For me, the last five years have been frightening and without much hope. I have watched my country go from being a respected beacon of liberty and a champion of human rights to one of the most hated and feared nations on earth. My country has grown fearful and controlled. New agencies like the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) and Homeland Security are slowly compromising our constitutional rights and freedoms in the name of being safe from terrorism. Over the last five years, things like the Patriot Act allowed the government to monitor my e-mail, the books I check out of the library and the movies I rent. This administration chose to bypass FISA courts and pursue unconstitutional domestic spying. It even “outed” a CIA agent when the agent’s husband dared to expose a lie about Bush’s evidence for invading Iraq. With pictures seen around the world, this administration has been exposed for its violation of international conventions and human rights in places like Abu Ghraib and “Git’mo.” With its questionable “military tribunals,” it has jeopardized bringing the truly bad guys to justice by holding and secretly torturing guilty and innocent prisoners alike for five years without due process.
Over the last five years, my country has gone from a peacetime economy with a surplus under Clinton to massive debt under the Bush administration, as we fight a war costing billions of dollars a month and no clear end in sight. Our banker to fund our debt is also our biggest economic rival and supplier for just about everything we buy. To add to our national economic pain, the price of oil has skyrocketed well beyond the rising world demand with the fall of the U.S. dollar. It has caused the price of gasoline to more than double in less than a year. To make matters worse, this administration’s call for more bio-fuel production has led to even higher prices for corn, wheat and rice. Grain needed for food is increasingly diverted to fuel production to help offset the rising price of oil and our dependence on it. Food riots are now breaking out around the world because of the sudden rise in price. Our economy has been shaken to the core. Together with the recent mortgage crisis, this has not been a good five years, folks. We need some good news.
We are nearing the end of a very close Democratic primary race for president. The new president, Republican or Democrat, will have to deal with one hell of a mess, a costly war, an economy in crisis and the effects of global warming. Only one of the three candidates still standing has offered me hope of change.
There was a time when I actually considered John McCain for president. He has left his mark on congress and his reputation for being a maverick politician is well known. Once upon a time, he intrigued me. However, John McCain’s commitment to our involvement in Iraq “for a hundred years if needed” finally soured my interest. We cannot afford the overwhelming cost, the loss of lives and the loss of our national reputation to honor his (Bush’s) commitment to “win” in Iraq. What does a win in Iraq even mean? What does it look like? How would we know it? Unfortunately, I believe John McCain as president would mean another 4 years of the Bush administration. It would mean more of the same old stuff that has not worked. Not much hope...not much change.
I had hoped that Hillary Clinton would choose not to run. Too much baggage from her husband’s years: Travel-gate, the health care fiasco, Bill and Monica and a presidential impeachment. Still, I was excited about having a viable candidate for the first woman president. I had no doubt that she would be tough enough for the job, but the first Clinton administration left our country savagely divided along partisan lines. Things turned nasty and there was bad blood. Her presidency could be seen as a vindication for her husband and that would not sit well with Republicans. As I saw in her primary campaign, Bill Clinton played a big role in her run for office and I do not imagine he would lay low once she was president, opening her presidency to scandal and conflict. Some hope perhaps...but not much change.
Then there was this dark horse, a junior senator from Illinois. He gave this speech at the last Democratic Convention in 2004 and I remember thinking that we would hear more from this man. Barack Obama talked about how there were not blue states or red states, but there were only the United States of America. When he emphasized united ...for the first time I actually believed that we might all come together as ONE nation and get something done. He was not talking mean partisan politics...he was talking unity. He was talking about healing this country and giving us direction. He was talking about change from the old Washington backbiting and gridlock. During the primary, he talked about ending this war. He talked about finding solutions. He talked about using diplomacy and talking to our enemies. This struck fear in the hearts of those that truly believe that the best defense is a strong and angry offense. It can only be through mighty force and blood sacrifice that our country will survive. If dialogue with our enemies is weakness, then what has our blood sacrifice, our torture of prisoners, and cowboy talk done to make this nation stronger and more respected? Are we any safer?
Barack Obama has given me hope.
FOOD for THOUGHT...
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Telephones
In my 56 years on this planet, I have seen an amazing evolution. I am talking about the telephone. I moved to a small farm in central Illinois when I was about seven years old after my mother remarried. Our old farmhouse had one crank phone to connect us to the rest of the world. There was no dial, no touch-tone buttons, just a black hand set that sat on a black case with a hand crank on the side.
