion of those well to do in the community? For instance in the city where I live there are a few families who make the decisions for the whole community. Old money it is called but everyone knows who he or she is. They can kill a report in the paper about who and what they want with a phone call; sometimes it doesn’t even take that. After a while it is known what to print and what not to print.
Old money can even keep you out of jail and therefore out of the paper. A blogger has the ability to not be threatened by these forces since it is doubtful old money reads a blog. Unless someone in the know tells them what is out there they will have no idea. For instance a source I know in the local police department has told me that there are warrants to be served on family members in the area, family members of old money and still they sit there un-served. Even though the FBI has investigated the local police department the warrants were obviously not found. I guess it is easy to hide something from the FBI if you try hard enough. Maybe the warrants weren’t even there when the FBI investigated.
So a blogger who writes about what he discovers on the web or through sources are not a journalist? Then why are news agencies reporting on what bloggers are discovering? You would be amazed what you find out about someone on the Internet in just a few minutes if you know where to look. In another time bloggers would have been called pinkos or reds, today they are dismissed until it becomes apparent that they have the story right. Anyone care to guess how many stories have seen the light of day since bloggers have started seriously investigating? Look to the future and you’ll see politicians courting the bloggers with interviews and being careful what they say because someone is always listening, and they know how to self-publish.

- Chris Mansel

The Fraudulent Media Whore James Gordon “Bo” Gritz

James Gordon "Bo" Gritz one of the four who was arrested trying to feed Terry Schiavo bread and water which she could not possibly consume has a checkered past at best. At this site http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/oig/c4rpt/ch05p2.htm, you can read the following passage about Bo Gritz, “In 1987 or 1988, O'Neale had indicted James Gordon "Bo" Gritz for passport fraud. When Gritz had claimed to be associated with the CIA, DIA, and National Security Agency (NSA), O'Neale had contacted the intelligence agencies regarding this claim, and David Scott Weekly's name had come up as someone affiliated with Gritz. O'Neale learned through his inquiries in that case that neither Gritz nor Weekly was an intelligence agent, asset, or operative, and that Weekly had used the "CIA defense" unsuccessfully in an explosives prosecution against him in Oklahoma, claiming he was transporting explosives because he was working with the CIA to train the Mujahadeen in Nevada.” Passport fraud, claiming to work for the Cia, DIA, and NSA is this the kind of man your President would side with in the Terry Schiavo case? Of course it is.
Bo Gritz’s role in the Terry Rudolph case reported by CNN looks to be suspect now. On August 3, 1998 CNN reported, “Right-wing radio talk show host Bo Gritz says the FBI has enlisted him in its efforts to get bombing suspect Eric Robert Rudolph to surrender.
But Gritz, a retired Special Forces colonel who helped negotiate an end to the Ruby Ridge, Idaho, standoff in 1992, insists he is helping FBI agents on his own terms -- not theirs -- in order to save Rudolph's life.” So Gritz had previously falsely claimed to be an FBI agent, CNN reports that he is helping the FBI, so you have to ask if CNN did any research into this man or since he was a conservative radio host sis they take him at his word? Gritz had previously played a role in the negotiations in the Ruby Ridge standoff.(http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wbardwel/public/nfalist/ruby_ridge5.txt)
It just goes to show just what kind of person has the microphone on conservative radio. If you read about the Terry Schiavo case you see that Tom Delay is leading the fight, to get attention away from his own fraud? You make the call.

- Chris Mansel

Sites of Reference:
http://www.cnn.com/US/9807/31/rudolph.gritz/

http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/15/rudolph/

http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/14/rudolph.gritz/

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/wbardwel/public/nfalist/ruby_ridge5.txt

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/oig/c4rpt/ch05p2.htm

Terry Schiavo’s Darkness Brought To The Light

Site of Reference: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050320/D88UENJG0.html

Your wife or child is terminally ill and you have to decide whether or not to pull the plug and end their life that choice is up to you. Should a politician tell you if you could or not?
To make the life of a terminally ill woman the spearhead of political maneuvering is obscene, and that obscenity spreads to both sides of the aisle. This is an ugly, damning fight being fought over a grave that has not been dug yet.

The Associated Press reports, “As a deal in Congress was worked out to have federal courts decide Terri Schiavo's fate, emotions swelled outside the brain-damaged woman's hospice room Saturday, with protesters arrested after they symbolically tried to smuggle in bread and water on her second day without a feeding tube.”

Terri Schiavo’s husband wants her feeding tube to stay out and her parents want it back in. What do you think who has the right to say, the parents or the husband? The husband is after all the closet relative by law. The binding of marriage that the Republican Party has fought so hard to sanctify is the ruling that should be followed. It is open to opinion whether the family would want it removed but the law, the present law on the books would put the decision in the husband’s hands.

The AP reports, “Congressional leaders announced a compromise between Senate and House Republicans that would allow the brain-damaged woman's case to be reviewed by federal courts that could restore her feeding tube. Opposition waned after House leaders agreed to give up broader legislation and accept a narrowly crafted bill that applied only to Schiavo's case.” Is that a misprint? A deal was reached between the Senate and House Republicans? The last time I looked at the list of those that were serving in the House and the Senate there were Democrats and Republicans.

