“Under a government, which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.” - Henry David Thoreau
I hope I am premature with these thoughts, and I will proven to be Chicken Little claiming that the sky is falling. But the neutering of one of the tenants of our United States Constitution, the Right to Habeas Corpus (Article One, section nine) under the guise of President Bush’s Military Commissions Act of 2006, seemed to be met with an overwhelming and bi-partisan…yawn!
The fact is that it centralized and consolidated power to the Executive Branch making the sitting President the sole authority on who is an “enemy combatant.” On Countdown Wednesday night the question was asked of Constitutional law professor, Jonathan Turley, “Does that not basically mean that if Mr. Bush or Mr. Rumsfeld say so, anybody in this country, citizen or not, innocent or not, can end up being an unlawful enemy combatant?” His answer was a resounding yes adding these chilling thoughts. “And so we may have, in this country, some type of uber-president, some absolute ruler, and it’ll be up to him who gets put away as an enemy combatant, held without trial. I think people are fooling themselves if they believe that the courts will once again stop this president from taking over—taking almost absolute power.” When asked how history will look upon this, Professor Turley replied, “..Frankly, I don’t think that it will be kind to the rest of us. I think that history will ask, where were you? What did you do when this thing was signed into law?”
It has been apparent from the start of this administration that the Chaney/Rumsfeld duo have smarted for a long time over their perceived outrage over the way their mentor, Richard Nixon was unceremoniously ousted from the Presidency. For whatever their reasons they have vowed “Never again!” and have worked long and hard to the restoration of a powerful Executive Branch. Finding the perfect foil in Bush, they have by the use of fear with the public and outright intimidation of the Congress accomplished their goal. One look on Chaney’s face as he left the signing ceremony with the President will demonstrate Chaney’s elation.
The Signers went to great pains to not allow what we in the 21st Century have allowed, the establishment of a Tyrannous Rex.
“Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.”-Henry David Thoreau
Which brings me to my next thought. We have spent over a trillion dollars in the “War on Terror.” This war was brought on by the fear fostered on the American people, that if we didn’t fight over there we would have to fight on our soil. And this rationale is the result of the 3,000 citizens who died on 9/11.
In the five years since 9/11, 150,000 Americans have died from gunshots. Yet, we haven’t spent a trillion dollars to make America safer from guns.
In the five years since 9/11, 200,000 Americans have died in traffic accidents on America’s roadways. We haven’t spent a trillion dollars to make us safer from auto accidents.
Last year alone, 5,700 men and women died in the workplace. Not only didn’t we spend the 200 billion to make the workplace safer, we cut the OSHA budget.
Roosevelt was right. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.
“Goodness is the only investment that never fails.”-Henry David Thoreau
The judgment against Ken Lay, the Enron founder, was set aside Tuesday. Lay was convicted of masterminding the biggest stock swindle in history. Not only did the swindle nearly bankrupt the State of California, it ruined the pensions of tens of thousands of Americans. The jury returned the verdict in a speedy manner and despite the vehement denials of Lay, he was found guilty. While out on appeal, he had a heart attack and died.
A legal technicality prompted U.S. District Judge Sim Lake to rule on Tuesday that "Lay died before sentencing, before a final judgment could be entered, and before a notice of appeal could be filed," said his opinion. Citing well-established law, Lake wrote that "Lay's conviction must be vacated and that this action against him must be dismissed."
This means that there will be no criminal sentencing due to the original trail. If there is to be any compensation from the Lay estate it will have to come in a civil law suit. And that means that the prosecution would not be able to use the criminal “conviction”. They basically would have to prove the case all over again. Spokesmen said that the Lay family was pleased with the judge’s decision.
There are an estimated 44 million reasons to be pleased.
“Things do not change; we change.”-Henry David Thoreau
And finally, the last sign that the tide has turned. The Eagles have inked a deal with Wal-Mart, making the world’s largest retailer the exclusive seller of the upcoming new Eagles release on CD. Unlike other Boomer acts that have gone independent of the major labels, the Eagles will not be forced to sell the new music on the Internet only.
There will be some who will cry foul as the group who gave a generation a peaceful easy feeling while heading down the road, carrying their load, in a flat bed Ford to the Hotel California have finally proved that cash is king in a New York minute. The former defenders of Walden Pond have officially ended the Alternative Age.
But let’s see what Eagle, Don Henley, has to say. This is a quote from an piece that Don wrote for the Washington Post published on Tuesday, February 17, 2004: “Music stores used to be magical places offering wide variety. Today the three largest music retailers are Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Target. In those stores shelf space is limited, making it harder for new artists to emerge. Even established artists are troubled by stores using music as a loss leader. Smaller, more personalized record stores are closing all over the country -- some because of rampant P2P piracy but many others because of competition from department stores that traditionally have no connection whatsoever with artists.” So I guess that with the extinction of the small stores, there’s was no alternative but to continue building the perfect beast and cut the deal with Wal-Mart? Like 10cc sang, “Art for Art’s sake! Money, for god’s sake!”
Why should we be surprised as that statement was followed nine months later by Henley’s participation in the Bat Mitzvah of the daughter of David H. Brooks? The party cost an estimated 10 million dollars, as Irving Azoff artists were the majority of the performers hired. The Eagles are managed by Azoff.
Who is David H. Brooks? His company, DHB, is a defense contractor that makes bulletproof vests for the Army. But what published stories did not report was that DHB is now and has been the subject of several class-action suits stemming from, among other things, a government recall of those bullet-proof vests. In May, the Marine Corps recalled 5,277 combat vests made by a DHB's subsidiary issued to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Djibouti because of concerns that they failed a test to determine whether they could stop a bullet. This occurred six months after DHB announced a $100 million contract with the Defense Department on Dec. 23, 2004. Coincidentally, Brooks and the insiders at his company sold off about $200 million worth of DHB stock between Nov. 29 and Dec. 29, 2004. Brooks, according to publicly available filings, sold about $186 million himself, not counting another $50 million in sales that had already been planned.
That's how he was able to bring in Aerosmith and friends for his daughter's party. Henley played with fellow Eagle Joe Walsh and Stevie Nicks from Fleetwood Mac. A quote from Page Six in The New York Daily News said, “Henley, I hear, was grumpy at the realization that he'd agreed to play a kids' party.”
So if I read that correctly, the defender of small record stores, supporter of Walden Pond and heavy contributor to the Democratic Party would not have been grumpy if it was an adult party for a war profiteer who made his money selling inferior equipment to American Troops in harm’s way?
It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. -Thoreau
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