Our phone was on a “party line.” A party line was a circuit that included the phones of at least five other homes in our area. Other circuits connected more homes and all these circuits were tied into a Central Office located in our small town of Martinton, Illinois. The Central Office is where the operator connected the calls to outside lines. I learned that this part of Illinois was among the last in the country to operate with crank phones on party lines with a local central office. The rest of the world was dialing their numbers on private lines.
If you needed to make a call, you had to pick up the handset and turn the crank in a clockwise motion for several turns. Eventually the operator would come on the line and ask for your number. The operator would then dial the number and connect the call. Now to receive a call, you had to listen for the length and number of rings on your phone. Our house was five short rings. When we heard our signature ring, we picked up the handset and took the call. Now one of the problems was that at least five other houses on our party line would also hear our ring on their phones as well. They could pick up their phones and listen in to our calls.
There was proper phone etiquette when using a party line. Officially, customers were not to listen in to other calls, but from time to time, everyone did it, even the town’s operator. Before ringing the operator, you were to listen first to see if anyone was on the line. If someone was on the line and you had an emergency, the other parties were to get off and yield to your call. Finally, you were expected to watch your language while using the phone. This last one got my father into trouble one day. The operator asked my dad to come into town for a meeting at the Central Office. It seems that two, elderly, maiden sisters on our party line overheard my dad swearing on line and had lodged a complaint. My father reminded the operator about the rule of not listening in to other people’s calls and in no uncertain terms was he ever to be summoned to the Central Office again. That was the last time.
The Central Office was located in the home of the operator so he and his family took turns manning the switchboard and placing calls. Occasionally, an operator was busy or not around and this led to hard feelings when people needed to place a call. If the operator and his family went on vacation or would be away from home, they had to train a replacement or get someone from the Central Phone Company (later called Centel) to come to their house and take over the operation.
Somewhere in the mid 1960’s our phone system finally entered the twentieth century. We got dial phones. We no longer had to listen for the five short rings to pick up our calls, but we were still on a party line. We would still have to listen on line before dialing our number, but no one else on our party line could hear our ring. We had arrived.
I went to work for Motorola just as the cell phone allowed people around the world to go wireless. We could take our phones with us. We could make calls anywhere there were cell towers to connect us. At first, they were the size of bricks, but eventually they shrunk to the size of our palms and fit in purses and pockets. After cell phones were equipped with cameras, pictures, voice and text could travel the world. With the advent of Apple’s I-Phone, we now have access to the internet and unlimited information. GPS on newer phones can now track our comings and goings and tell us how to get from point A to point B. Simply amazing!
What is even more amazing is that despite all of our advancements in science and technology... we are still using crank telephones when it comes to world peace, dealing with poverty and saving our planet and its dwindling resources.
FOOD for THOUGHT...
Our phone was on a “party line.” A party line was a circuit that included the phones of at least five other homes in our area. Other circuits connected more homes and all these circuits were tied into a Central Office located in our small town of Martinton, Illinois. The Central Office is where the operator connected the calls to outside lines. I learned that this part of Illinois was among the last in the country to operate with crank phones on party lines with a local central office. The rest of the world was dialing their numbers on private lines.
If you needed to make a call, you had to pick up the handset and turn the crank in a clockwise motion for several turns. Eventually the operator would come on the line and ask for your number. The operator would then dial the number and connect the call. Now to receive a call, you had to listen for the length and number of rings on your phone. Our house was five short rings. When we heard our signature ring, we picked up the handset and took the call. Now one of the problems was that at least five other houses on our party line would also hear our ring on their phones as well. They could pick up their phones and listen in to our calls.
There was proper phone etiquette when using a party line. Officially, customers were not to listen in to other calls, but from time to time, everyone did it, even the town’s operator. Before ringing the operator, you were to listen first to see if anyone was on the line. If someone was on the line and you had an emergency, the other parties were to get off and yield to your call. Finally, you were expected to watch your language while using the phone. This last one got my father into trouble one day. The operator asked my dad to come into town for a meeting at the Central Office. It seems that two, elderly, maiden sisters on our party line overheard my dad swearing on line and had lodged a complaint. My father reminded the operator about the rule of not listening in to other people’s calls and in no uncertain terms was he ever to be summoned to the Central Office again. That was the last time.
The Central Office was located in the home of the operator so he and his family took turns manning the switchboard and placing calls. Occasionally, an operator was busy or not around and this led to hard feelings when people needed to place a call. If the operator and his family went on vacation or would be away from home, they had to train a replacement or get someone from the Central Phone Company (later called Centel) to come to their house and take over the operation.