The husband of Terry Schiavo’s, The AP reports him saying, "I feel like the government has just trampled all over my personal life," he said on CNN's "Larry King Live" Friday. "It is uncomprehensible that a government can walk all over somebody's private judicial matter, because of their own personal feelings." All of this results in the fact that there is no living will in the Terry Schiavo’s case. But to make matters worse than the lack of a legal document is the protesting and posturing of the right-wing. The AP reports a disgusting facet of this event, “About three dozen supporters of Schiavo's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, maintained a vigil outside the hospice where she lives. Four people, including right wing leader James Gordon "Bo" Gritz, were arrested on misdemeanor trespassing charges when they attempted to bring Schiavo bread and water, which she would be unable to consume.”
This is a touchy subject for anyone who has ever had to remove the feeding tube from a loved one, and I am sure at that moment no one wanted a politician to tell them whether or not to do it.

- Chris Mansel

Poverty Knows No Color

Poverty knows no color that much is unarguably true. Being poor has nothing to with the color of your skin, it can happen to anyone. As Thomas Merton wrote, “It is easy enough to tell the poor to accept their poverty as God’s will when you yourself have warm clothes and plenty of food and medical care and a roof over your head and no worry about the rent. But if you want them to believe you—try to share some of their poverty and see if you can accept it as God’s will yourself!” It is so easy to overlook the overwhelming poverty of others in your own home on television; it is another thing altogether to witness this abject poverty and to still do nothing. Elected officials have visited the poor ever since there has been there have been organized elections in this country. And each has promised to help stop the suffering; you can easily see that throwing money at the problem hasn’t made a dent yet. The answer is not in money or food being distributed but a plan of the working poor. What the government doesn’t seem to understand that in the present taxation system we have it is next to impossible for the poor to travel to their job, maintain the manner of dress that is necessary, find a suitable person to look after their children and earn the wage that is usually open to the not as well educated poor of this country.
Lord Action writing to Mandell Creighton April 5, 1887, wrote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.” That is not to say that those that are in power tend to forget what they were placed in that position of, it is to justly state that those that positioned them into power have other wants and desires than the common voters. When a politician makes a promise to a crowd of lower income voters and then walks away, the poorer of the crowd want to believe he will keep his word but know better. The middle-class voters think there is a chance he will keep his word and decide to vote or not. The upper class voter has known all along what will be the outcome for it has almost always been decided beforehand.
The poor in any system of government in the western tradition takes the poor for granted and decides they are to remain in their place, and when they do not it is decided that they are in the eyes of the law of that land in contempt. In 1968, on June 15, Calvin Trillin in the New Yorker wrote, “The poor in Resurrection City have come to Washington to show that the poor in America are sick, dirty, disorganized, and powerless—and they are criticized daily for being sick, dirty, disorganized, and powerless.” For a government to take the poor seriously and to tend to their problems would be for that government to lead an overwhelming majority that would belittle any requests of the middle-class or those that are wealthy. Democracy is its won worst enemy. To strangle out the good to allow the bad to prosper then the poorest of the poor are missed by the ricochet of chance help that their wounds are not seen and end up a victim of a lobbyist and worse the politician that allows him to exist.

Chris Mansel

Halliburton

Site of Reference: http://www.halliburton.com/news/archive/2004/report.jsp

A press release of Halliburton in 2003; the preface states, “This report is being submitted to the Halliburton Company Board of Directors pursuant to an agreement worked out with Mr. William Thompson Jr.'s Office of the Comptroller, which represents the New York City Police Pension Fund and the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund which are Halliburton stockholders. (approximately 318,540 shares.) The Fund's stated concern was that the Halliburton Board of Directors have actual knowledge of operations conducted in Iran or for Iranian entities by the various worldwide elements of the Company.” So the New York City Fire Department Pension Fund wants to make sure that Halliburton is acting in a legal manner. But in the next paragraph we find that Halliburton has identified a technicality on which to operate. A loophole described as “independent foreign subsidiaries.” In other words don’t mess with us we are Halliburton and we will find a way to get what we want.
“As the Board is aware, Iran is the subject of special sanctions administered by the U.S. Treasury, through the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. In general, all "U.S. Persons", both corporate and individual, are prohibited to enter into transactions with Iran or entities working on behalf of Iran, and are further prohibited to "approve or facilitate" transactions by foreign persons. The sanctions leave open, however, the possibility for "independent foreign subsidiaries" of U.S. corporations, which are not considered to be "U.S. Persons" to conduct such business. Many U.S. corporations have foreign subsidiaries active in Iran, including our major competitors.” I am surprised they didn’t go ahead and name names. If they are saying that they do not have any Americans whatsoever working in Iran who is to get in the country and investigate? I believe the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. has employed non-U.S. persons before. All it takes is a different passport. It is not as if Iran is checking their office paperwork everyday as a requirement for their presence there.
“Halliburton has taken care to isolate its entities that continue to work in Iran from contact with U.S. citizens or managers of U.S. companies, so as to insure that all work in Iran is undertaken independently, without any facilitation, authorization or approval from U.S. citizen managers. The Board should be assured however, that the U.S. Sanctions do not prohibit them as individuals, or as the Halliburton Company Board of Directors, from having knowledge of the activity there.” So they can employ these non-U.S. persons but can’t have any contact with them? Can you imagine Halliburton having no knowledge of the job its workers are doing? “Well, tell us how it went when you get back, can’t wait to find out.”
Recently Halliburton has come under intense scrutiny, or as intense as the Bush government will let it and is to be banned from doing work in Iraq so the headlines read. They can simply hire these non-U.S. persons and ……

