December 28, 2003 - In September 1998 Ellen Ruppel Shell’s Atlantic article began. “The recent British epidemic of mad-cow disease, and the twenty-seven cases of fatal human disease associated with it, have led to the slaughter of 3.7 million cattle and the near destruction of Great Britain's cattle industry. Observers have suggested that the outbreak was a factor in the toppling of John Major's Tory government. Mad-cow disease continues to haunt Britain and Europe in general, even though the European Community, having made extraordinary efforts, appears to have contained the outbreak.” http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98sep/madcow.htm

You may remember that the Major Ministry of Agriculture reacted to the early evidence of the British epidemic by telling the public that it was just an isolated incident; that their was no danger that the disease had entered the human food chain; that despite the epidemic British beef was safe. The ‘Just One Cow” syndrome we might recognize because it is so understandable. The Major government was reluctant to take the aggressive measures to control and eliminate the disease because the economic impact promised to be devastating to a core Tory constituency. It was politically expedient to minimize the problem and hope it would just naturally go away. The problem was that nature did not create the problem. Cattle are not carnivorous. It was the practice of feeding animal based feed supplements to cattle that created the conditions that broke out in the British epidemic....click here for entire article

* I'll be home for Christmas
* You can count on me
* Please have snow and mistletoe
* and presents on the tree

* Christmas Eve will find me
* Where the love light gleams
* I'll be home for Christmas
* If only in my dreams.

Jim Thomas did not dream that dream. Christmas Eve found him in Luxembourg, doing his job, moving up with his artillery unit as Patton’s troops drove to relieve Bastogne. Christmas Eve found him and so did the German shell. The telegram came a few days later. The tidy pile of packages still sat there in the corner of the living room. It took four more years for the Graves Registration unit to locate his hurried grave, identify his remains and send him home to his parents. http://www.lindamclark.net/mingreport/articles/faces.htm

We are more efficient now. The four soldiers who were found in Iraq this Christmas have been bagged, tagged, processed and sent their way home. The officers have knocked on the door to announce their homecoming. But the tears are the same, the emptiness is the same, and the tidy ever unopened presents are the same. They will always be the same. Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait and Afghanistan – the dreams have always been the same and so have the homecomings.

This Christmas we received four more Gold Star Mothers – four more empty chairs.

That is progress.

Isn’t it ironic that it was in South Carolina in the early spring of 2000 that he Bush campaign launched a push-polling campaign featuring the accusation that Senator John McCain had fathered what hey called an “illegitimate Black child”, asking whether that fictional fact would cause the voter to be more or less likely to vote for the Senator. Fictional facts were grist for the mills of the Bush Campaign that year and Carl Rove and his minions are not likely to abandon their tried and untrue technique as 2003 fades into a re-election year....click here for entire article

God chose that the Child would not be born to the mightiest of men who ruled an empire. Instead He chose an earthly father who ruled only the carpenter’s tools that fashioned the work of his hands It was not grand nobles and priests who would attend the Child’s birth, but rather simple herdsmen who witnessed the event. Perhaps most significantly the people, parents and witnesses alike, who participated in the drama of the first Christmas, were not representatives of empire, but they were of the people suffering under the yoke of an occupation directed from the seats of a far distant foreign capitol...click here for entire article

First them damn Swedens don’t want to recognize how hard he worked to bring peace to Afghanistan and Iraq. They gave their prize to some Iranian woman as if any woman counted for something in Iran and it isn’t like Iran was real peaceful now – not like the good old US of A. After all, like Carl says, it was George’s war that got that Libyan dictator to give up his WMD programs just so he could get Halliburton back to fix his oil wells. Then Time Magazine doesn’t even have the good sense to recognize a real hero when they got one right there in front of them...click here for entire article

December 22, 2003 - It is that time of year again, the time when every newspaper editor starts rating the news preparing for the obligatory articles in the week after Christmas ranking the “Biggest Stories of 200X”. You can hear the wheels turning and the cogs grinding as they try to mesh. Well, I suspect that they will get it wrong again this year.

