The SoapBoxers

Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, besides many other things, is proving the need for education reform. At a Iowan for Tax Relief event this past Sunday showed a complete lack of basic knowledge of history by saying that slavery ended with the founding of the country. “The very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States….Men like John Quincy Adams, who would not rest until slavery was extinguished in the country” Bachman said to the crowd at the Iowa event. For one John Quincy Adams was not one of the founding fathers, and two, slavery ended with the 13th amendment in 1865 and John Quincy Adams died in 1848, so he was not even alive when it was abolished.

Then again it is not really a surprise that Bachmann or any of her Tea Party friends would think such a thing, because as much as they wrap themselves up in the Constitution and worship the founding fathers, they really don’t respect or believe fully in either. So why would they be bothered by knowing basic facts? After all, they have an issue with changing or abolishing almost every amendment to the Constitution to fit their needs. Must have made for some good discussions at the first Constitution Class that Bachmann led on Monday as well.

Bachmann is so far to the right now that she only looks to the right when talking. In one of her other newsmaking events of the past week she gave the official Tea Party response to the State of the Union address she looked off to the right of the camera the entire time. All kidding aside that is merely the most comical thing about her insane rant that night. One of the most hilarious pieces of crap hurled forth from her mouth was about the government telling you what light bulb you can buy. Actually this is the most true statement to come out of her mouth that night, but only because it is in reference to a 2007 legislation signed by President Bush and done further under President Obama in 2009 dealing with bringing efficiency to the manufacturing of lightbulbs. No where in either document does it actually talk about the Government telling you which lightbulbs you can and cannot buy. Then again there is no language of death panels in the healthcare legislation so why bother with actual facts when we can spread falsities until your idiotic masses believe them to be truths. In the words of New York Congressman Anthony Weiner, Michele Bachmann has clearly lost contact with the mothership.

The other response to the State of the Union was delivered by Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan.  Unlike most republicans in either chamber of Congress he actually does offer his own plans for things, only he was not allowed to speak of them during his response, probably because they would scare the living shit out of the electorate. Part of Ryan’s Roadmap to Americas Future calls for eliminating Social Security and Medicare for everyone currently under the age of 55.

As for the response itself it seemed to be just more of the same. As the President talked about the problems we face and possible ways to take care of them, the Republicans continued to basically say the only problem with the country is Obama himself and that they have no real solutions to anything. The whole time I was watching Ryan I thought to myself, “When did Joel Osteen lose the mullet”, as the whole thing sort of had this weird televangelist vibe going on where I didn’t know if I was watching a response to the President’s speech or being asked to call in and donate money.

In the last three weeks, I’ve had barn on the brain. I’ve been called (by my husband) a “barnhugger”. So why all the barn talk? Well, three weeks ago I saw a news article that said Valley High School in West Des Moines was going to tear down a historic barn for parking, green space, area for shot put and discus etc. So I thought, “Well, before it’s gone I should drive by and show it to the boys. Maybe take a picture and blog about it.” And I did.

After I wrote the blog I thought, “Hey, the news mentioned something about a facebook group.” So I found them and then joined. I posted my blog post and was contacted by one of the administrators. I set up a online petition for them the next day and wrote a press release for them over the weekend.

So why should I care about this barn? It’s amazing. The more time I spend working on the barn issue, the more I learn, the more I love the barn. It isn’t the original 1880’s wooden barn (obviously) but it was built in 1932 and served as a Dairy Farm. Yes, West Des Moines was once farm land. Valley West Mall wasn’t always there. Actually, the farmer was approached by the people wanting to build an airport and he said, “I won’t do that to my neighbors.” Can you imagine how different Des Moines would be if the airport was in the area of Valley High School? They’re be no Valley West Mall, 235 wouldn’t be where it is…It’s just amazing to think about. One man’s decision changed the look of a city.

