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CURRENT IRAQI CIVILIAN BODY COUNT MAYBE THE "OCCUPATION AMATEUR HOUR" ISN'T COUNTING, BUT I AM: FRONT PAGE EDITORIAL Why The Qwest Scandal Should Have You Out In The Streets Ok, I know like many of us, you are suffering from outrage fatigue - the reality that the scandals are coming out of Smirkey's administration so thick and fast that you simply can't keep up, much less be suitably and properly outraged by each and every one. It is why, on my email list, I often send out what I call the "GOP Scandal Du Jour" - an almost daily announcement of yet another breaking scandal - sometimes two or more entirely new scandals in a single day. And yes, I'll confess to a bit of outrage fatigue myself. In all my half-century of watching politics in the United States, including the morally squalid, sleazy Nixon administration and the scandal-ridden Reagan administration, I can't recall a time when a corrupt administration was so blatant in its disregard for the law that even the most radical and committed activists were exhausted by the sheer volume and magnitude of scandals coming out of Washington. It is truly of epic proportions and will doubtless take historians generations to finally and completely sort out, if they ever do. But now, I have run across a scandal that you should know about, and look at closely, because by itself it is a tidy, convenient little microcosm of everything significant that is going wrong with the collapsing process of governance in the United States. On the day after 9/11, September 12, 2001, in this space, I put up an editorial in which I predicted that the events of the previous day would be used as a pretext to institute harsh, draconian measures that would circumscribe civil liberties in the United States, and that the mood of the country was such that Americans would go along unhesitatingly. Indeed, my predictions were proven true just weeks later, with the passage, in the middle of the night when no one was looking, of the egregiously misnamed "USA Patriot Act" which had nothing to do with patriotism, and a whole lot to do with gutting the Bill of Rights, the rule of law and the concept of government of, by and for the people. In that respect, my prophesy was fulfilled exactly. But I needn't have bothered. As it turns out, the Bush administration had already long since been systematically at work subverting the Bill of Rights and the rule of law, long before 9/11. Their behavior, as it is now revealed, exceeded even my worst fears and most ferverish paranoia of the time. And that is where the prosecution of Qwest's former CEO comes in. If you don't know, Qwest is a telephone company, based in Denver, Colorado, which, while it has one of the worst reputations for customer service in the country, at least its former CEO, Joseph P. Nacchio and the lawyers in Qwest's legal department, understood the basics of the law and what violating them could mean for the company. So when, seven months before 9/11, the National Security Agency asked for the cooperation of the major local telephone providers in spying on Americans without warrants (assault #1 on the rule of law - direct violation of the 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights as well as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), it was Qwest, alone among the six asked, that said no. Nacchio informed the NSA that it was the opinion of their lawyers that the NSA's request was an egregious violation of the law, and that Qwest's cooperation could subject it to felony prosecution. Given Qwest's numerous legal difficulties at the time (stemming mostly from its failure to meet even the most basic customer service standards required of a regulated utility) in the states where it was the local monopoly telephone provider, this was something Nacchio doubtless felt that Qwest could not afford. In retaliation, Qwest was unfairly denied access to bidding on hundreds of millions of dollars worth of outsourcing contracts being offered for bid by the National Security Agency, and many of the contracts it already held with the NSA were arbitrarily cancelled (assault #2 on the rule of law - unequal access to federal contract bidding on the basis of political favoritism, and assault #3 on the rule of law - failure to comply in good faith the terms of a contract). The NSA apparently had a policy at the time, if unwritten, of rewarding companies who cooperate with it and punishing those who don't (assault #4 on the rule of law - failure by a government agency to treat the public in a politically unbiased manner). And because it was Nacchio who said no (thereby violating one of the commandments of being part of the ruling elite - "thou shalt always work to reinforce the power of the ruling elite, no matter what"), the U.S. Department of Justice, investigated Nacchio for inside trading in stock and options he held on Qwest stock. Using a U.S. District Attorney hand-picked to ensure that he would cooperate with political prosecutions (assault #5 on the rule of law - use of judicial appointments to persecute enemies and impune friends), charges were filed (assault #6 on the rule of law - prosecution selectively done to persecute political enemies), and the case has now come to trial. Note at this point that the trial judge assigned to this case is Edward Nottingham, a GOP political activist well known in Colorado political circles who was appointed to the bench by Smirkey's dad when he was president. So in that sense, there is hardly a surprise that he is running roughshod over the rule of law to protect his fellow Republicans and punish those who will not cooperate with their lawlessness (assault #7 on the rule of law - failure by a judge to recuse himself in light of his political alliance with one side of the trial). Government officials, in their official capacity as agents of the U.S. government, testifying at the trial, have stated under oath that the requests were all made only after 9/11, but records unsealed in court a few days ago, prove unequivocally that the request was actually made