- Chris Mansel

Interview with Tom Morello by David Jenison

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Altruism and Enemy Combatants

What is an enemy combatant? Is it a terrorist or is it an overzealous officer of the law in this or any other country? When zeal becomes more than a passion and insists upon controlling your emotions it can become dangerous to cross someone like this. I’m sure you have seen a cop look at you in the eyes and have a very serious grimace on his face. Sometimes you have to wonder if that cop would love to throw away the laws on the books and take you out and beat you to a pulp. Forget about a civil society and forget about right and wrong, maybe, just maybe he would like to be Bull Connor and turn the dogs out on the blacks, or these days the Arabs. If this cop who wants to do this joins the military or work as a private contractor and assault and torture in Iraq or Cuba, he can.
The rush of adrenaline is the most dangerous facet of law enforcement. You read the reports and watch the news and they talk about the religious nuts of Islam who follow a corrupt form of their religion, and then you see the actions of corrupt police officers and you have to wonder if you are safe anywhere. Several times I have overheard and I have been told directly by police officers that they can hold me for twenty-four hours on mere suspicion. Suspicion of what I asked and I was told with a smile, just suspicion. Watch the footage of the Rosenberg’s being lead out to the press in handcuffs and you see several officers rush out to be by their side. One steps lively over and takes the arm of Julius Rosenberg. The men leading out Lee Harvey Oswald, those officers that appear on CNN these days want notoriety and they crave attention. How many times I have seen officers rush to the scene of an accident that could easily be handled by one officer, they rush to the scene and feel the adrenaline. Once I rode by an accident and two young officers turned to look me in the eye as I drove by slowly to keep from hitting anyone, and their look was a look of just plain meanness. One of the officers while looking me in the eye unbuckled the strap over his weapon. What was he thinking?
What defines a terrorist these days? Someone who believes in Islam or someone with dark skin? Jesus had dark skin didn’t he? Would we place Jesus in Abu Grahaid? He had long hair it is believed and he dressed in robes. What is not a terrorist these days is a corporation, or a government, or the actions of the government. In history no one has suffered more than those who did not have the power to make the rules. No one suffered any more than those who were helpless when it came to the enforcement of the rules could not refuse this action. Those who cannot take a corporation to court, those that are refused treatment, those that cannot say I feel that justice was done. Altruism is more than a word and more than an action, and we as a people deserve the compassion and devotion, every one of us.

- Chris Mansel

Choice Point Digs In For The 2008 Election

Site of Reference: http://www.choicepoint.com/choicepoint/news.nsf/(webhotbox)/1DDB31277A7A07A585256FBE00478C9C?OpenDocument

If you closely followed the elections of 2000 and 2004 or if you read Greg Palast’s reports in the Guardian you might know that Choice Point in Georgia was hired to validate the votes. A chance look at Choice Point’s website this evening reveals something quite interesting. Now as you know if you do work for the Bush White House you are like the mafia, you are immediately welcomed into the family and are treated with the kind of perks you might expect for laying down with vermin.
I will quote their press release; “ChoicePoint (NYSE: CPS) today announced the appointment of Carol A. DiBattiste, currently Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, as the company's Chief Credentialing, Compliance and Privacy Officer. She will report to the company's Board of Directors Privacy Committee.” A member of the Bush team is now in a prominent position with a company that is paid to do work for the U.S. government to verify votes and who knows what else. So when you saw quite a few people leaving the Bush cabinet everyone said to himself or herself, “Gee, I guess they don’t want to serve with Bush.” Wrong. These former employees of the Bush team have been sent out to take key roles in the private sector. It doesn’t do the conservative agenda any good to have more of them in think tanks or as fellows of a University; it does their pattern of deceit much better to keep their hands in the game. What is the game? Our lives are the game, yours and mine.
The next section of this report or release is very interesting, "Recent events where criminals were able to become customers have led us to take this strong action in order to regain the trust of consumers that their information is being used only for their benefit, or the benefit of society at large," noted Privacy Committee chairman Dr. John Hamre. " To regain that trust, we need a strong voice outside the day-to-day business that is responsible for customer credentialing, compliance and privacy. Having a person of Carol's stature join us is vital to our efforts to have the kind of policies, procedures and compliance programs that build confidence as well as set a standard for the industry.”
What they do not say is particularly interesting as well. What Carol brings to the company is the kind of knowledge of privacy only the Patriot Act can offer. Another thing Carol can do for us is enable a careful study of tax records of our competitors through the IRS. Last of all Carol is very good at following orders, she has worked for the Karl Rove think tank called the Bush administration.
Choice Point also offers to us the background of Carol A. Dibattiste, “A former Undersecretary of the Air Force, DiBattiste also served as Director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, Deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Assistant U.S. Attorney, and was one of the Air Force's top prosecutors.” There it is. Did you get it the first time you read it? Deputy U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and she is going to work for a company that aids in the counting of votes in the presidential election? Score another for the Republican Party. A show of hands now, who thinks the Republican Party will get the most votes counted in the 2008 presidential election? Anyone? Anyone?