Somewhere in the mid 1960’s our phone system finally entered the twentieth century. We got dial phones. We no longer had to listen for the five short rings to pick up our calls, but we were still on a party line. We would still have to listen on line before dialing our number, but no one else on our party line could hear our ring. We had arrived.
I went to work for Motorola just as the cell phone allowed people around the world to go wireless. We could take our phones with us. We could make calls anywhere there were cell towers to connect us. At first, they were the size of bricks, but eventually they shrunk to the size of our palms and fit in purses and pockets. After cell phones were equipped with cameras, pictures, voice and text could travel the world. With the advent of Apple’s I-Phone, we now have access to the internet and unlimited information. GPS on newer phones can now track our comings and goings and tell us how to get from point A to point B. Simply amazing!
What is even more amazing is that despite all of our advancements in science and technology... we are still using crank telephones when it comes to world peace, dealing with poverty and saving our planet and its dwindling resources.
FOOD for THOUGHT...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
A Catastrophic Emergency
I read an internet column by Betsy Hartmann on the following link at CommonDreams.org : http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/06/7525/ and it outlined one of my worst fears about the current administration...they might not go away. Like Putin in Russia, this administration might have put in place a way to stay in power. Our 2008 Presidential Election in November could be put on hold for national security reasons following a “catastrophic emergency.”
Betsy Hartmann writes in her article:
On May 4 last year, the White House issued the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, key parts of which remain classified and hence shrouded from public view. The directive outlines procedures to respond to a “catastrophic emergency,” defined broadly as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”
“The Bush legal team has pushed a controversial theory that the Constitution gives the president an unwritten power to disobey laws at his own discretion to protect national security,” writes Charlie Savage in the Boston Globe. He quotes legal specialists who describe the vagueness of the new directive as “troubling”.
This presidential directive because of its vagueness and classified secrecy could give this sitting president the power to stay in office if national security is threatened because of a “catastrophic emergency.” What then might be considered an emergency of this magnitude? Hartmann lists several real scenarios that could trigger this Presidential directive:
1) War with Iran. How often have we heard Vice President Cheney threaten to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities? It would be an act that would further polarize any allies left to us in the Middle East. Most experts in the region agree that such an act would be disastrous for the United States.
2) The assassination of a presidential candidate. We only have to remember the assassination of Robert Kennedy during the 1968 presidential election. Nor should we forget the reaction to the slaying of Martin Luther King.
3) Another terrorist strike on the level of 9/11 or worse. We gave up so much of our personal liberties and freedoms out of fear of another attack. Can you imagine what Americans would be asked to hand over after another attack?
Well, certainly the Supreme Court would protect any abuses of this presidential directive, including any attempt at the suspension of national elections. Not so fast. Do not forget the high court’s part in Bush being declared the winner over Gore after the mess in Florida in the 2000 presidential elections. Bush has been given the opportunity to stack the Supreme Court “deck” during his terms in office and I do not think anyone can be certain of the court’s impartiality.
Yes, I am paranoid. My regular readers can testify to that. I do not trust Bush and I especially do not trust Dick Cheney to do everything they can to hold on to power. They see a new Democratic administration that would finally pull the plug on our Iraq War as a real threat to our national security. More over, the Neocon Legacy in history is at stake. Will this administration allow Iraq to become “Bush’s Vietnam,” or will they find a way to stay in power long enough to prove history...wrong?
My fellow Americans, we are in a catastrophic emergency! We have been in this emergency since George W. Bush first took office. We cannot afford to let our one opportunity for change, the election of a new president, a new administration, be taken away with some slick power maneuver. We have too much at stake to keep on doing the same old political things and getting the same old results. If ever there was a time for bold new leadership and ideas...now is the time.
Global warming and rising oil and gas prices could turn out to be our “kick in the pants” to get serious about solutions. The old political ways just do not work. The Us vs. Them mentality has gotten us into this mess. We have spent, used up our young men and women, our economy, our resources and our reputation in the world with lies and hubris.
We must safeguard our sacred rights and precious freedoms as Americans. Let’s not forget those values and ideals that shaped this country and who we are as a people. It is time to cast off the heavy burden of fear that this administration placed on us after 9/11. Yes, there is danger in the world. We are hated and despised. There are those who wish to do us harm and destroy our way of life, but we do not have to relinquish our constitutional rights and freedoms to a government that would have us live in fear of the next attack. We must live in the light of truth and set an example for the world once more. But respect is earned. We will have to work hard to get it back.