The big story wasn’t the 461 Americans killed when their country tried its hand at invading and occupying a virtually defenseless oil patch 1/3 of the way around the world from home. It wasn’t the capture of Saddam or the continued freedom of Osama and Mullah Omar. It wasn’t the creation of the biggest Federal entitlement program since Lyndon Johnson. And it wasn’t the polls and the press naming Howard Dean as the Democratic nominee for President two months before the first primary votes will be cast in 2004. Nope, none of those reflect our times as well as my nominee for the Biggest Story of 2003.

The story that most accurately reflect America life in this third year of the 21st Century and the accomplishments of the First President of the 21st Century happened right here in Piatt County, just outside of Pierson Station. Margaret Gutierrez was arrested and hauled into court. She was charged with Child Endangerment and DCFS stepped in an put her 8 year old daughter, Mercedes, in protective custody...click here for entire article

December 19, 2003 - It is amazing how the document in which James Madison summarized and recorded the compromises reached that hot summer in 1787 continues to vex overreaching autocrats. Cousin Jemmy's ink was barely dry when John Adams' attempts to insulate his cronies against his friend and enemy Thomas Jefferson led to Marbury v. Madison and the authority of the judiciary to examine the acts of government by the light of the Constitution. This week, after 200 years the Federal Courts were still at that task, defending the people from the parapets of that grand bulwark of the Republic.

As is usual, the object of their protection is less than appealing - a street thug born in a Brooklyn slum; bred on the streets of Chicago 's south side; and a migrant from the world of the Disciples and Latin Kings to radical Islam. Jose Padilla is far from a model of citizenship but he is a citizen non-the-less. The President declared him an "enemy combatant" after he was arrested on a warrant alleging that he was a material witness under subpoena issued by a Federal grand jury sitting in New York...click here for entire article

December 17, 2003 - Corruption in Illinois has always been bi-partisan. We have a long history of public officials of both parties ending the careers that they started in pinstriped suits wearing black and white convict's stripes. Up to now when Governors, State Auditors and Secretaries if State peddled Illinois government they sold at retail. The 22 count indictment of the State's last Republican Governor, George Ryan, sets out an operation that can only be described as selling the State at wholesale. While George always got his share it was his friends and cronies selling government at retail that garnered the big bucks.

It is ironic that the indictment was announced on Wednesday after we buried Senator Paul Simon, Illinois ' honest man, on Sunday. Paul was an unabashed liberal, a man who could craft a compromise without abandoning principle; a man who could cross ideological lines to appeal to the best that is in us. The irony is doubled in that the indictment was announced by a U.S. Attorney whose appointment was sponsored by retiring one term Senator Peter Fitzgerald...click here for entire article

HAIL TO THE CHIEF

December 16, 2003 - My mother passed on the family story, a legend really, that the pages of the Staige family bible on which family marriages were recorded had been glued together to conceal the record of my Shawnee ancestress. She always said it with some pride in the idea that not only were we descended from English invaders who landed at Jamestown in 1607 but also from the people who had met the boat. America , she said, was the result of their lousy immigration policy. I have never been able to confirm the tale of the Shawnee maiden though I have traced the Staige line back to the immigrant ancestor so let's just say that I am a Native American who was born in Illinois with a completely European ethnicity. I say all that to provide you with the background out of which this essay has grown. The subject is Chief Illiniwek now that our local controversy has reached the pages of this morning's New York Times.

For me the Chief is a real person. He may not be an historical person but he is as real as Pocahontas or Sacagawea - and just as fictional. I first saw the Chief in the fall of 1946 when my father took me to my first Illinois football game. Purdue was the opponent. Illinois , on their way to the Big 10 Championship and the 1947 Rose Bowl, won that game but it was the Chief that I remembered...click here for entire article

December 14, 2003 - "Ladies and Gentlemen, we got him!" There was a justified note of triumph in Paul Bremer's voice as he announced the capture of Saddam Hussein in what the military called a "spider hole" near his hometown, Tikrit. The President was more sober as he announced the capture, "The capture of Saddam Hussein does not mean the end of violence in Iraq . We still face terrorists who would rather go on killing the innocent than accept the rise of liberty in the heart of the Middle East ." Sure enough 17 were killed and 31 wounded as a suicide bomber struck at an Iraqi police station and an American soldier died trying to disarm another one or the homemade land mines that have claimed so many. But, despite the continuing violence, Saddam Hussein in American custody and that is a stellar accomplishment.