- Chris Mansel

Darfur, A Preventable Wasteland

Site of Reference: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/print/2005/03/14/Darfur_050314

The Canadian Broadcasting Channel is reporting, “The number of people who have died in Sudan's war-ravaged Darfur region could be as high as 350,000, according to a senior United Nations official.
Jan Egeland, the UN's humanitarian chief, says pneumonia, diarrhea and malnutrition has killed three to five times the official estimate of 70,000 put out last year by the World Health Organization.” Just as I said not to long ago we are witnessing another genocide like Rwanda in Darfur. Instead of sending troops to fulfill oil contracts and to keep Halliburton in busy work even though it is now reported that Halliburton may have cheated the U.S. taxpayers out of $100,000. Without natural exploitable resources the people of Darfur are serving a death sentence carried out by the avoidance by the United States.
The CDC also reports, “The Sudanese government has been accused of using Janjaweed Arab militia against Sudanese of African origin. The Janjaweed are accused of mass killings and rapes.
Egeland has also warned that women are still being systematically abused and raped. He met with senior officials in Khartoum, telling them that the situation was out of control in Darfur.” A recent visit by former Secretary of State Colin Powell proved to be just a feeble warning to the Sudanese government. The U.S. government knows of the Janjaweed, and they know what is going on in Darfur. The Civil Rights situation in the U.S. obviously does not apply to people of color around the world. President Bush won’t do anything to help the people of Darfur and sadly I believe the people of Darfur know it.
The CDC concludes its report; “The UN, United States and European Union are sending another mission to Darfur to assess the situation further.
Egeland is also urging international donors to contribute more funds for Darfur and the rest of Sudan, which is only now recovering from a different civil war, between the north and south. A peace agreement was signed last year to end the 21-year-old conflict.” Further assess the situation means nothing. The U.S. will only offer its serious help when the tragedy is over. When the bodies are all buried they will offer a few airlifts of aid. The European Union will only do what the U.S. will and nothing further. With almost 10,000 people dying each month Darfur our troops guarding peaceful Europe could be sent to help in this crisis but we prefer to use guard troops in a war zone.
- Chris Mansel

Genocide Fills The Air of History

How do you know if you have stumbled upon an atrocity or an act of war? A holocaust or what pathologists refer to as a bludgeoning? The smell would hit you before you saw it. The smell of human flesh mixed with the acrid wind and smoke, the sound of flies turning to maggots, you’d smell the body cavity opened, the viscera. The real question is how a reporter could walk upon something like that and report it as a skirmish, or that the ongoing quest for identification will take some time.
Death camps like Omarska, Treblinka, or Dachau don’t just spring up overnight, the worst of all being Auschwitz. The hatred it takes to commit the acts in Rwanda is never just under the surface. When you read about a mass grave you believe that you can picture it. A big hole freshly dug with bodies thrown in on top of the other and someone either standing there who is guilty or someone taking photographs and investigating it. That is what comes to mind at first but you have to go a bit deeper than that. Where did it all start? Not who was the first to die but who was first to give birth to the idea? The killings in Iraq and in Afghanistan border on the tens of thousands but how will we ever know? The absence of information and the deliberate denial of action by an army such as that of the United States which at one time discovered the Nazi death camps reminds one of the sickening phrase, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” Which is worse not knowing history and repeating it, or knowing full well and doing it anyway?

- Chris Mansel

A Vote for Bud Cramer Is A Vote For Big Oil

Like any concerned citizen I wrote my districts man in the House of Representatives (Bud Cramer) and asked him to please not vote for drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. But today I get a letter from saying, “Given the contentious nature of the debate surrounding this issue, I would like to take a moment to detail my position. I believe that without continued access to safe, affordable, and reliable sources of energy our economy would falter, our productivity wane, and our national security would be threatened. Over the course of the last few years with the dramatic price spikes in the cost of gasoline and natural gas, the growing concern over the reliability of our nation’s aging energy infrastructure, and our dependence upon imported oil, it is clear that as a country we have to get a hold of our energy situation and develop a comprehensive policy to address our future energy needs.
In order to develop this comprehensive national energy policy, in addition to focusing on decreasing energy consumption, we must take a hard look at increasing our reliance on imported oil. In the 1970s at the height of the OPEC instigated oil crisis we imported 36 percent of our oil. That figure ballooned to 58 percent in 2002, and over the next two decades it is projected that this trend will continue. Consequently, conservation alone will not reverse our course.”
That last line just eats at me. Who does he think increased the import of oil from 36 to 58 percent? Who allowed Bush to do it? People like him. There is no need for our dependence on foreign oil. There are many ways to get energy in this country besides depending on oil. You would think a Democrat would know this. So the Artic Refuge Drilling wannabe President of ours has drafted the Democrats. So I guess you don’t have to cross party lines anymore, just stick out your hand and let the lobbyists fill it up with cold legal hard cash. What a job.

