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A Cautionary Tale: It's Personal
author's name withheld by the Editor

If you’re connected to the web, they’ve probably been on your computer. And if they liked what they saw there, they may also have “hacked” your home.

But that would be felony breaking and entering, you say?

Felony, schmelony.

Welcome to the world of groupstalkers, where “1984” isn’t fiction, it’s just a beginner’s manual. Like the web and the Wild West, anything and everything’s legal here.

Groupstalkers are people from diverse backgrounds who misuse their talents in a group effort to heap harassment and misery on individual targets whom they have judged, found guilty and sentenced in an un-elected, vigilante-style court. Some stalkers are computer experts, some are skilled at tracking and surveillance, and still others may recruit people with money to fund them and their activities, or may have lawyerly expertise to help with the occasional legal entanglement. Many seem to relish their high-tech toys, devices such as GPS trackers that can be used to follow the target’s vehicle; and cell phone cameras, which they use to photograph the target and then post the target’s picture on the web, or to send it from one cell phone to another, so that everyone knows what the target looks like. Read more...

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Mass Transit the Smart Way
by Charles M. Melchior, Chester County, Pennsylvania

All proposals to deal with transportation’s contribution to global warming in the United States, the world’s greatest polluter/producer of greenhouse gases, seem aimed in the wrong direction: making the ever expanding use of the automobile less expensive instead of efforts to discourage automobile use and attract more and more travelers to mass transit as the most desirable method of getting from point A to point B. Such measures as reduction of gas taxes, use of ethanol, drilling for oil offshore or in wildlife refuges, waging war to force access of nationalized oil production to private energy profiteers, and expanded resort to nuclear electricity as a source of energy for hybrid or electric automobiles all have negative side effects in the long run, aside from prolonging and increasing use of the automobile as our principal means of transportation. Read more...

Comment:
Melchior is absolutely correct.  Unless we have a real commitment to changing our basic infrastructure and habits, our energy policies will do little more than rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. 

The Lancaster County Planning Commission team working to update the county’s transportation plan has faced the issue by developing a “Charter for Change.”  That Charter, which is now being circulated among the update team members, is the result of serious discussion; it addresses the future without being hamstrung by the status quo.  It is my hope that the Charter truly becomes the guide for our county’s future. How we address transportation will have a major impact on our quality of life. To review the Charter for Change, go to www.co.lancaster.pa.us/planning/site/default.asp and then click on “Long Range Transportation Update” and then on “Charter For Change.”

Lois K. Herr

Obama wise to reject public funds
by E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post

Barack Obama's decision to forgo public funds will bring joy to opponents of campaign finance reform. But to say that Obama has killed public financing is to miss the point.

The current system began to unravel eight years ago. George W. Bush became the first candidate since the post-Watergate reforms of the mid-1970s to decline public money in the primaries, thus avoiding the limits it imposed.

Bush's decision was the single most important reason he defeated John McCain for the 2000 nomination because Bush was able to spend without limit to win South Carolina after his loss in the New Hampshire primary. John Kerry walked away from the public financing system for the primaries in 2004. Note that Kerry won nomination, too.

Obama has heeded those lessons. Bush and Kerry paid no political price for opting out of the public money system in the primaries. And Kerry's political operatives argue that they would have been able to respond more effectively to the outrageous attacks on their candidate's Vietnam service record if they had not been hampered by their acceptance of public funds and spending limits for the general election. Read more...

Flip Flop John McCain
Charles M. Melchior, Kennett Square, PA

John McCain, the presumptive Presidential candidate of the Republican Party, criticizes his Democratic opponent for reneging on a promise he made the American people: having once said he would accept federal election campaign financing limits if McCain did so also, Barack Obama announced  June 19 he would reject the federal money with its spending limit,  But McCain has reversed his own positions on so many issues in his effort to convince Republican conservatives to approve him as the Party’s nominee, he is now being referred to as “flip-flop” McCain.  Matthew 7:3 - :”Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not see the log that is in your own eye?”

