Power to the People, not under this administration

After Benazir Bhutto was brutally murdered last week, the Pakistan People's Party was left without a leader.

She had named her husband Asif Ali Zardari to head the Pakistan People's Party in her will, which was read on Sunday, but he handed over the position to the couple's son, PPP official Makhdoom Amin Faheem said.

How can you ‘will’ political power to another person? And how can you just ‘hand it over’ to another person? This is not the way of true democracy.

Blood is not a deciding factor on the ability of a person to run a country. But, then again, neither is a democratically held election.

I suppose one could say that if the party accepts the person presented as the leader then democracy, in its truest sense, does exist.

This sense of true democracy is struggling in the U.S.

Bush and Cheney have created a stronger presidential office much to the detriment of democratic freedoms. Their own reasoning for their actions, of course, is to protect those same freedoms, but those freedoms are not in danger from anyone other than these two power hungry old men. This is a case of where their egos got in the way of doing what is right for this country. They have lost faith in Democracy and decided they know better than our forefathers on how to maintain and nurture democracy.

In their zeal to appear as if they were putting this nations’ security first, they grabbed a bunch of people of Arabic dissent without solid evidence of any clear terrorist ties and then held them for six years under the guise of guilt. Their guilt has never proven and habeas corpus suffered because these two old men refused to admit they could have made a mistake.

This administration has condoned torture. Sure it cannot be proven in a court of law because the very people we need as witnesses are all involved. But citizens of this country and of the world know the U.S. participated in it and perpetrated it.

I present this question to the world: which is worse, Saddam Hussein, who we all despised for his use of torture to control his citizens and ensure his reign of power, or a democratically elected president, by the way that election was disputed and not decided by the public, who looks the other way as long as torture is used for our purposes?

If any other country took American citizens and held them in prison as “enemy combatants” without proof, without any clear date set for prosecution, and used torture to extract information from them, would the American government sit back and not do anything?

This president and vice president have seen fit to set up an illegal spy network on its own citizens that reflects the FBI era of J. Edgar Hoover. This was done in the name of ‘protecting’ our freedom. As U.S. citizens learned they had their privacy invaded by this illegal network and wiretapping practice, lawsuits were filed against the communications companies that this administration used to realize their plan. The response from the administration is to change legislation to protect the communications companies! Unbelievable, but typical, Bush/Cheney tactics.

If we extend the Bush/Cheney ‘reasoning’ for warrantless wiretapping to every law enforcement entity in this country there would be spying taking place on every U.S. citizen based on whatever reason law enforcement would choose. A giant leap towards George Orwell’s 1984.

People who believe in the ‘freedom’ that our forefathers granted us should be outraged that these practices are taking place and even more outraged that they are not being stopped.

The expectation of freedom in this country has diminished greatly since these two took office.

The main danger with granting power to someone is that they don’t want to give it up. The main danger of granting power to egotistical, delusional madmen increases the danger of us losing even more of those freedoms that we have cherished for so long.

Given the general trend that this country seems to be following, that being that people are becoming more unethical, more immoral and more willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want and to hell with everyone else, will only solidify the bleak Orwellian prediction and may very well place George Orwell as a greater prophet than Nostradamus.

Another lesson learned

In the headlines this morning I saw this article: “Girl wins concert tickets with essay faking dad’s death in Iraq”.

This is what we are teaching our children.

They are learning that in order to get what you want you have to lie and embellish and dramatize to stand out from the crowd. You have to be a bigger liar than the next person.

They are learning that cheating is rewarded.

As soon as this 6-year-old girl won that contest it was planted firmly in her consciousness that this is the way to get what she wants.

The contest, sponsored by Club Lilly Lu, gave to the winner, a makeover that included a blonde Hannah Montana wig, as well as airfare for four to Albany, New York, and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on January 9.

Hannah Montana is a very popular, Emmy award-nominated children’s television series on Disney Channel. The main character, played by Miley Cyrus, lives a double life as an average teenage girl at school during the day and a famous pop singer at night. She conceals her real identity from the public, so the very premise of the show is based on a lie, a cover-up. And, yes she is the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus of country music fame.

I grew up watching all the Disney classics and every Sunday evening my whole family would gather around the television in anticipation of watching the Wonderful World of Disney as if we were expecting Christmas.