The arrest and detention of Saddam Hussein is both an opportunity and a challenge. How America seizes that opportunity and meets that challenge may well determine whether liberty does indeed rise in the Middle East under American sponsorship. Turning Saddam over to the new Iraqi War Crimes Tribunal has a certain appeal. It was the Iraqi people who suffered the most from the crimes that have been laid at his door and giving them the chance to impose rough justice on the ex-strongman rings a note of symmetry...click here for entire article

December 13, 2003 - They call Economics the dismal science. They say that an economist can see the dark cloud in every silver lining. That is because the dynamics of an economy defy definition and what seems to be a common-sense truism often turns out to be quite the opposite. Take, for example, the energy market. With the winter of 2003-2004 upon us natural gas inventories are seven percent higher than at this time last year and three percent higher than the average for the last five years. . Deregulation of the energy market was supposed to result in lower consumer prices by letting the law of supply and demand work. With greater supplies and stable demand we would expect that the market would result in lower prices.

But that is not what is happening. On Friday, December 13 th the price of a million BTU natural gas contract settled at $7.22. On November 30 th the price of the same contract had been $4.93. Natural gas provides for a quarter of the nation's energy needs and provides the feed stock for the chemical, fertilizer, and ammonia industries. If these price levels stand, then they will cascade through the economy as higher costs for heating and electricity and increased costs for the farmers when they put in next years crops. Two of the nation's largest energy companies, Duke Energy and Houston based Dynegy, Inc. were nailed before the run-up with hefty fines for trying to manipulate the natural gas market. Senator Orin Hatch promised to launch an investigation next year. If you are a consumer or chemical manufacturer it's a dark cloud. If you are an investor who guessed right it is a decidedly silver lining....click here for entire article

CONTRACTING THE SOUL OF AMERICA

December 12, 2003 - "It's very simple. Our people risk their lives. Coalition, friendly coalition folks risk their lives, and, therefore, the contracting is going to reflect that." was the President's succinct comment when he tried to explain the Wolfowitz policy on profit opportunities in Iraq . Inadvertently he provided a succinct answer to Country Joe's Vietnam Era question. "1 - 2 - 3, what are we fighting for?" That has been a question that has been troubling the Administration since it started beating the war drums against Iraq in August of 2002. Its answer has evolved through "Weapons of Mass Destruction"; through "Threat to his neighbors"; "Support for Terrorism"; through "Liberation of the Iraqi People"; to "War Crimes Trials". All of them have been less than satisfying justifications for risking British and American lives and spending American dollars.

Economist Paul Krugman was the first to publicly highlight the ominous words in Secretary Wolfowitz' published rationale for his contracting policy. "Limiting competition for prime contracts will encourage the expansion of international cooperation in Iraq and in future efforts . [and] should encourage the continued cooperation of coalition members." With all due respect to Dr. Krugman's analysis, I think that he missed the major point of the statement. Yes, there is an element of a power grab for the Defense Department by the PNAC wing of the Republican Party, That has been going on since well before January 20 th 2001 . The Rumsfeldites have been trying to put Colin Powell in his place since his appointment was announced. It is not new.....click here for entire article

December 10, 2003 - Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz announced that the Pentagon won't share the spoils of war with German, French or Russian firms - at least not as prime contractors in rebuilding Iraq . Wolfowitz justified the action as protecting "the essential security interests of the United States ." But, friends, down in the fine print the policy declaration makes clear that German, French or Russian firms don't imperil "the essential security interests of the United States ." when they are functioning as sub-contractors working for Halliburton or Bechtel. Joe Biden sees the policy announcement as a "gratuitous slap" at the nations that did not sign on to the WMD fiction and rubber stamp the President's war. The Senator has a point, but I think he missed the main one.