Thus McCain is in no position to complain that Obama now wishes to capitalize on his ability to raise money in small contributions from large numbers of contributors ($265 Million from 1.5 million donors). After having reversed his position on President Bush’s irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy from critic to supporter,  after changing from  a proponent of women’s choice to the anti-abortion position of “right-to-lifers”; and from a major sponsor of the Bush proposal to allow illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship to a strong supporter of border crossing enforcement, McCain,  on the very day he denounced Obama’s change on public campaign financing, announced that despite his long-standing opposition to Bush’s plans for offshore oil exploration, he now was in support of such a move  With such a past record of flip-flops, how can anyone know for sure what actions he would actually take  on any issue , were he The President?.

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Detainee abuse, public policy or a few bad apples?
Charles M. Melchior, Kennett Square, PA

New information revealed in hearings by the Senate Armed Services Committee about abuse, at Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and similar American Gulags, of detainees who were un-Constitutionally denied the right under habeas corpus to challenge the legality of their imprisonment, is just the latest example of our lame duck President’s problem with telling the American people the truth about the public’s business. .  Other facts demonstrating the intentional misleading of citizens by the White House are: 1.) the attempted cover-up of political firings of Prosecutors in the Department of Justice; 2.)  the promise to Congress in his address after the 9/11 disaster, that we would not give its perpetrators a victory by changing our values as Americans, at the very moment  he was ordering the warrant-less surveillance of private citizens; 3.) his failure to punish anyone who leaked the identity of covert C.I.A. agents; and 4). the fairy tales he concocted as the justification and lead-up to the disastrous invasion and occupation of Iraq,  

In 2004, when photographic evidence of detainees being subjected to cruel, harsh humiliating and illegal interrogation techniques came to light, the President tried to explain it as acts of a few bad apples violating American regulations and principles.  Now it is clear that the use of sleep deprivation, death threats, beatings, electric shocks. etc.  were not the acts of rogue prison personnel, but were part of a pattern of techniques directly approved by the very top of the defense policy makers, about which the President most certainly knew,  Aside from the fact that information extracted by torture is notoriously unreliable, its use by the U.S. subjects our own personnel to a higher risk of also being  abused by the example we have given.

Of course none of Mr. Bush’s supposed “bad apples” were ever in fact severely disciplined, for how could the top brass, which had authorized their actions turn around and punish them for following orders?  Further confirmation of the phony cover-up comes from the fact that when the International Red Cross first reported to the US military what it had discovered was going on through surprise visits to the prison camps, instead of ordering an investigation and disciplining the perpetrators, the Defense Department then prohibited any further surprise visits to U. S. bases by the International Red Cross.. .Indeed, claims of Executive Privilege to sweep the unvarnished truth under the rug have become a prime legacy and hallmark of this Bush Administration.

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Delegates for Dummies
by Lois Herr, Editor

Lois Herr, a Clinton delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, explains the delegate process for the Party in this essay.

She says, "Delegates are individuals selected by various processes to represent the voters of a state at the Party’s National Convention.  In Denver this year there will be 4,233 delegates."

"Pennsylvania has 188 delegates and 26 alternates. Of those 188 delegates, 103 were elected in the Primary Election in April and  will go to Denver to participate in the national convention August 24-28, 2008.

"Delegates travel at their own expense. A block of rooms is reserved by each state – Pennsylvania is staying at the Marriott Tech Center – but delegates pay for their own lodging.  Being a delegate is a major commitment. 

"Delegates are not mandated to vote contrary to preference expressed at the time of their election.  'Delegates elected to the National convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them.'"  Read more...

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Bomb Iran? What's to Stop Us?
by Ray McGovern, Anti-War.com

Unlike the attack on Iraq five years ago, to deal with Iran there need be no massing of troops. And, with the propaganda buildup already well under way, there need be little, if any, forewarning before shock and awe and pox – in the form of air and missile attacks – begin.