Disney used to have a way of telling a story complete with all the evil in the world being visited upon hapless innocent victims. Through virtuous honesty and purity that victim always came out on top and evil was exposed and shunned by everyone.

We have come to expect the virtues of what a Disney production should represent. They have been the hallmark of honesty, of wholesomeness and of purity for several generations. It used to be safe to expose children to what Disney teaches (preaches). Families used to expect higher standards from a family oriented production from Disney.

As I grew older and wiser to the ways of the world and became privy to widespread behind the scenes business dealings, I realized that Disney, just like every other business we humans becomes involved in, resorts to under-handed methods to get ahead in the day-to-day dog-eat-dog business world.

As we age we all have to accept that adults lie and cheat and steal and commit every crime and sin imaginable against each other.

This 6-year-old girl should not have been subjected to the treachery of adult life at such a tender age. And for this lesson to have been laid upon her by her own mother is unforgivable.

The girls mother, Priscilla Ceballos, told company officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq. She had identified the soldier as Sgt. Jonathon Menjivar, but the Department of Defense has no record of anyone with that name dying in Iraq. Only then did the mother admit to the deception.

In an interview with Dallas TV station KDFW she said, “We did whatever we could do to win." This doesn’t sound like a contrite person. This doesn’t sound like a moral person. This sounds like the average, everyday parent bragging that she knows what has to be done to get what she wants. This is how we are raising our kids. It is scary as hell. This is true terror. This is what America has become.

Is China buying America?

The Chinese government has been quietly buying its stake in the bastion of America’s financial center through multi-billion dollar investments in our most prestigious financial companies. Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Blackstone Group, and Britain's Barclays are eagerly taking money from China to help bail them out of recent financial troubles.

It brings back visions of “It’s a Wonderful Life” where James Stewart runs down main street of his home town that has become unrecognizable due to it all being sold to an entity that has no stake in the true town spirit but was bought up purely for its profit potential.

China is leading a surge of strategic investments from Asia and the Middle East that so far have sunk about $25 billion into Wall Street banks.

In selling out to the Chinese, these financial institutions are selling America’s right to remain American.

The subprime mortgage mess provided an ideal opportunity for foreign investors to buy a piece of America. And, slowly, piece by piece, we are losing our heritage.

In this new world order of global economy that Bush has been pushing, we are losing our claim as the richest nation on earth.

This is the early stages of a dramatic reversal of financial power on Wall Street, the cornerstone of the U.S. economy.

"Both Chinese private and government interests are controlling more and more of the U.S. economy, and this is a result of the big trade and budget deficits we have," said Alan Donziger, professor of economics at Villanova School of Business. "These investments will make the U.S. somewhat less independent, but this is inevitable when we live in a global economy."

U.S. business practices created this situation by opening credit to financially unsound home buyers, along with giving credit to anyone who asks for it. To be sure, Wall Street's current predicament is "our own doing," he said. Turmoil in the credit markets have been fueled by defaults on subprime mortgages, and that's caused the Federal Reserve to attempt a bailout of the industry through interest rate cuts.

The value of the U.S. dollar has fallen which makes investments in these financial institutions cheap.

China agreed to pay $5 billion for a 9.9 percent stake in Morgan Stanley, and those securities pay 9 percent a year until they convert to shares in 2010. That translates to a gain of about $450 million of cash next year. But this infusion of new stock will lessen the value of shares to Morgan Stanley investors this same factor affects every investment firm that sells to foreign governments.

By keeping investments under 10 percent, it does not trip an automatic review by the government. Bush, and others, believe the injection of foreign capital helps keep the banks competitive and restores faith in an industry beaten down this year. Bush is part of the problem, the thinking is that any new money is good money, especially for his buddies in the financial arena. But he fails to consider how America in general is affected in the long run.

The selling out of America holds little meaning for high stakes dealers. As long as their company can stay afloat they don’t care that they sell America.

The phrase ‘sell your own grandmother for a dollar’ comes to mind.

Banks don’t want to admit how much say these government-sponsored funds might get. And this is only the beginning. Merrill Lynch & Co. is on the hunt for a foreign investment to help cushion what could be a huge fourth-quarter writedown in January.

Financial power is moving dramatically toward China and the Middle East which will have significant impact over time.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, buys most of its goods from China creating a one-way flow of cash to China. China buys Americas financial cornerstone providing a financial highway into China’s bank accounts. It doesn’t take a financial genius to see that America will soon be another Chinese province.