- Chris Mansel

The Bushes Are Coming, The Bushes Are Coming (for Bob Kincaid)

Here it comes National Guard troops, here it comes wives of those missing in action, and here it comes those who have just arrived home. War is here! More deaths, more displaced civilians, more schools destroyed, more refugees disappearing into the night scrounging around for food. Embedded reporters and network anchors squinting through the make-up. It’s time for the Fox network to prime the pump on their generators and send signals up to the satellites, time for Bill O’Reilly to interview Democrats and scream at them. Time for Geraldo Rivera to get shot at by friendly fire as he points out the suffering and suggest a close-up heard just off camera. It’s time for Congress to speak their hearts to an empty hall. Time for concerts, time for telethons, and time for the President to acclaim in prime time that he had no choice, to swagger and to stagger, to giggle and to laugh, time for Karl Rove to come down out of the tree house and spread the blood of the first kill on his lover’s face. It’s time for war.
The Sunday Times in the UK is reporting, “ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans for a combined air and ground attack on targets in Iran if diplomacy fails to halt the Iranian nuclear programme.
The inner cabinet of Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, gave “initial authorisation” for an attack at a private meeting last month on his ranch in the Negev desert.”
Initial authority is like suggesting you can go ahead and burns down the orphanage but don’t actually let the building fall to the ground. There is no back door diplomacy this time, no hearings at the U.N. we are quite beyond that. Yes, we are beyond accountability, we are past the photographs of Abu Grahaid, we can turn back the clock at Gitmo and concentrate on the actions of Israel as we supply the bombs they will use to destroy Iran. Initially, that is.
Out in the open it will happen evidenced by this excerpt from the article, “The plans have been discussed with American officials who are said to have indicated provisionally that they would not stand in Israel’s way if all international efforts to halt Iranian nuclear projects failed.” You can almost hear the secure call, “Ariel, yea you can strike first this time. It’ll play better on CNN. Karl (Rove) tells me that the CIA has some targets in mind if you decide to hit anywhere else over there.” This excerpt is not so surprising since Condoleeza wants to get her name in print to lead up to her possible run for President, “The Israeli government responded cautiously yesterday to an announcement by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, that America would support Britain, France and Germany in offering economic incentives for Tehran to abandon its programme.”
The story concludes with, “Dick Cheney, the American vice-president, emphasised on Friday that Iran would face “stronger action” if it failed to respond. But yesterday Iran rejected the initiative, which provides for entry to the World Trade Organisation and a supply of spare parts for airliners if it co-operates.
“No pressure, bribe or threat can make Iran give up its legitimate right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes,” said an Iranian spokesman.
US officials warned last week that a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities by Israeli or American forces had not been ruled out should the issue become deadlocked at the United Nations.” We should herald what the Iranian spokesman said. They have known that this was inevitable ever since the Bush administration started cursing them in the press and funding official threats in the world press. It is true Iran is no friend to the U.S. but that is no reason to kill them. But war is here and we don’t want it but what can we do but scream from the mountaintop and see the destruction through a viewfinder. Sit at home and watch the coverage unravel from the original script. Watch the missiles wag the dog till the dog collapses in front of the fire, where the ash settles and turns the sky the color of a pretty black rose.

- Chris Mansel

In A Perfect Gehenna or The Emperor’s Diseased Repast (for Neeli)

Where are the stories you want to read? Stories with headlines like, “A Republican Strategist Runs Into Jeff Gannon On The Street and Cums Back With The Whole Story,” or “The Long Decisive Defeat of Karl Rove: The Prison Years, A Time of Exile.” In this new age of Bush, a bush far worse than the first bush, we should be able to expect a new game of deviant behavior stopped at the border of Maryland and booked for vagrancy or at least exposure.
Imagine the scene where a reporter walks into the White House briefing room after flashing his badge and asks the President a question that he can’t ignore, a few questions like, “Why do you owe such a loyalty to the Bin Laden family?” or “Are you afraid of what Bin Laden will say if he gets the chance? Is it true Mr. President that if you were to be placed on the front lines of the war in Iraq you would soil your undergarments and demand a weapon to self-inflict?” Just imagine those questions. Would it take just one of our soldiers in Iraq who are scared and don’t want to fight to slap you like Patton slapped the soldier or would it take several more before they could shame you into fighting like a man? Every rich kid, every spoiled brat should have a poster of George Bush on their wall and it should say to them, if he can make it so can I. Do another line of coke, and wreck another house, why not. Shit, you could be president some day.

