Decency biggest casualty in Roskam's grilling of Clinton

It was painful to watch my Congressman Peter Roskam question Hillary Clinton Thursday at the sham Republican Benghazi hearings. Not having even a toy gun, much less a smoking gun, to smear Clinton's presidential bid, Roskam simply made stuff up to portray Clinton in the worst possible light. He used a standard Roskam rhetorical devise, a 'theory' in which to expound on how Clinton was responsible for the deaths of four state department employees stationed in Benghazi. His theory was just that; Roskam's worst possible interpretation of Clinton's motives as the attack unfolded in which to discredit her. He even used a shabby theatrical devise, dramatically ripping up what he purported to be critical communications, to demonstrate his imagined lethal insensitivity on her part. He constantly interrupted and disparaged her. Clinton didn't lash back as any fair-minded viewer would want her to. She coolly looked at him in disgust as if to say, 'I sure feel sorry for the residents of Illinois' Sixth."

Clinton didn't have an attorney to assist her in refuting Roskam's fantastic 'theory' of her wrongdoing; she responded effectively on her own. But had one been present, he might have channeled Joseph Welch at the June, 1954, Army-McCarthy Hearings and responded: "You've done enough, Congressman Roskam. At long last, have you no sense of decency?"

Duck and Cover

If, like me, you learned the 3 R's in 1950's America, you surly remember that bit of advice from Miss Pringle: if you see the mushroom fireball, 'Duck and Cover' under your desk to survive the nuclear attack. And we damn well practiced it.

'Duck and Cover' is also the title of the talk last night at the Milton Township Democratic Party's monthly meeting in Wheaton. Subtitled, 'Nuclear Weapons: A Pictorial History, it was presented by Bob Farquhar (USAF Ret.), a life long expert on nuclear weapons, including the need to prevent their proliferation and use. Bob held Milton Democrats in thrall as he raced through the last eight decades of nuclear development, successful testing, mass murder in Japan, unconscionable testing and proliferation around the world, near misses from accidents and human idiocy, and Uncle Sam's plan to blow a trillion dollars over the next decade to keep our No. 1 nuclear power status.
The pictorial history wasn't pretty. In 80 slides, Farquhar showed us scenes of human devastation truly difficult to view and comprehend. The 70,000 nukes man has built have been reduced world wide to about 10,000, with 1,500 in the US still armed and ready to fire from planes, subs and missiles.

Farquhar emphatically scoffed at the nuclear renegades North Korea, India, Pakistan and Israel, who all refuse to join the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty or cooperate with any concerted efforts to reduce the nuclear threat. Israel and South Africa developed their nukes cooperatively. Israel now has 80 and won't even admit to their existence. And South Africa? They built two and got rid of both, being the only nuclear power to quit the club.

He also re-enforced my long held belief that the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were totally unnecessary. In his words, "The guys who spent $2 billion building the bomb were not going to be denied the thrill of seeing it work on the enemy." Farquhar also scoffed at the hysterical 'bomb Iran' crowd's endless lies about the non-existent Iranian nuclear program.

Back in 1951, my folks informed this inquiring 6 year old about WWII, the Japanese bombings, and the new threat from a nuclear armed Russia. That was a tough burden to shoulder and it caused its share of nuclear nightmares along the way. In 1962, 53 years ago this month, I woke up ever day for a week or so thankful we still had a world to savor during the Cuban Missile Crisis, caused in part, by America's obsession with destroying the Commie Castro. Since then, there have been enough nuclear near misses (near hits, actually) to start up the nightmares again had they been publicized at the time.
Farquhar concluded with his biggest worry. He preaches today mainly to folks like me who grew up with an understanding of and concern for riding mankind of the nuclear threat. The younger generations are largely unaware we even have a nuclear stockpile ready to vaporize their cell phones and frantic lifestyles. The masters of war worldwide largely pull their self destructive strings in secrecy due to our abysmal ignorance.

Bob Farquhar's mission, in the fine spirit of Don Quixote, is to tilt that nuclear windmill.

Whistleblowers beware: Don't blow on war party

America loves whistleblowers. Jefferson Smith ousting the mendacious political boss Jim Taylor and his lackey, Senator Joseph Paine, by publically revealing their corruption in 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington', comes to mind. Jimmy Stewart's Smith is a perfect model for the idealistic whistleblower whom America rallies around against evil to improve society.

But there are no Hollywood endings for the courageous whistleblowers who ...reveal the murderous secrets of the war party. They destroy anyone who dares interfere with their endless crimes against humanity for power and fame and wealth. During the Iraq war, they couldn't prosecute former ambassador Joe Wilson for his op-ed revealing the false evidence used to launch the war. He was too important. But they nailed him by outing his CIA operative wife, ending her career.

