Al Peck's blog

The story now is that Bruce Ivins, a researcher at the U. S. government’s Fort Detrick Laboratory, mailed the deadly letters. Then when the FBI closed in, he took his own life.

Victims, relatives of a victim, or simply American citizens, ought to have a few questions about this case:

·        If Ivins was a lone actor, how did such a dangerous psychopath get a security clearance to work with this deadly anthrax?

For you history buffs, here's a very interesting blow-by-blow account of Abramoff's rise in the finest traditions of Republican corruption. Highly recommended. Read the whole thing, and then get your popcorn ready to watch the show.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy/republican_system_3197.jsp

The Republican system
Sidney Blumenthal
20 - 1 - 2006

The career of disgraced super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff is a lesson in the debasement of the Republican political machine and the culmination of the post-1994 "revolution" it proclaimed, says Sidney Blumenthal.

Hardly anyone in the Republican Party, in Congress or at the White House, seems to recall ever having met Jack Abramoff. Collective amnesia has suddenly descended upon the capital. The super-lobbyist, whose plea bargain with prosecutors requires the extensive naming of members of Congress, staffers, ex-staffers, lobbyists, friends, colleagues and his own personal assistants, is spending his days racking his memory for details of their relationships that may become the basis for bills of indictment.

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Bush and former NSA head don't need any stinkin' badges...

It is sufficient to have a "reasonable basis to believe" that you're talking to Al Qaeda operatives, or maybe that you're a traitor or a Democrat, which are about the same thing.

And if you don't like illegal monitoring of your phone and emails, how about a 500-lb bomb? Here's the punch line:

...The methods the agency (NSA) uses to determine if an intercept "is an Al Qaeda communication are the same tools, techniques, tactics and procedures we use to tell America's armed forces that you can go ahead and put a 500-pound bomb on that target," he said. "It's the same art and science."

NY Times, January 23, 2006
White House Begins New Effort to Defend Surveillance Program
By DAVID E. SANGER and JOHN O'NEIL

Alito will shred Bill of Rights

(This is my letter published in the Oregonian Thursday)

The Oregonian presented a balanced pair of views on Judge Samuel Alito Jr. on Jan. 16: one from the Beltway establishment pundit David S. Broder, and the other from the reliable right-winger Rich Lowry.

So, Alito's a Bush loyalist (Broder), and just totally awesome (Lowry).

They missed the main point: Mrs. Alito's tears at the harsh questioning of her husband by Democrats.

Mrs. Alito will get over it. The nation and the Constitution will not. If Alito is confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court, we can all shed tears for the late, lamented Bill of Rights. The only amendment he believes in is the Second -- your right to a fully automatic machine gun will be secure. That is, unless somebody in Washington, D.C., decides you are an enemy combatant.

Does this story ring a bell? Distressed electric utility looks for a buyer. Investment group thinks it looks like an opportunity. Investment group buys utility cheap and flips it quickly for a profit of 600 percent. Investors make out like bandits, or pirates. Ratepayers foot the bill.

If this story sounds a lot like what Texas Pacific was proposing for Oregon and PGE, there’s a reason…

For those who thought that Texas Pacific takeover of PGE might have been a good deal, here’s an object lesson about Texas Power Pirates from the pages of the New York Times.

New York Times, November 23, 2005, Market Place
The Deal That Even Awed Them in Houston
By SIMON ROMERO
HOUSTON, Nov. 21 - Texas Genco might lack the flash and fame of Enron, but its low-profile owners have managed to accomplish something rare in this swaggering city: a deal so ambitious in its scale that it has caused jaws to drop in Houston's energy circles while angering and perplexing people who are feeling the sting of surging electricity prices.

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