Yet as the upside down American flag waves in the breeze
And tortured Iraqi kids are brought to their knees
The Mansel Report ends another day of transmission
So from all the detainees around the world hooked up to electrodes
We say goodnight and pool our money into defense contractor stocks


- Chris Mansel

No Democracy, Human Rights or Basic Liberties for Syria

Site of Reference: http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050310-114935-7788r.htm

The first thing to go in any U.S. invasion is human rights. Look at your history, read it, don’t repeat it. Apparently it is no longer possible to peacefully protest in Damascus. The Washington Times is reporting, “About 100 activists trying to stage a sit-in demonstration demanding greater freedoms were chased from a downtown square yesterday by hundreds of pro-government demonstrators carrying large pictures of the Syrian president, a human rights committee said. Some of the activists were also beaten, according to the newly formed National Coordination Committee for Basic Freedom and Human Rights. The committee, which was established earlier this year, denounced the actions as "repressive and uncivilized behavior which threatens civil peace."
The Washington Times details the occurrence in Damascus, “In Damascus yesterday, at least 500 pro-government demonstrators arrived shortly after the opposition activists began their sit-in. Waving Syrian flags and pictures of Mr. Assad, the demonstrators shouted, "We sacrifice our souls and blood for you, oh Bashar." They overtook the activists, threatening them with sticks and forcing them to move to a nearby square, where they were also overwhelmed and chased away. The sit-in "was met with a flood of security agents and surrounded by marchers armed with sticks and clubs in a provocative attempt ... aimed at preventing the opposition from peacefully expressing its calls for democracy, human rights and respect of basic liberties," the human rights group said. The rights group called on the government to abolish emergency laws and release all political prisoners as well as "unleash general, basic freedoms without any slowdown." It also demanded the government find "a democratic and just solution for the Kurdish question and return citizenship to the Kurdish citizens who were stripped of it." Sticks and clubs used to combat activists who are peacefully sitting in protest. “... aimed at preventing the opposition from peacefully expressing its calls for democracy, human rights and respect of basic liberties.” You read that right; they were threatened and told to move so that they could not express a call for Democracy, human rights, and liberty. Of course they can’t hear that Syrians want democracy, we are going to bomb them they can’t want peace.
Acts of protest, non-violence is right and the duty of every citizen. But if you are in the crosshairs of the U.S you better fall in line until we can blow you out of it.

- Chris Mansel

Children at Abu Ghraid

The AP is reporting, “Children as young as 11 years old were held at Abu Ghraib, the Iraqi prison at the centre of the US prisoner abuse scandal, official documents reveal.”
It’s inevitable that the story of more abuse at Abu Ghraib would surface, also that children and being held by an uncaring and apparently abusive government of which we vote for every four years. The AP also reports of abuse to women, “In one case, witness statements among the released documents allege that four drunken Americans took a 17-year-old female prisoner from her cell and forced her to expose her breasts and kissed her.”
“In another documented incident, troops are alleged to have smeared mud on the detained 17-year-old son of an Iraqi general and forced his father to watch him shiver in the cold.” Now I am not making this up, as you see above there is a link of reference, the Associated Press as I have said reports this story. The story gets worse and more enraging, “She said in her interview that she thought one boy "looked like he was eight years old". He told me he was almost 12," she said. "He told me his brother was there with him, but he really wanted to see his mother, could he please call his mother. He was crying."
A twelve-year old child being held at Abu Ghraib that could very well have been tortured. This child like the others held there could be made to watch or do anything obscene.
The story concludes, "In her interview with Maj Gen George Fay, she also said intelligence officers had worked out an agreement to hold detainees without keeping records.
The Pentagon has acknowledged holding so-called "ghost detainees" on the basis that they were enemy combatants and therefore not entitled to prisoner of war protections.
Brig Gen Karpinski said US commanders were reluctant to release detainees, an attitude she called "releasophobia".
In her interview, she said Maj Gen Walter Wodjakowski, then the second most senior army general in Iraq, told her in the summer of 2003 not to release more prisoners, even if they were innocent.
"I don't care if we're holding 15,000 innocent civilians," she said Maj Gen Wodjakowski told her. "We're winning the war."
Read that last quote a few times. I don’t care, innocent civilians. That is the Bush administration’s view of war. The term war criminal doesn’t really apply here, we may have to think of a brand new term, perhaps war murderer, or war rapist. If you abduct a child and hold him in a cell you will get life in prison and maybe parole eventually. There will be a manhunt and a code Adam will go out. However, if you are in Iraq you can just call this child an enemy combatant and dismiss the charges. What else can we expect Mr. President? Will we see immolations of pregnant women? How about televised interrogations for ESPN with celebrity hosts?

- Chris Mansel

State of the Blog

The strength of my resistance is buried alongside every activist who was killed fighting for better working conditions, not higher pay. The strength of my devotion is stretched from the grave of Emma Goldman to the depths of every coalmine in America, from every soldier who has been wounded to every civilian in harm’s way. To every person who opposes a union, to every person who will starve an unborn child for ideological reasons I say to them I am one of many who will not turn their back or shut their eyes.
I hope in some way that my words can reveal to a new set of eyes what I have seen and read. Nothing about me will ever go away quietly. If the Internet is regulated in the next ten years and if censorship rears its head then the bloggers will all disappear and back we will go to self-publishing what some used to call leaflets. The Mansel Report continues amid the growing confusion of the author whether or not to continue as I have or to focus more on one major report instead of one or so a day.