Make no mistake, America is being sold out.

Dick Cheney gets his way or your fired

J. William Leonard, director of the Archives' Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO), is being forced out of his position by Dick Cheney after 34 years of service.

The unit monitors the handling of government secrets and is responsible to the President for policy and oversight of the Government-wide security classification system and the National Industrial Security Program. They receive their authority from Executive Orders 12958 "Classified National Security Information" and 12829 "National Industrial Security Program", as amended.

What did Mr. Leonard do to draw Cheney’s ire? The veteran National Archives official challenged claims by the Office of Vice President (OVP) to be exempt from federal rules governing classified information.

Once again, this administration thinks it is exempt from the rules that everyone else must follow. And Cheney’s petulance will force someone out of his livelihood because that person had the temerity to apply the rules to the Office of the Vice President.

Mr. Leonard’s efforts touched off a firestorm—and a counter-strike by Cheney's chief of staff, David Addington, who tried to wipe out Leonard's job.

Mr. Leonard has been described by National Archivist Allen Weinstein as "the gold standard of information specialists in the federal government". But this glowing accolade will fall on the deaf ears of Mr. Cheney.

Cheney’s little snit will cause this nation to lose the accumulated knowledge and experience of the type of person this country strives for to fill any and all of its governmental offices.

Here’s a bit of background on how this travesty came to pass.

After 2002, OVP stopped reporting to the National Archives and Records, the depository for government records that helps keep democracy alive by allowing U.S. citizens oversight to the course of business conducted by the U.S. Federal government, which became an independent federal agency in 1985. After several routine attempts to do a review of the OVP they said ‘they weren't really subject to our reviews’ said Mr. Leonard. The wall that the White House had built around itself remains impermeable unless they want you in.

The ISOO produces an annual report of government offices and the Chicago Tribune saw an asterisk next to the entry for the OVP which stated that it contained no information from OVP. The Chicago Tribune decided to investigate.

A spokesperson from the OVP made public the idea that because they have both legislative and executive functions, that requirement doesn't apply to them. Mr. Leonard then wrote a letter to the Attorney General [asking for a ruling that Cheney's office had to comply.] Then, shortly after that there were email recommendations from OVP to a National Security Council task force to change the executive order that would effectively abolish Mr. Leonard’s office. Who wrote the emails? David Addington, fall guy for the Vice President, because you know he did not do this on his own, not with such a controlling boss like Dick Cheney.

It turns out that the OVP stopped cooperating with the ISOO around the same time the Valerie Plame case became public.

Is this the kind of power and spitefulness we want from our politicians? Cheney is acting like a child here. “You are not the boss of me!”. What a brat!!

Another case of ‘lost’ data

This is yet another case of personal sloppiness affecting hundreds of thousands of adults and children.

This time the National Health Service has admitted to losing data collected on patients from nine hospitals in England.

The usual line was given to the affected individuals that there is no evidence data has fallen into the wrong hands. But once again, no one knows for certain because the data is missing.

In one case a disk failed to arrive at an east London Hospital. My first question, how was the disk sent? By private courier or daily mail?

Another case involves data on patients treated 40 years ago. They are all deceased and you may think no big deal, nothing can happen to them. But you would be wrong. Professional criminals would love to get their valid social security numbers and use them.

One hospital reported two breaches which means there are actually 10 new cases.

Law officials are of course promising to take action against anyone who failed their responsibilities under data protection laws. But the underlying problem of a lackadaisical effort at data protection again goes unmentioned. The individuals involved became derelict in their duty. The data needs to be transmitted using more secure methods. Privacy needs to be taken more seriously.

The whole culture of data management needs to be addressed. Rules are in place as required by laws but the individuals who are governed by them take shortcuts to make their personal lives easier. Sometimes it becomes a nuisance to take that extra precautionary step. We have all been faced with this situation. Maybe we will miss some deadline if we follow the rules to the letter so we circumvent one step.

Individuals set themselves up for misfortune by not practicing effective secure routines. If any of these same individuals who are tasked with protecting other peoples data discovered their own data had been compromised by someone not taking the rules seriously I am certain they would be concerned.

When we care for other people we are actually caring for ourselves. It is a simple thought to keep in mind as we go about our daily business. We need to care for other peoples data as if it were our own. If people really cared we would need rules to tell us to do so.