And that’s what I’m trying to teach my boys. Stand up for something you believe in. The barn is more than just a barn. It’s history. And not just history of people who are 2nd, 3rd, or 4th generation West Des Moines-ites. I’m not from West Des Moines, but a small farming community in West Central Iowa. The barn reminds me of the summers I spent on my family Century farm (that we still have) throwing hay out of the big barn, working to mow, dodging cow pies while being chased by my brother etc.

History is important to me. That’s obvious if you’ve been following the blog of my Grandfather’s from 1902. My dad discovered his journal and we post every day that he posts. You can read it at http://www.leanderbolton.com.

Because I decided to stand up and make a difference, I’ve been blessed with many opportunities. I was asked to go and speak on the Fallon Forum  (you can listen here) and turned it into a learning opportunity for my 5 year old. He was excited to be on the radio. I’ve been interviewed by all of the local media and the newspaper.

The facebook group is now over 2,000 members. The petition has over 850 signatures. We’ve raised around $40,000 in pledges. We have T-shirts and a website. We can be contacted at savingthebarn@gmail.com. This grassroots group has taken a life of its own. All to save a piece of history. As I like to say, “I’m not anti-progress, I’m pro-history.” My dad has always said to me about farmland and historical buildings, “Once it’s gone. It’s gone.”

After all of the work I’ve done and time I’ve spent on articles, emails and press releases, the barn has given me more than I’ve given it. I just hope we can save this historic “Barn in the City” for future generations.

[Editor’s note: click on any of the images to see the full size version.]

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and the events of January 8th solidified it for me:

The United States is too divided.  We are, as a nation, scared.

Yes, I’ve written about this before, but it’s getting worse every day.  We’re too divided to prosper.  Too divided to revolutionize.  So divided we’re scared.  Partisan politics has reached a fervor beyond anything the Yankees/Red Sox, Lakers/Celtics, UNC/Duke, or any other sports rivalry has seen.  A large portion of the people we elect to office not only seem to care about making “the other side” look bad more than they care about serving their constituants, they’ve flat out said as much.  Mitch McConnell has said “the most important thing we (Republicans) want to achieve is to make Obama a one-term president.” 

He didn’t say we need to get out of this economic turmoil.  He didn’t say need to come together as people.  His primary concern doesn’t even seem to be that his party wins, but that the other guys lose.  With that kind of attitude, everyone loses.  Project fear that the government or economy will collapse if the other side stays in power and you increase their chance of losing.

Think about it, who has more say in how this country is run, your congressperson or the CEO of Goldman Sachs?  Who has more say in where the military is deployed, the average army captain or Exxon?  I’m not saying capitalism isn’t the least of all evils in terms of social policies, I’m saying that unless it’s on a tight leash if you give it an inch it will take a mile.  What better way to get the government to give you billions of dollars than to make everyone fear an economic collapse?

It’s not just fear (and greed) that’s ruining us, it’s an acceptance of violence.  Say what you want about Michael Moore, but on the issue of America and violence and fear he hit the nail on the head in his movie Bowling for Columbine – we can’t explain why we have a similar ratio of people-to-guns as Canada but they have literally a fraction of the firearm murder rate.  Why are we, the leader of the “civilized” world, so violent, so afraid?

Part of it is the media and the sensationalization of violence.  The expansion of coverage of violence in the media has certainly exploded, but aren’t they just giving us what we want?  What is it about violence that keeps us as a society couchbound and captivated?  I think a big part of it is fear.  Fear has always been used as a tool for control, and it’s being used more and more often now by both the media and the government.  What better way to drum up ratings than by scaring people so much that they have to tune in for more coverage?  What better way to keep the populous passive and your corporate overlords placated than by scaring the people with the TSA or the DEA and then broadcast it on the nightly news?

