Ohio 2nd Blog

No plan of firing this baby back up, but I miss being able to read my old posts. Especially this post.

Vanity, thy name is blogger.

Or how the the administration is out to make life so much harder and costly than it needs to be.

It’s all the little things that add up to be a big waste of money and time. I finally got my passport renewed and it ONLY took almost six months. I tried to track it but all I got was an automatic email reply saying it was being processed (the 800 number didn’t connect to a user friendly menu or a live person). I have a friend who missed a trip to Europe with her husband because her passport didn’t arrive in time. She had sent in the renewal with more than five months lead time.

In the further travails of a typical homemaker, I tried to open a new joint bank account this week. The current bank does not have convenient locations or hours so I thought I’ll just go to a bank that has decent lobby hours and is closer. I was informed by the smarmy bank manager that I need TWO pieces of ID and it couldn’t be a birth certificate and if I wanted to open a joint account, my husband had to be there in person with his two ID’s. This is just ridiculous and I want to know how this makes the country more secure. When I rolled my eyes he said it was because of 9/11 and it was necessary to keep us safe. I informed him that no, it was because of the Bush Administration and it had nothing to do with keeping the American public safe from terrorists. He disagreed and then said he was not allowed to discuss politics (oh, but he was). I retorted that I was allowed to discuss politics and the whole thing smacks of a banana republic dictatorship.

My husband opened bank accounts last Fall and I opened one for my daughter in May and did not have to jump through these hoops. What do people do who do not have passports or driver’s licenses? Are they going to ask for finger prints next?

I understand why I must produce my SS number for a bank account. I can understand controls on large sums of money being transferred especially internationally. I just wanted to open a regular checking and small savings account. The Patriot Act does nothing to make the U.S. more secure. It does allow the federal government to track and spy on American citizens. Is this the kind of country we want for our children?

Has any economist calculated the cost of all the provisions in the Patriot Act? No passport, no airline ticket purchase. Not willing to jump through hoops to transfer banks, loss of new accounts to the bank. The cost of getting through airport security and the time it takes. These are small inconveniences but they add up. I have the ability to navigate these obstacles but do the poor and the elderly have the same ability to cope with the consequences of this unconstitutional Act?

NEWS FLASH

The Enquirer Politics Extra “blog” has finally credited a blog for a story. Of course Sloat being a newspaper man must explain them running the embargo.

I’ve started a new blog that ’s focused entirely on the more philosophical end of the the work I’m doing involving software engineering, politics and the semantic web.

Where
20th Century Theater in Oakley, 3021 Madison Road, Cincinnati, OH 45209

Map
Google Map

When
Aug 28   starts at 6:30 pm

Learn more:  http://www.noiraqescalation.org/ 

Americans Against Escalation in Iraq is a group of independent entities, including the Service Employees International Union, MoveOn.org Political Action, VoteVets.org, Center for American Progress Action Fund, USAction, Win Without War, Campaign for America’s Future, the United States Student Association, Working Assets,  Americans United for Change, Campus Progress Action and Nation Security Network, that have banded together as a coalition to launch a multi-faceted, multi million dollar effort in fifteen target states to education the American public about the true costs of the war in Iraq, mobilize opposition against President Bush’s Iraq policy, as well as apply on-going pressure on members of Congress to oppose this failed policy.

The Republicans have been pushing the message that taxes and government are inherently bad and since Reagan, they have been on a tax cutting spree for the extremely wealthy and cost cutting spree on budget items that directly effect the majority, average Americans.

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I’ll confess that this blog really sucks of late. It’s been really hard to work up the energy to write about Jean Schmidt and friends. It seems like almost every week a story rolls by about our dear Jeanie screwing small farmers or trying to take away health care for little children or sponsoring legislation to outlaw teddy bears, and yet this site remains silent.

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I was driving on 71 northbound right before the King’s Island exit when I saw this bizarre boxshaped truck that appeared to be made out of plywood driving in the slow lane. All over it were anti abortion messages and pictures. Mrs. Editor has sited several of them last week during her lunch hour. One of the pictures she saw was of a little babies hand reaching out of a woman’s bloody cut open stomach. Really gruesome stuff.

Did anyone else catch them? I’d love to get some pictures.

I expect to see more and more bizarre stuff like this with the cascade failure of the right.

UPDATED: Here’s a pic of one of the types of trucks:

Just got an anonymous tip in that Paul Hackett was seen yesterday running a 5 minute mile pushing his boys in a walker while sporting a Hackett for Congress t-shirt. After the race he was asked by WLW’s Billy Cunningham if he was running again. Hackett said he wasn’t ruling anything out but he wasn’t ruling anything in either.

