Volume 2 Issue 76

May 21, 2003

Past as Prologue?

More Bush Cabinet members head for the door, are bribes weapons of mass destruction, and FedEx turns green

Yesterday, I watched part of the CBS mini-series on Hitler, and got to thinking about one part of the film, after the Reichstag fire, when Hitler addresses reporters vaguely about how the nation must unify to fight terrorism. I'm sure the irony of this is lost on most Americans, but it is interesting to see how careful we must be that our leaders do not abuse the powers we give them to protect the nation. I thought of this as I read the paper this morning...which contained these headlines:

Pentagon Details New Surveillance System Washington Post: The Pentagon wants to develop a tracking system that would analyze everything about everyone, from what they spend money on, to how they walk. Of course, as part of the "Total Information Awareness" project, this would not apply to American citizens. But we all know how often the government has misappropriated this kind of thing before...

Anti-Terror Power Used Broadly Washington Post - Turns out that all the laws we enacted to fight terror, are being used...but not to fight terror

GOP Blocks Democrats' Effort To Halt Nuclear Arms Studies Washington Post - So, now the Bush Administration wants to build "small yield" (meaning only 10 times Hiroshima or so) weapons. The problem is, if you build them, you'll use them. Isn't our conventional arsenal really enough?

Finally, DPS ordered search records destroyed Fort Worth Star-Telegram - After the dissident Texas Legislators began to question why federal resources were used to hunt them down, suddenly all the records were destroyed on anonymous orders. Hmm....

Of course, I'm not saying that the Bush administration is equivalent to a neo-Nazi administration or anything like that. But remember, Hitler was elected first. Perhaps instead of attacking those who disagree with the Administration in our national debates, we should praise them, for they help to serve as a check, so that extreme power can never take over this nation.

Onto the insanity...

Orange Alert: So what is this "chatter" we hear about all the time?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3041151.stm

Homeland Insecurity: A new investigation has shown that pretty much anyone can get dozens of state-made fake ID's in New Jersey...and there's nothing that anyone can do to stop it -
http://www.politicsnj.com/nj1015_052103.htm

Another one bites the dust: Christine Todd Whitman, the EPA Administrator, became the 2nd Bush official of the week to resign. Expect more staggered departures throughout the summer, as the Administration has told it's appointees to leave now or commit through 2005 -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/21/politics/21WIRE-WHIT.html

Is Bribery the new secret weapon? More than bombs or tanks, bribes may have been the reason for our quick victory in Iraq -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2083271/

Keystone Cop Alert: Ok, memo to Federal officials trailing Anthrax Suspect Steven J. Hatfill...when you are tailing a subject, it usually helps not to hit him with your car -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10736-2003May19.html

Speaking of corruption: Ah, New Jersey. The head of the NJ-PA Port Authority was allowed to negotiate with himself for his severance package. Of course he was generous!
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m052103a.h tm

A Master, or a Crook? The fastest growing bank in America has come under fire for it's connections to New Jersey politicians. Is it just good business? Or does Commerce Bank run the state of New Jersey? A special series in the Bergen Record -
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnF lZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzgxNDEw

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnF lZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzgxNDE0

http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnF lZUVFeXkyJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2MzgxNDE2

Look Who's Running for President: Carol Mosely Braun admits she's in money trouble -
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0305210271may21,1,6501759.story?coll=chi%2Dnewsnationworld%2Dhed

Look Who's Running for President 2: George W. Bush is getting ready to fire up the money machine -
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-money21may21,1,1667438.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Da%5Fsection

Look Who's Running for President 3: If the General Election were held today between John Kerry and George W. Bush, Bush would beat Kerry in Massachusetts -
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/2218073/detail.html

Look Who's Voting in Baltimore: A strange quirk in the law will allow 16-year olds in Baltimore to vote starting this year -
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,87368,00.html

What would JFK have done? Bob Dallek's new bio of JFK asserts that he would have not gotten us involved in Vietnam. While Fred Kaplan agrees, he also says that Dallek's reasons are all wrong -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2083136/

Where did the time go: Portland, Oregon is getting ready to open a time capsule placed by Teddy Roosevelt 100 years ago. If they can find it. -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/18/national/18TIME.html

Going Green: Federal Express is embarking on a plan to replace it's delivery trucks with hybrid vehicles. Hybrids catching on in commercial applications would go a long way to reducing dependence on oil and easing pollution, it should be encouraged more -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/21/technology/21HYBR.html