John Kiriakou, a CIA counterintelligence officer, didn't fare as well. He was the first US government official to confirm in December 2007, that waterboarding torture was used to interrogate Al Qaeda prisoners. Instead of a hero medal, Kiriakou, got 2 years in jail, pleading guilty to a minor charge to avoid 30 years if he wanted to channel Jefferson Smith.

Chelsea Manning, who also pleaded guilty for revealing US war crimes in Iraq, fared much worse. Tortured with a year of solitary confinement till world public opinion obtained better conditions, Manning is now serving 35 years in prison for honoring the Constitution when his superiors weren't.
When the antiwar whistleblower is a foreigner, Uncle Sam enlists his lackeys, just like Big Boss Jim Taylor in 'Mr. Smith', to destroy him. Aussie Julien Assange had to pay for his Wikileaks revelations of American warmongering, but he was outside our jurisdiction. So they arranged for our Swedish puppets to slap him with a false sexual assault charge so they could get the Swedes to fork him over to America when he came calling to answer the phony charges. Assange avoided capture by securing asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he's been a fugitive from our Western lackeys for five long years.

JFK's papa, mogul Joe, hated 'Mr. Smith' when it came out in 1939, because it revealed the venal underbelly of American democracy. Seventy-six years later its warnings about the reality that refutes our democratic principles is more relevant than ever. Back then we weren't rampaging around the world, smashing countries we don't like, destroying millions of lives in the process.
 
Today there are no Jimmy Stewarts and Jefferson Smiths to save the day. There are just simple heroes like Wilson and Kiriakou and Manning and Assange whose lives are destroyed for daring to expose criminal torture and war. They represent the best of America.

Gun lover Breuder provided 'smoking gun' for his termination

 

    

After 16 months of endless scandals, allegations of impropriety, and a faculty no-confidence vote against him, suspended College of DuPage president Robert Breuder faces a Board of Trustee meeting tomorrow with one agenda item: his termination. Last week's release of the Higher Learning Center (COD's accreditation agency) report detailing failures of the college which will require prompt action to prevent loss of accr...editation, may give the final push to cement his ouster.

It's been a long hard slog, but I felt Breuder needed to go 16 months ago when his May 9, 2014, email to the Board of Trustees was released, in which, inexplicably, Breuder provided the ammo for his eventual dismissal meeting.
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To Board of Trustees
“I needed to identify a project that would help release our state funding. My idea: a Teaching and Learning Center. Several Board members want to weigh in on the need for such a facility. I have no problem with that; however, not being able to say how we would use the state’s money (perhaps no real need) could lessen our chances to break the money loose at this time (the political moon is rising).”
“When I introduce Governor Quinn at commencement, I want to help our cause (getting the $20 million released sooner rather than later) by thanking him for his commitment in front of 3,500 people. There are many voters in our District. Please keep November 4 in mind.”
“Bottom line: I need some room to breathe on this matter so I can enhance the likelihood we get the $20 million, soon.”
Thanks, B.
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Maybe Breuder never figured his email would go public. Maybe he truly believed what he was putting in pixels was perfectly justified in 'pay to play' Illinois. Regardless, if he is terminated tomorrow he can look back for years and lament how he began his decline with one stupid, cynical and damning bit of self destruction.

War party parties on

Try as he might, President Obama cannot entirely escape the treacherous, bloodthirsty hands of the war party. The military war lovers, their media sycophants, congressman and presidential contenders, and of course, the murderous weaponry makers, have their clutches around him; he simply can't end the carnage begun by his predecessor in Afghanistan in 2001. This in spite of his seven year promises to end the Afghan war before his successor arrives in 15 months. Last week's announcement our 9,500 soldiers there will not be coming home by the end of next year rings hollow. The media is dutifully trotting out war monger spokesmen to claim, falsely, the Afghans puppets we've bought off with untold billions are getting ever so closer to becoming independent. In fact, they run and cough up our weaponry to the insurgents in every major battle.

The only sop to us sheep that serve as the American electorate is that we don't have massive amounts of canon fodder to get blown to bits in a futile and criminal venture. We have substituted endless bombing that kills thousands of innocents, which only gets our and the world's attention when we wantonly and recklessly burn up 22 doctors and their patients in Kunduz because our Afghan puppets beg us to.

The only time the President looks depressed and insincere is when he announces more endless war, whether it be in Libya, Syria, Iraq and of course, Afghanistan. He cannot hide his weakness and shame at not being able to tell the war party to go straight to Hell and to tell us sheep the truth about our despicable wars.

Presidents come and go, but the war party parties on. In America, war is truly the health of the state.

Walt Zlotow
Glen Ellyn