Never a dull moment in the OH02.

I’m back writing about my pet peeve on eve of July 4th. Yes, we all knew Scooter (what adult is called Scooter) would not serve a day in prison. But I can dream.

Congress needs to bring our government back under the rule of law and the Constitution. Several people in the Bush administration outed an undercover CIA agent. This is treason no matter how one spins it and is a very serious crime against our country. I was listening to NPR this afternoon and someone from the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal poo pooed Scooter’s crime as not serious at all, he was the fall guy, and Clinton (yes, it’s always Clinton) perjured himself and Sandy Burger, former CLINTON staffer, removed classified documents. Oh, and of course Valerie Plame was not undercover. The host on NPR did nothing to correct this right wing Bush apologist.

This just infuriates me. These insane rightwing talking points need to be burned and buried. There is no dispute that Plame WAS UNDERCOVER. This is not up for debate, discussion, nada zip. Plain and simple, just an indisputable fact.

Secondly, comparing Clinton’s lie about an extramarital affair to outing an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is dishonest and reprehensible. And Clinton went through the legal process of impeachment for it. We were subjected to the spectacle of the President of the United States being tried in Congress for lying about an extramarital affair with all the slimy voyeuristic detail (nothing like racing to turn off the evening news while your little preschooler asks what oral sex is). Of course the question should have never been asked by Ken Starr and was simply a set up. It had nothing to do with any of Clinton’s actions in government and no matter how one feels about adultery (I am against it), it’s not illegal (we couldn’t build enough prisons). Outing an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is.

Sandy Burger pled guilty and received a sentence from a judge in the case. He also went through the legal process for his faux pas. Comparing his actions to the Bush administration crime wave is ludicrous.

If Scooter was the fall guy, it was his choice. He could have done his duty as lawyer and officer of the court, as a government employee and as an American, and told the truth to the grand jury. If he was a fall guy, he was covering for one or more persons in the administration. Why not demand that Scooter stop covering their illegal activity?

The reason outing an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is a serious crime is that it puts agents in danger and ruins the elaborate ruses that the CIA sets up. Plame and the other agents she worked with overseas used a shell company that the CIA set up. Anyone associated with that company was and is in danger. It takes years to set up these fake companies and make them credible. Millions of dollars and a lot of years and COVERT agents down the tubes because the Bush administration is not about governing. It’s about mean, dirty, petty politics.

Now here comes the Argentina comparison (you knew it would eventually). Scooter was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice because he would not tell the truth to the grand jury. His sentence was commuted and he will probably be pardon because Cheney and Bush do not want justice unobstructed. That would be very bad for them. So before our nation falls further into the category of a third world dictatorship, Congress needs to follow the law and start impeachment proceedings. Specifically, the House Judiciary Committee needs to start the ball rolling for justice. The outing of an UNDERCOVER CIA agent is just one item on a list of many impeachable acts committed by the Bush administration.

We cannot allow these actions to go unpunished because the next rightwing extremist administration will escalate the level of crime they are willing to commit. We had a Congress during the Nixon administration willing to uphold their oaths of office and the Constitution. The problem was the pardon by Ford. Nixon was never held accountable,. So then we had Iran Contra under Reagan. The Watergate break in and cover up paled in comparison. But the arms and drug deals were swept under the rug, the convicted players were pardoned and a lot of the other players were not brought to justice. Lo and behold, they showed up in the Bush administration. So we have a lot of the same players from the Ford, Reagan and Bush I administrations wreaking havoc on a grander scale in current administration.

The current members of Congress need to be statesmen and bring our country back under the rule of law. They know that the actions of the Bush administration are impeachable offenses. They need to do the right thing, the just thing. Without our system of checks and balances, our laws and enforcement, we are not the great United States of America. We’re just another lousy dictatorship where regular people can be grabbed off the streets by government authorities never to be seen again and the rich and powerful act with impunity.

So call, write and email the members of the House Judiciary Committee to tell them to do their job. And have a great 4th of July. Happy Birthday America!

Update: Editor, I don’t know how to link this so I hope you’ll fix this with a link. (‘Tis done - editor)

Kagro X of Daily Kos has a post today that links to Charles Pierce at Media Matters. Pierce says it more eloquently than me. It’s the cancer of Iran Contra returning to invade our government. If we don’t excise it completely and then used very powerful chemo, it will come back and spread to invade every organ.