- Chris Mansel

The Ominous Thinning Air of the Veterans Administration

Site of Reference:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/news/special_packages/veterans/
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000829458

Brian Orloff writing for Editor and Publisher reports, “A team from Knight Ridder decided to look beyond the headlines of the U.S. military at war to see how we are treating our veterans here at home. Breaking through FOIA barriers, they packaged a remarkable portrait of unequal treatment. The finished project, called "Discharged and Dishonored: Shortchanging America's Veterans," ran last weekend in Knight Ridder newspapers, and is now part of an extensive online package, but it was months in the making. For the KR investigative team, comprised of reporters Chris Adams, Alison Young, and editor James Asher, reporting on the bureaucracy and getting all the necessary information proved challenging."We filed a bunch of FOIA requests with the Veterans Administration early on -- I think it was February of 2004 -- and got stonewalled by them," Asher told E&P. "Ultimately, in November, we sued them. It was very intriguing that once the suit was filed, they started coughing up every record we asked for."
Investigating the Veteran’s Administration, something every vet of every war has wished someone would do for years, has turned up inadequacies in the treatment of veterans and the way it goes about its business. How surprising. Sent to fight in a war that is clearly being fought for selfish and personal reasons, getting wounded and sent back to the U.S. for treatment and then standing in line on one leg or two our fighting men and women are continually mistreated by an army of paper that marches both on its dust pile and its shredder for all we know.

Editor and Publisher’s Brian Orloff continues, "We decided that since everyone was preoccupied with the military, we ought to look at how the nation takes care of its military," he said. "We did that by going to the first, direct place: the Veterans Administration. What we found was something very interesting, which was that nobody had ever done any substantial reporting on the benefits/ compensation side of the Veterans Administration,” as opposed to what happens in the V.A. hospital system.Despite being hampered early on by the department's unresponsiveness to Knight Ridder's FOIA requests, Asher said a related court that handles appeals on veterans' claims did provide a database with names of veterans whose appeals were protracted, or who waited many years for their appeals to be heard.The story describes inefficiencies and irregularities within various state offices which have no standardized method of assessing veterans' injury claims. Similarly, the amount of remuneration offered for the same conditions varies wildly from state to state and office to office. Asher noted that while it would be heartening if the government used the Knight Ridder stories to make reforms, he wasn't sure they would be so quick to act."It's always hard to predict how bureaucracy will respond," he said. "There is some study going on now about why this disparity exists and I suspect it's one of the tantalizing things in our reporting. "They've done some reports over the years -- not about the disability rating that we found -- but about the amount of money that they pass out each year by state," he continued. "They found a disparity there but they've never done anything about that. Once they've recognized that there's something intrinsically different about the way they give a rating on a particular illness or injury, and that changes by regional office, they're pretty intrigued to harmonize that." No standard way to process claims and it is open to each particular office to handle the cases as it sees fit? That is just another ay of saying that the bureaucracy has no reason to admit it is wrong. The line “they're pretty intrigued to harmonize that," really stands out as a pretty cold-blooded statement. Just think of all the veterans who have gone untreated, the veterans that have committed suicide in despair over their conditions, the once gung ho men who signed up to serve their country and threw their medals on the ground and at the White House. Do you think they could harmonize with that? The ability of an institution such as the Veteran administration to look into the eyes of a veteran and to simply say, “Sorry, we can’t help you. Next!” is beyond my understanding.
This next section of the story speaks for itself, “And, in another unique facet of the story, the Knight Ridder Washington bureau distributed materials from the story to its individual newspaper offices three weeks before the main story ran to give each newspaper the time, and the option, to write locally-focused, related stories to augment the main feature. Many of the Knight Ridder affiliates participated, according to Asher, including newspapers in Fort Worth, Texas, St. Paul, Minn., and Biloxi, Miss. "Some of them have editorialized about it," Asher said. "Some of them have written stories. Some of them made it into a longer series. They've all taken a different approach about how to make this as relevant to their communities as possible.” All in all it is the bleeding fighting against the red ink that does not come from wounds. This red ink infects the wound and sends it out into the germ filled air of despair and denial.

- Chris Mansel

www.Cryptome.org

I just want to let the readers of the Mansel report know about a hugely influential website, www.cryptome.org

The site is run by John Young and he is fearless.

“Young has put up thousands of files over the years, including large amounts of classified military and intelligence material…
Most controversial of Young’s projects has been the “eyeballing” series, in which Young uploads aerial photos he has taken from commercial satellites. You can imagine the frustration of the Pentagon when various secret intelligence and nuclear installations, hidden on remote islands or in deep forests, are suddenly revealed to the world in high-resolution, full-color aerial photos on Young’s site.”