 So what can be done?  Small steps aren’t going to solve this problem, not even close.  I’ve heard it said that we need a 3rd political party to change things, well, I disagree:  we need a 2nd party.  The two we have now are just minor variations on the same beast sucking at the corporate teat, content to let fear keep us in line.  I’m sure some people will say my ideas are way too extreme, but we need to stop corporations from running this country and to do that complete overhauls of both the campaign finance system and lobbyist system are needed.  No more corporate donations.  Caps on personal donations.  100% transparency in all political donations.  A lockout period of at least 5 years on any ex-politician before they can become a lobbyist.  Complete disclosures on any politician/lobbyist meeting – yes, complete.  That means any and all politician/lobbyist meetings are recorded and publically available.  If you want to help run this country, you’re going to do it for the people, dammit, not for your own or your friend’s own personal gain.

Transparency.  Truth.  Information.  They will show us that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, and that we can once again come back as the land of the free and the home of the brave.

I like many others of both sides of the political spectrum are saddened by the events Saturday in Tucson, AZ, where thirteen people were wounded and six were killed at a political event for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. While I do truly believe their sentiment at the results of this incident, the deaths of Gabe Zimmerman, John Roll, Dorthy Murray, Dorwin Stoddard, Phyllis Scheck and nine year old Christina Greene are clearly blood on the hands of the the political atmosphere created by the teabaggers, nurtured and encouraged by the Republican Party, publicized on its own “news” network and carried out by nutcases like 22 year old Jared Loughner.

Sarah Palin didn’t pull the trigger but she did put Giffords in her cross hairs as a target that her supporters needed to take out. (WINK)

Jesse Kelly, Giffords opponent in this past election didn’t pull the trigger. However he did have his supporters taking aim and shooting at pictures of her to help them practice taking her out. Kelly said Saturday that you can’t make any possible connection between the two things. Nope can’t find any connection at all between you wanting people to practice shooting at the Congresswoman to take her out and someone shooting her not in practice. Nah, no way at all. Give me a break. 

Is this the kind of Second Amendment remedy you were looking for Sharon Angle? The tea party candidate did lose the election to Giffords after all.

Isn’t a little revolution every now and then a good thing and we need to fight to take our country back. Michelle Bachman, that is what you wanted right?

The examples of the incitement and nurturing of the rhetoric by the politicians on the right as well as their supporters, that would lead to this are endless. Outside of her opponent literally having people practice shooting at her, the examples I give here are pretty anecdotal. They do prove a point though, hatred breeds violence and your followers will practice what you preach so you might want to tone it down a notch. This was stated by many over and over again during this past election cycle. To bad it took an event like this happening for the right to finally wake up and realize that maybe they might just be a smart idea.

Guess it seems to be working, Republicans have suspended the vote on their pointless vote on repealing that Job Killing Healthcare (that those evil, socialist, want to kill your grandma, gonna take your guns and religion Democrats brought upon you) Bill, that just the day before was too important to allow for any debate or amendments to. Guess its better late than never to decide to return sanity to the party.

As the New Year begins, I have been thinking about what my first write up would be for 2011. I have to admit (and hopefully I’m not the only person out there) that I’m tired. I’m abnormally exhausted. Maybe it’s the combination of the in-laws coming to visit, too much eggnog (those who know me know that it is actually beer), far too much work and too much fun with the kids. Any way you slice it, I hope that 2011 finds each of you in a good position and that during the coming months things will continue to improve for each of you.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 was the beginning of the 112th congress. John Boehner and Nancy Pelosi once again exchanged the gavel used by the speaker of the house. This year seems to be the beginning of a more partisan house than we’ve seen in years though. Since November battle lines have been drawn by the congressmen/congresswomen. Republicans have promised to fulfill promises they made to their base about repealing “Obamacare” and to bring our country back to the conservative values that it was founded on.

It just seems like yesterday that we heard political ad after political ad. Does anyone remember that like a nightmare? I swore if I heard one more person try to align themselves with Ronald Reagan I would get sick. That seemed to be the war cry of those wanting to poise themselves opposite of the Obama administration. Reaganomics was a term coined in the 80’s for simple trickledown economics. It isn’t a new idea and is heavily documented in econ book after econ book. This is the direction many people believe we should be moving back to—this is likely what is spurring the Reagan comparisons.