This time it will be largely the Air Force's show, punctuated by missile and air strikes by the Navy. Israeli-American agreement has now been reached at the highest level; the armed forces planners, plotters and pilots are working out the details.

Emerging from a 90-minute White House meeting with President George W. Bush on June 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the two leaders were of one mind:

"We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat. I left with a lot less question marks [than] I had entered with regarding the means, the timetable restrictions, and American resoluteness to deal with the problem. George Bush understands the severity of the Iranian threat and the need to vanquish it, and intends to act on that matter before the end of his term in the White House."

Does that sound like a man concerned that Bush is just bluff and bluster? Read more...

Politics and the Insecurity Economy
by Stephen Crockett, co-host of Democratic Talk Radio

The Bush Republican economic revolution has been fought. Working class and middle class Americans lost along with the nation. The result is the Republican insecurity economy of today. It is not a happy place for most Americans.

The Bush Republican economic revolution really started under Ronald Reagan and had some roots going back to the anti-New Deal Republicans that fought against FDR. It just went into a destructive hyper-drive mode with the selection of George W. Bush by the Republican-dominated Supreme Court in 2000.  Read more...

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Guantánamo Bay Gulag
by Charles M. Melchior, Chester County, Pennsylvania

By railing against this week’s Supreme Court ruling granting the Guantánamo Bay Gulag detainees the right under the law to challenge their detention in Federal Court, John McCain, the Republican Party’s presumptive candidate for President in this fall’s election, displays an ignorance of the most elementary principles of our Constitution and its first ten amendments, and fundamental principles of justice. This is appalling for one who has held federal elective office so many years. Read more...

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Are you an aspiring progressive candidate or campaign manager seeking to run an effective, successful campaign?

Because of Progressive Majority's national partnership with Wellstone Action, we are able to provide you with the opportunity to participate in two and half days of learning about campaign management fundamentals. Many of Progressive Majority's elected officials got their start at Wellstone trainings and can vouch for their effectiveness in training potential candidates, activists and campaign managers to run campaigns based on their progressive values and win on the issues.

The training takes place the weekend of July 25-27 in Philadelphia. Read more...

Over the course of the last 16 months, I have been privileged and touched to witness the incredible dedication and sacrifice of so many people working for our campaign. Every minute you put into helping us win, every dollar you gave to keep up the fight meant more to me than I can ever possibly tell you.
On Saturday, I will extend my congratulations to Senator Obama and my support for his candidacy. This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, but as I have always said, my differences with Senator Obama are small compared to the differences we have with Senator McCain and the Republicans.  Read more...

History, Legacy, and the Shame of Media
by NOW President Kim Gandy

My daughters don't remember much about the 2004 presidential election, except for the "ReDefeat Bush" sign that decorated our lawn for two years. Now 12 and 15, they've been watching this long and unprecedented nomination battle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, the frontrunners for their party's nod.

What their mother sees as historic and groundbreaking, they see as normal and everyday, and I'm now realizing that they'll never even remember a time when the only conceivable frontrunners were white and male. Hillary and Barack were their introduction to presidential politics, and that will be one of the great legacies of this primary season. Read more...

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The Politics of Humanitarian Aid
by Walter Brasch

President Bush was justifiably upset. A cyclone four days earlier had destroyed a large portion of Myanmar, and the country’s military junta was still refusing humanitarian aid. “Let the United States come to help you, help the people,” Bush pleaded with the junta. “We’re prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who’ve lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation,” said the President, “but in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country.”

With more than 20,000 dead, possibly 40,000 missing, and close to one million homeless, the junta made it clear that it, not the international community, would provide whatever humanitarian aid was necessary.

A week before the cyclone hit, President Bush extended sanctions against Myanmar by another year because of what he called that junta’s “large-scale repression of the democratic opposition.” Paranoid about anything that could threaten its power, the junta was frightened that the United States would use the cyclone as a reason to invade the country. Read more...

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