- from Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping
by Patrick Radden Keefe

The NRA, Bush, and Terror Suspects and the Lure of Guns

Site of Reference: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/national/08terror.html?ei=5070&en=cbda603aa96c6a34&ex=1110862800&adxnnl=0&adxnnlx=1110254459-e2z+O382FvWfPR2X6q8XWA&pagewanted=print&position=

The New York Times is reporting, “Dozens of terror suspects on federal watch lists were allowed to buy firearms legally in the United States last year, according to a Congressional investigation that points up major vulnerabilities in federal gun laws.
People suspected of being members of a terrorist group are not automatically barred from legally buying a gun, and the investigation, conducted by the Government Accountability Office, indicated that people with clear links to terrorist groups had regularly taken advantage of this gap.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, law enforcement officials and gun control groups have voiced increasing concern about the prospect of a terrorist walking into a gun shop, legally buying an assault rifle or other type of weapon and using it in an attack.”
Allowing the terrorists to buy guns is supporting terrorism no matter how you look at it. Plain and simple it is the ruined edge of the blade, the tallest height of the heap in the garbage dump and a total betrayal of our troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The most startling part of this report is that the administration is destroying the gun records of terrorists almost immediately, in two weeks. “Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, who requested the study, plans to introduce legislation to address the problem in part by requiring federal officials to keep records of gun purchases by terror suspects for a minimum of 10 years. Such records must now be destroyed within 24 hours as a result of a change ordered by Congress last year. Mr. Lautenberg maintains that the new policy has hindered terrorism investigations by eliminating the paper trail on gun purchases.”
"Destroying these records in 24 hours is senseless and will only help terrorists cover their tracks," Mr. Lautenberg said Monday. "It's an absurd policy."
He blamed what he called the Bush administration's "twisted allegiances" to the National Rifle Association for the situation.
By his “twisted allegiances” to the NRA and the Saudi Royal family President Bush has set our country back at least thirty years. How many times have the Democrats tried to introduce sweeping legislation on gun control? You don’t have a gun in your house because you don’t want your children to get a hold of it, or you have one to defend your family and that is understandable. But what is not understandable is allowing terror suspects to buy guns to use against unarmed civilians. I suppose if they do kill some of us then the administration can invade another country. Is that how it works?
The report from the New York Times concludes with, “In one instance last year, follow-up information provided by F.B.I. field agents revealed that someone on a terror watch list was deemed "mentally defective," even though that information had not yet made its way into the gun database. In a second case, field agents disclosed that an applicant was in the country illegally. Both applications were denied.
Even so, the report concluded that the Justice Department should clarify what information could and could not be shared between gun-buying administrators and terrorism investigators. It also concluded that the F.B.I. should keep closer track of the performance of state officials who handle gun background checks in lieu of the F.B.I.
"Given that these background checks involve known or suspected terrorists who could pose homeland security risks," the report said, "more frequent F.B.I. oversight or centralized management would help ensure that suspected terrorists who have disqualifying factors do not obtain firearms in violation of the law."
The depths are unfathomable to which this idiocy will go, certainly farther down than six feet under. Perhaps it could be measured if we buried everyone on top of one another, eh Mr. President?

- Chris Mansel

Bush's Repertoire In The Cannon of Gannon (for Bob Kincaid)

“…but in no other civilization has the will-to-power manifested itself in so inexorable a form as in this of ours...” – Oswald Spengler

Looking toward the next scandal in the White House we could stop and reflect on the many torrid and cold-blooded acts but instead we’ll focus on the one overwhelming act that has defined the presidency of George Bush. Jeff Gannon.
The Jeff Gannon scandal or as I am now referring to it “rump gate” brings together two of the three oldest traits of Washington politics. The first being lying, where would Washington be without lying? The second is prostitution. The stories of whoring in the nation’s capitol are so long that even Oswald Spengler would have abandoned it after the first five thousand pages. The third is lobbying or as it is known in its truest form, bribery. The very fact that bribery has been re-named lobbying and has been made legal gives you an idea of the kind of town we are talking about. A city that houses a President after President that says they will get touch on crime and drugs when just down the street are crack houses and criminals standing on street corners.
Politicians campaign in Middle America and the homes of the wealthily. They campaign in pre-arranged town hall meetings and scripted debates. They campaign on federal money and lie to us about how they plan to spend it if elected. In fact, the political campaign for the presidency is the biggest mutual masturbation act in the world and it goes on every four years and culminates with millions of dollars spent so that speeches can be made and delegates from rural America can have the brief belief that they can actually make a difference. What does Jeff Gannon bring to this table besides a lap dance for Scott McClellan? The Jeff Gannon’s of the political game grease palms, seats and the degenerate locals who make up the sign placers, the commercial spots, and the purveyors of misinformation that always runs rampant in times of campaigns.
Jeff Gannon walking away from this scandal with his ownership of porn websites and his acts of prostitution is par for the course when you consider the closed race of two party politics. Close enough to ask a question of the President in the White House briefing room yet far enough away to avoid investigation by the Congress and the Senate, Jeff Gannon goes on to prove that the citizens of this country like the customers of Jeff Gannon will just have to take what is given them, because from here it doesn’t look like it will get any better anytime soon.

- Chris Mansel

The Early Reports

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