So, what are the tasks that John Boehner, the Republicans and the few conservative Democrats in this new Congress would like to take on?

1. Repeal “Obamacare”. We all know that this won’t happen right now. The question is will they make the statement and stand against the healthcare changes like they said that they would? The two biggest complaints that people have with the healthcare law is that this behemoth change now mandates healthcare coverage and that it is expensive…very expensive. Some people were silly enough to believe that this wouldn’t cost us anything. I telecommute for a company that employs some people working in health insurance. I have a desk within earshot of reps answering phones. I can’t tell you the number of times I heard these reps trying to explain to callers that they can’t just call up the insurance company and ask for the free Obama Healthcare Plan.
2. Control spending. Everyone has an opinion on the spending. Peggy the Mooch thinks we ought to spend more to pay for the gas in her tank and her mortgage. Others think that we need to get back to decreased public spending and allow people to become more self-sufficient. It does seem that we have created this enormous government tit that the entire country has latched on to and is working to suck dry. Everyone from the execs at Goldman Sachs to Peggy the Mooch is connected. Are they wrong for doing so? Hell no, I can’t blame Peggy for taking advantage of some free goods. If people are going to give it away why wouldn’t you take it? I do blame her for being naive enough to believe Obama was going to be her Obama Clause though. People, we’re enabling this….this is our fault and we need to fix it. Someone created the fictional character Hugh Jidette to make light of the situation, but don’t take it too lightly; this is happening. This week the House votes on a 5% cut across the board to their own spending budgets…good start, but don’t stop there. Just keep thinking smaller government.
3. Stimulate the economy and create more jobs. I’m lumping them together which may not be wise. I’ve taken fewer than 10 econ classes and in my simple world it seems like the two go hand in hand, but that may be naive of me. No, I don’t have the answer; I’m not foolish enough to believe that a simple IT guy will come up with a plan to save the free world economy. I can only suggest that we look back at what hasn’t worked, consult with those that are much wiser and do something about it. If we don’t take action nothing will improve.
4. Give John Boehner strength. Yes, John Boehner the gravelly voiced speaker is a softie. He has been known to shed a tear at those moments where emotions run high. No, not just before he pushes Nancy Pelosi off the speaker’s podium…more like when Harry Reid retained office or something tender happens within his family.

This year will be hard on politicians, pundits and constituents. We are likely going to be at odds with one another even more after 2011 ends. Let’s hope that in the process that we don’t have any additional wars break out, any nuclear fallout from Iran, Korea, China, Venezuela, etc. Let’s hope that our economy improves and we begin to feel like the confident leaders of the free world we are used to being. Let’s hope that jobs are created and more American’s are put back to work. Let’s hope that people can start to see some common ground and reduce the political walls that have built up. Finally, let’s pray that God leads our President, our Congress and blesses our troops with safety, wisdom and courage in this New Year.

Squeaky…

So much for being the lame duck session of Congress. Despite constant Republican obstruction, whining and even some crying, things actually got done and even some Republicans got off their asses and did the job they were elected to do. In the past couple days Congress has passed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a new START treaty, as well as a bill providing benefits to first responders to 9/11. Not too shabby of a finish to this Congress even though we had to give the Republicans their tax cuts for the rich to bankrupt the future just to be able to get to these items in the first place. I guess the Pubes did “give in” to extending unemployment benefits so not everything was horrible with that one.

Unlike John McCain, I am very happy to see the repeal of DADT. I use McCain here because he reacted to the ruling stating “Today is a very sad day.” Really John, ending discrimination is a sad thing? Anyways this law has always has been the dumbest law to me, not just because it is wrong, but it was never the law the title implies. It never was a law of such a neutral stance, it was always a law of no matter what you are not allowed to serve if you are gay. The Don’t Tell part of the law tended to be very well followed to, it was the Don’t Ask part that the military just ignored. So with its repeal I am happy that we no longer have to dismiss highly qualified people just because they are gay.