seven months before, in February of 2001 (assault #8 on the rule of law - perjury by official government agents, acting officially to cover up a lie by the politically powerful). Additionally, both documents and testimony at the trial indicate that the NSA had made additional requests, the nature of which remain unclear, which Nacchio as the CEO of Qwest, also denied. But the court refuses to allow the nature of that request to be discussed or the relevant documents to be unsealed for public inspection (assault #9 on the rule of law - use of government secrecy privileges for the sole purpose of protecting political allies, and assault #10 on the rule of law - judicial participation in a political coverup at the expense of a fair trial). The defense insists that some of these documents are needed at trial to exhonerate Nacchio, but the judge refuses to allow them to be entered as evidence (assault #11 on the rule of law - selection of evidence to prejudice a trial's process because of the judge's own personal politics). This analysis does not even include relevant, related violations of the rule of law not at issue in the trial - such as the accusation being raised in the prosecution's defense that AT&T voluntarily cooperated with the NSA in the construction of a full-blown data-mining center in which AT&T's customers' communications would be routinely monitored and data-mined without warrants. That none of these numerous and egregious violations of the rule of law have even made a stir in the mainstream media, much less the national psyche, is indicative of the sorry state of the Fourth Estate in the United States, and indeed overseas where this sordid story has not garnered even a whisper of attention, either. And that this situation has not stirred even a whimper of protest domestically is also indicative of the decay of the political dialogue and the sorry debilitation of the political intelligencia in the U.S. and abroad, as well as the extent to which outrage fatigue has set in. My prediction is that a compliant jury will find Nacchio guilty, but Nacchio, if he does any time at all, will do a light sentence in a country-club prison far from the violent, dangerous riff-raff that he would face if he were not a member of the ruling elite. I will shed no tears for Nacchio as he truly does richly deserve punishment for what he did as CEO of Qwest - but not for the reasons for which his prosecution has been brought. The incontrovertible proof revealed at trial that the NSA warrantless spying scandal requests were made a full seven months before 9/11 prove unequivocally that Smirkey lied through his teeth to congress and the American public to get the "Patriot" Act passed under false pretenses - and that the "global war on terror" is nothing but a propaganda tool to undermine the Bill of Rights and aggregate power to himself. If that isn't an impeachable offense, I can't imagine what would be. Maybe a semen stain on a blue dress? Where is Monica Lewinsky when we really need her? The most disturbing aspect of all this is the consistent pattern of assault on the rule of law that is revealed by this case, and how it is being deliberately and systematically undermined by a political machine determined to control it for purely selfish political purposes, with complete and utter disregard of the long-term consequences. It is proof positive that in the United States at least, the rule of law has been fatally, deliberately, and I am increasingly coming to believe, irretrievably corrupted, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people is indeed perishing from the earth. But by far, the greatest significance of this whole sordid tale is that it is further evidence that the greatest fear of my life is actually being realized - government on the basis of the Enlightenment principles of egalitarianism and critical reason (of, by and for the people, and policies based on evidential empiricism rather than political convenience) is eroding and is rapidly drawing to a close, and the unchallenged effort by the right-wing ruling elites to end the politics of what they call sneeringly "the Modern Project" is actually succeeding. Giordano Bruno, Galileo, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, and the many, many more who dedicated and all too often gave their lives to the concept of governance under Enlightenment principles and the rule of law must surely be weeping in their graves as they witness this spreading, stinking rot setting into their once-glorious fruits. --Scott Bidstrup, La Guacima, Alajuela, Costa Rica - 14 October, 2007 Click on your browser's RSS icon or put this link in your RSS reader for automatic updates of this editorial:

"The Cool Page for Queer Teens" is my effort at helping gay teens avoid some of the misery I faced growing up gay... "My Child is GAY! Now What Do I Do?" is a page that is designed to help parents cope with the unsettling discovery that their child is gay. It's also available in Spanish... Wallpaper Images From The U.S. Southwest I've been having a lot of fun with my digital camera over the last couple of years. Here are some nice pictures of the Southwest (and a couple from Africa), suitable for your desktop wallpaper image... Wallpaper Images From Costa Rica I did what every landscape photographer dreams of - I took a trip to Costa Rica, and in just two weeks got more and better wallpaper images than I had before... The News: Finding Out What's Going On is a brief compilation of resources, both print and electronic, that can help you become and stay informed about what's going on - news and information that the powerful in Washington or the corporate media have neglected, or worse, actually suppressed... Putting A Stop To Telemarketing offers a simple, easy way to deal with the problem, and some practical advice for serious telemarketing abuse problems... "Cool Stuff" is a collection of fun things I've found on the web over the years... My Professional Resume (in Word format) in case you're here to offer me the big bucks...

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