Americans will have to become the innovators once again. We will have to learn to save our precious resources and reduce our carbon footprint on the world. This will call for great sacrifices from all of us. We must find a new engine to power our cars, trucks and planes. We must be at the forefront in solar and wind technology. We must recycle on a massive, national scale. These changes will in turn create jobs and help restore our economy. They will improve our environment.
Bush and Cheney have had their day. We must have change, now. Do not let fear finish off this once great land of ours. We have things to do. We must roll up our sleeves. Do not let fear take away our right to vote for change and live in freedom! Let us say good-bye to George and Dick once and for all. It is time for all of us, Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike to stop the poison and work together to do what is right for America. It is time for CHANGE.
FOOD for THOUGHT...
Betsy Hartmann writes in her article:
On May 4 last year, the White House issued the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive, key parts of which remain classified and hence shrouded from public view. The directive outlines procedures to respond to a “catastrophic emergency,” defined broadly as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”
“The Bush legal team has pushed a controversial theory that the Constitution gives the president an unwritten power to disobey laws at his own discretion to protect national security,” writes Charlie Savage in the Boston Globe. He quotes legal specialists who describe the vagueness of the new directive as “troubling”.
This presidential directive because of its vagueness and classified secrecy could give this sitting president the power to stay in office if national security is threatened because of a “catastrophic emergency.” What then might be considered an emergency of this magnitude? Hartmann lists several real scenarios that could trigger this Presidential directive:
1) War with Iran. How often have we heard Vice President Cheney threaten to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities? It would be an act that would further polarize any allies left to us in the Middle East. Most experts in the region agree that such an act would be disastrous for the United States.
2) The assassination of a presidential candidate. We only have to remember the assassination of Robert Kennedy during the 1968 presidential election. Nor should we forget the reaction to the slaying of Martin Luther King.
3) Another terrorist strike on the level of 9/11 or worse. We gave up so much of our personal liberties and freedoms out of fear of another attack. Can you imagine what Americans would be asked to hand over after another attack?
Well, certainly the Supreme Court would protect any abuses of this presidential directive, including any attempt at the suspension of national elections. Not so fast. Do not forget the high court’s part in Bush being declared the winner over Gore after the mess in Florida in the 2000 presidential elections. Bush has been given the opportunity to stack the Supreme Court “deck” during his terms in office and I do not think anyone can be certain of the court’s impartiality.
Yes, I am paranoid. My regular readers can testify to that. I do not trust Bush and I especially do not trust Dick Cheney to do everything they can to hold on to power. They see a new Democratic administration that would finally pull the plug on our Iraq War as a real threat to our national security. More over, the Neocon Legacy in history is at stake. Will this administration allow Iraq to become “Bush’s Vietnam,” or will they find a way to stay in power long enough to prove history...wrong?
My fellow Americans, we are in a catastrophic emergency! We have been in this emergency since George W. Bush first took office. We cannot afford to let our one opportunity for change, the election of a new president, a new administration, be taken away with some slick power maneuver. We have too much at stake to keep on doing the same old political things and getting the same old results. If ever there was a time for bold new leadership and ideas...now is the time.
Global warming and rising oil and gas prices could turn out to be our “kick in the pants” to get serious about solutions. The old political ways just do not work. The Us vs. Them mentality has gotten us into this mess. We have spent, used up our young men and women, our economy, our resources and our reputation in the world with lies and hubris.
We must safeguard our sacred rights and precious freedoms as Americans. Let’s not forget those values and ideals that shaped this country and who we are as a people. It is time to cast off the heavy burden of fear that this administration placed on us after 9/11. Yes, there is danger in the world. We are hated and despised. There are those who wish to do us harm and destroy our way of life, but we do not have to relinquish our constitutional rights and freedoms to a government that would have us live in fear of the next attack. We must live in the light of truth and set an example for the world once more. But respect is earned. We will have to work hard to get it back.
Americans will have to become the innovators once again. We will have to learn to save our precious resources and reduce our carbon footprint on the world. This will call for great sacrifices from all of us. We must find a new engine to power our cars, trucks and planes. We must be at the forefront in solar and wind technology. We must recycle on a massive, national scale. These changes will in turn create jobs and help restore our economy. They will improve our environment.
Bush and Cheney have had their day. We must have change, now. Do not let fear finish off this once great land of ours. We have things to do. We must roll up our sleeves. Do not let fear take away our right to vote for change and live in freedom! Let us say good-bye to George and Dick once and for all. It is time for all of us, Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike to stop the poison and work together to do what is right for America. It is time for CHANGE.
FOOD for THOUGHT...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