On the START treaty I am hppy to see it done, but unlike the rest of the bills I felt this one was the one that was assured to pass in the lame duck session. Afterall every living former Secretary of State was for the new treaty. It was just a matter of time before the Pubes would end their faux outrage and end their obstruction on this one.

Then on the front of the 9/11 first responders bill it is nice to see that those who did their most on that day are finally able to be taken care of better for the damages done to them. Luckily a few Republicans disconnected from the collective on this one as well. I do find it funny that the party of 9/11 doesn’t give a shit about those who actually did the work that day, they only like the symbolism of the day itself to use as propaganda. But then again this is the party that prefers to get unpaid for tax cuts for the wealthy, while holding hostage the benefits to many unemployed in a tough economy to get their way, so nothing really should ever be a surprise for the party of fear propaganda and lies.

On other fronts, the Alaska Supreme Court has seemed to wrapped up the litigation on the Senate election of write-in winner and current Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski. Joe Miller can now crawl back under the rock he came out from, and because hell hath no fury like a woman scorned Sarah Palin has created an oddity in a Republican that openly rejects her as well as her opinions on things. I feel that is the one reason Murkowski suddenly became a vote in favor of the recent bills that passed, including DADT. I don’t for see her being much of a moderate Republican down the line still, but it is nice to see independent thought out of a Republican, even if it clearly is out of spite.

Ending my thoughts for this month it seems that possible presidential candidate and Republican Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour feels that the Civil Rights era “Wasn’t that Bad.” and that the Citizens Council were good organizations. Now I don’t think Barbour is a racist for his comments like many have been stipulating, I merely (like I do about about many Republicans) think he is an idiot. Of course the civil rights era was not that bad, for him, he was white, had a good upbringing, etc. it is more of ignorance over what went on right around him than racism in my opinion here, but ignorance is no excuse for being an apologist to what actually happened in the past.

I hope everyone has a safe holiday season and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

A continuation of last year’s letter to Virginia

Dear Virginia,

You may be wondering if there really is an Obama Claus. You have been promised so much but think you haven’t seen any of it. Silly, Virginia. You should know better.

I know you were hoping that “Obama would pay your gas and mortgage.”  But your house is in foreclosure. You haven’t had to make a house payment in months though, right?

I know that you traded in your paid off car only for a car payment you couldn’t afford. But you have a nice car, right? Or has it been repossessed?

I know that you were hoping for health care for all … but have only seen your insurance rates go up and your favorite doctor has decided to retire. But you’ll see that it will be better. After all, we know better than you do.

Oh, Virginia. You hoped that the Government would come to your aid quickly after the horrible BP oil spill, only to find yourself with mounting bills and paperwork and paperwork, only to get a percentage of what you were promised. But it’s all BP’s fault. And all of that off shore drilling. Hey, let’s blame Sarah Palin … yeah. That’s it.

And taxes? Yes, Virginia. Unless Obama and crew pass the Bush tax cuts extension, you will find less in your paycheck and less at tax time. I know you were promised more take home, but Obama Claus needs that money. Besides, it’s all that horrible Bush’s fault for giving you more of your money in the first place.

It’s those crazy Tea Partiers. Yeah, that’s it. Those crazy people who didn’t like the way things were going got out and voted. Now nothing will get done for you, Virginia. People just didn’t give Obama Claus enough time to fix all of the things that the evil Bush messed up. It’s not Obama Claus’ fault. It’s the Tea Partiers.

You silly, silly girl. Don’t listen to Fox News. Keep the faith with Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow. THEY know what is right for you. Just like Obama Claus. And remember, it’s all Bush’s fault.

Virginia, don’t you know that Obama Claus is highly educated? He attended Harvard, therefore is a billion times smarter than you. Don’t you know that? Of course you don’t. You should consider it enough for Christmas that such a wonderful, educated, African American is in charge. So rather than doubting what he’s promised, just be thankful he’s in there.

This will be my final article for 2010, and I’ve been pretty darn moderate my last few articles so rather than focusing on one specific issue here I’m going to give my opinions on a bunch of different issues that are making news the past few weeks.  I apologize in advance if I get a little too stream-of-consciousness.

Within the past few days it has been announced both that astronomers found an extra-solar system planet that has water vapor and a lifeform that uses arsenic instead of phosphorus for basic life processes.  This opens up the possibility of there being life in a lot more places out there (including outside of Earth) than we thought previously.  I already know the one question on every Republican’s mind:  Are these lifeforms willing to put a hold on everything just to keep an unnessessary tax cut for the richest of the rich?  (and if so let’s spin that to our advantage)

Ok, about that whole tax issue …

I’m going to break into a little comparison here.  Ok, a big comparison.  Pretend that you work for a big company that has a board of directors that chooses the CEO.  For some strange reason a new CEO gets chosen every 4 years and can only be CEO for a total of 8 years.  Anyway, your CEO announces that he’s giving an across-the-board temporary raise to everyone in the company, and he has it done in contract form so everyone knows it’s temporary.  He’s not entirely sure the company can afford it, but what the heck, it’ll raise company morale, right?  Besides that, it’s temporary and he’s set it to expire while on the next CEO’s watch, so even if it is a problem it will be somebody else’s problem.  Some years later there’s a whole lot of water-cooler gossip because those temporary raises are set to expire.  It’s a new CEO now and he’d like to continue the raise for everyone but the absolute top earners in the company, and those top earners have salaries absolutely dwarf yours (we’re talking quite a few magnitudes of order) scream to the point of holding up any plans to continue that raise and it all falls through.  Do you think it’s dishonest to call that temporary raise expiring, with all the circumstances, a pay cut? 

Welcome to the United States of Goldman Sachs.  I just don’t get how extreme right-wingers can act like Bush’s brand of capitalism is fair when everyone but the top 1% starts at a massive disadvantage.  It is a proven fact that one of the worst ways to improve the economy and create jobs is to cut taxes, and one of the best ways is to keep those without jobs on unemployment.  Why?  Virtually 100% of unemployment money is spent (the jobless don’t save, they barely survive) while the super-rich continually invest/save outside of America.

[Editor’s note: for a primer on income distribution in the US, check out this article – How many people make more than $250,000].

Every Republican and even a few Democrats have swallowed the cool-aid, though, and are calling what’s gong on here a tax raise.  Heck, what the taxes are going back up to aren’t even at Reagan tax levels and people were doing just fine, then.  Finally, why is no one pointing out that this is yet another mess Bush created and will have no hand in solving?  I sure didn’t see Republicans screaming about the debt or deficit when he was starting wars and not using correct accounting methods for their costs, and 1 of those wars was started based on information Dick Cheney knew was false.  I bet South Korea is wishing we invaded the real nuclear threat rogue state right about now.

Speaking of the military, I wonder where John McCain will move his goalposts to next.  2006 he said he’d be fine with repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell if the military was ok with it.  In 2008 he said he’d need a thorough study from the Pentagon saying it wouldn’t cause major impact and he’d be ok with it.  Now that the thorough study is out McCain is insulting the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our Commander in Chief by saying they don’t really lead military men so this study is invalid.  I bet if by some miracle he had won the presidential election in 2008 he’d say he led troops as Commander in Chief.  Homophobia, like John McCain, is really old.  He froths at the mouth defending positions that not even 50% of Americans want, and then flip-flips on DADT when over 75% of Americans would be OK with gays serving openly.

About Wikileaks …  I’m still not quite sure what to think about Jullian Assange.  It is unclear to me if he is breaking the law or not, or even morally wrong or not.  On the one hand, I understand that government secrets are sometimes a necessary evil but on the other hand I feel like someone has to watch the watchman.  The US Justice Department is going all-out to try and charge him with something, anything – that feels like to me he might just be innocent.  We’re talking about a US espionage service that was able to infect Iranian nuclear processing centrifuges with a virus – and don’t think for a minute that the US didn’t have a hand in it, even if it was just helping Israel do the dirty deed.  If they really had some dirt on Assange, don’t you think they would have him being waterboarded at Quantico right now?

[Editor’s note: check our Squeaky’s article, What should we do about Wikileaks, for more commentary on Wikileaks and Julian Assange.]

Finally, I’d like to give a big middle finger to political correctness and say Merry Chrismas, Happy Hanukkah, and a joyful whatever else you celebrate.  Most of what we celebrate these days has Pagan roots anyway, and it’s all capitalistic.  I wish the world would stop being so greedy and just learn to love their fellow man.

This week we all read and heard about the recent dump of classified information into the internet, a scandal called wikileaks named after the website (wikileaks.org) that divulged the information.  The website was founded in 2006 and is famous for gathering information from anonymous sources then placing them on their website for all to view.

The most recent information disclosed private communications between the US and 270 embassies and consulates.  The information is embarrassing at the very least.  It will undoubtedly fuel already boiling tempers in the East.  Years of goodwill will be destroyed as private conversations and name calling is made public.  Leaders of countries will now know exactly what other leaders think of them, as very candid and (assumed) private conversations are revealed.

One of the scariest revelations for me is that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad now knows that his neighbors view him as a trouble maker and asked the US to destroy the nuclear facilities in Iran before they were functional.  Without a doubt this will be an irritant to Iran and probably lead them to be less cooperative (if possible) in the future considering that the US did not act even though a number of our Middle Eastern allies asked us to.

So, what do we do with Wikileaks, its founder (Julian Assange) and Army PFC Bradley Manning?

Wikileaks will claim freedom of speech and that it has a right to disclose information that it did not steal or obtain illegally.  The question that will likely need to be sorted out in court is did Wikileaks (or its owner) have any obligation to protect classified or secret military information?  Julian Assange will be the one to receive any direct punishment since he is the founder, owner and one that makes the decisions for wikileaks.  PFC Manning is the one that illegally obtained the classified, secret and normal electronic transmissions.  Manning then provided this information to wikileaks for some reason unknown to me.

The losers in this situation: 

1. Manning.  He will pay the highest price for this.  He’s currently serving in the military; he knowingly, intentionally and voluntarily downloaded the information and allegedly provided the information to Wikileaks.  Manning was discovered to be the “alleged” perpetrator only after he confided his actions to a reformed hacker named Adrian Lamo.   That hacker reported the confession to the government.
2. Currently serving military personnel.  Information never intended to be shared with the opposition has likely been leaked and will be read by insurgents.  There will be lives lost because operations and locations have been disclosed.
3. Diplomacy.  Communication from world leaders shared with various government officials known as “cables” were downloaded and shared.  Some of these communications were extremely damning of other countries and was never intended to be read by anyone but the intended recipient.  There will be hard feelings, growing distrust between countries and leaders will be hesitant to speak freely any longer over email with diplomats and leaders from other countries.

This whole event is disturbing to me because you have a very low level analyst (Private First Class) able to scour servers for classified, secret and even top secret reports and emails, download them and burn them to CD,  place them on a flash drive or even email them to anyone that he wanted without detection.  This will undoubtedly hurt our soldiers serving in the Middle East because those documents likely detail many of our Operations as well as identities of embedded spies.  From an IT perspective I’m mystified by many reports I have heard indicating that PFC Manning had the authority to access server logs and erase the footprints that would have implicated him as the downloader.  In other words, not only did he have top secret clearance, he had the ability to destroy any evidence that he ever viewed and/or downloaded the information.  This is an incredible oversight and needs to change immediately.

I fail to see how this leak provides any benefit to anyone short of those working for the opposition.  We may for a very long time wonder what motivated an active military enlistee to disclose this harmful information.  For now I will watch as the events unfold as additional information is disseminated through the media.  We can be assured that since this information has hit the web it will forever be out there.  The files are currently accessible by downloading the torrent using a P2P program … they are roughly 350 MB per the wikileaks.org site.

Wikileaks founder has found his moment of fame and is trying to draw it out by indicating his next disclosure will bring down a very large and prominent US bank (rumored to be Bank of America). The documents are rumored to demonstrate unethical behavior.  Assange told Forbes.com in an interview (about the bank), “You could call it the ecosystem of corruption.”

My question—how will the media portray Wikileaks and Julian Assange?  Will they be made a hero or a villain?  How about PFC Manning?  Will he be a martyr?  I personally think they should both be locked up for what they have done with classified information.

With the holiday travel season upon us the right has found their latest obsession in attacking the TSA and newer regulations before boarding flights. Their new slogan is Don’t touch my junk. What the case is if you’ve been hiding in a cave the last week or so is that if you choose not to go through the full body imaging scan there will be an extensive full body pat down. Some think that the image equipment causes a risk to your health and that is why they elect not to go through that process. However like on most issues they are dead wrong. The health risk to radiation from the process amounts to the amount you would have from a few minutes of flying. So if it really was a health issue for you, you might as well not even get on the plane at all.

However on one note I will agree with their side that the extensive pat down is not required at all. It has been 15 years since I have flown with them, but El Al Airlines has always had nice security measures for pre flight boarding and maybe should for other airlines. Basically you’d have to show up way early before your flight and then go through an extensive interview process with their security and check out your luggage you are carrying on. If they think something is questionable about your answers, your reaction to the question, your demeanor, something in your luggage, whatever it may be you are not allowed on your flight. Then again this would just bring up the right with saying their time is being wasted by these new invasive efforts into their privacy, but who exactly are they going to be blaming when lack of regulation fails. Who they always blame for everything under the sun, Obama.

So on this busiest of travel days the teabaggers have taken to the airports in protest of this. The image scanners are a “health concern” and also show too much and can get into wrong hands. I have already discussed the former, but on the latter they are wrong as well. The equipment does not have a save feature to keep your body image on file after the next person has gone through the line or the equipment is turned off.

So remember this holiday season when your travel is delayed some, blame the proper people. The nutcases who are protesting this whole issue instead of actually offering any sort of solution. Then again they probably won’t listen so it will probably fall on deaf ears.

Speaking of nutcases, up in Alaska defeated Republican candidate for Senate Joe Miller continues to be a sore loser and is pissing and moaning and continues to bring up lawsuits blocking the landmark write-in win by fellow Republication and current Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski … His new lawsuit is that he thinks handwriting looks similar on some ballots so they must all be cast out. This goes with his other argument he has made in suit that misspelled ballots should not be counted because his supporters lead a campaign to have protest votes. So in his mind Murkowski should have received no votes at all instead of the comfortable victory she had as a write in candidate over his stupid arse. I am guessing his next step will be to have his security detail “arrest” Murkowski. So the long story short if the legal wranglings by the teabaggers in Alaska are allowed to continue Alaska will be without a Senator for the time it takes to get things sorted out. Then again I will shed no tears as it just means there is one less Republican vote in the Senate for a while, even though it will have no ramifications on the amount of votes needed to get anything done.

Other ramblings I have for this month are on the Bush tax cuts and healthcare reform. It is quite funny that the group of people who ran on the issue of the average Americans not creating debt and repealing socialist healthcare want to extend the Bush tax cuts to millionaires, add considerably to the debt and when they show up at orientation in Congress want to know where their government run healthcare is.

Well that is all I’ve got for this month. I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Thanksgiving holiday and remember there is no need to have your junk touched this holiday – unless you really want to that is.