George Bush's war wasn't about WMD or support of Al Qaida or about liberating an oppressed people. It was, and is, about building a 21 st Century American Empire following the policies formulated by Wolfowitz and the other members of the Project for a New American Century long before George Bush was nominated in 2000. What good is it to wield imperial power if you don't control imperial profits? French, German, and Russian firms don't make American political contributions - at least not directly. American prime contractors do.....click here for entire article

December 9, 2003 - Do you remember Quemoy and Matsu ? Probably not, but in 1960 everybody knew those names, two insignificant islands in the Formosa straits just off the mainland coast. They were under Nationalist Chinese control and Red China was threatening war to reclaim them. The commitment to defend those two dots on the Asian map was a central topic in the Nixon-Kennedy debates. Nixon tried to paint Kennedy as soft on the defense of what we then called Formosa .

Since then Nixon went to Peiking - what we used to call Beijing - and adopted a "one China " policy America has tried to make it clear that "one China " did not mean that we had lessened or commitment to defend democracy in Taiwan - what we call Formosa now. Over the decades or American protection the authoritarian Nationalist regime matured into a genuine democracy. While neither officially recognizing Taiwan as an independent nation nor clearly acknowledging that it is a province of Mainland China - what we call Red China in the post-Nixon diplomatic language. As late as 1996, when Beijing was threatening Taiwan and firing missiles into the strait, President Clinton moved the fleet into position to react to any attack on Formosa - excuse me, Taiwan - and Red China - excuse me again, Mainland China - backed down. Are you with me so far?.....click here for entire article

December 8, 2003 - Andy Card has his hands full this morning trying to spin away the opinions of the newest America-hating, Saddam-loving critic of the Bush policy in Iraq . Has Newt Gingrich been reincarnated as a (shudder) liberal? Not really, after all he is out on the stump trying to sell the idea that Bush's Medicare bill really favors older American's when it makes it illegal for them to buy insurance to cover the cost of their medicine. But, unlike the conservatives marching in lockstep into the swamp, Newt has his eyes open, takes the trouble to see, and does not like what he is seeing.

Newt told a national audience yesterday that America is falling off a cliff in Iraq ; that it has not learned the lessons of Vietnam and is repeating the follies of that conflict. Is Gingrich, a member of the Defense Policy Board and a Senior Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute, a deserter in the war against Democrats? No, but he has enlisted in the growing army of those whose eyes are opening wider with each bodybag that lands at Dover . He has even coined a new meaning for the acronym "CPA" - "Can't produce anything".....click here for entire article

December 6, 2003 - The Devil, they say, is in the details. When the President signs the Medicare Reform Act of 2003 into law next Monday I and millions of older Americans will look forward to January 1, 2006 as the end of their ability to afford to fill the prescriptions that keep them alive. I am over 65 and still employed. I am diabetic and have coronary artery disease. I am a member of an HMO, the cost of which is paid by my employer. Even though I am not retired the rules of the HMO required that I enroll in Medicare on my 65 th birthday. Today I am covered by the HMO's prescription drug benefit. Each month when I fill the prescriptions for the medicines that keep my incurable diseases at bay, I pay $30 as my co-payment of the $600 monthly - $7200 annual - cost of the medicines that my doctors have prescribed to keep me alive. Under the bill I will lose that coverage.

When the big ball drops at Midnight to usher in 2006 the prescription drug benefit provided by my HMO will be illegal and disappear. At the stroke of midnight it will be illegal for me to buy insurance to fill the gap between the prescription coverage afforded by Medicare and the cost that the pharmaceutical industry imposes on me to stay alive. Barring price increases for the medicines I depend on my cost will increase from $360 per year to $3,725 per year to welcome in the New Year. That does not include the premium deducted from my Social Security check for the new "benefit" the Republicans so graciously gave me....click here for entire article

December 6, 2003 - George Bush means to make a concerted effort in the 2004 re-election campaign to appeal to the religious right suggesting, as he did in 2000, that the Republican party has a monopoly on religious values. Republican strategists are tooling up to again make opposition to abortion, school prayer and, after the recent decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, faith-based gay bashing central themes in the coming campaign. The appeal to fundamentalist church-goers has had an effect that has reached beyond the religious right and into the pews of mainstream protestant denominations. It is neither opposition to abortion nor opposition to equal treatment for homosexual Americans that have done so. The issue that has moved observant Christians to see the Republicans as the Party of Faith has been school prayer.

All the reasoned arguments based on the principle of separation of Church and State have little impact on the political spectrum. These are arguments for the courtroom not for the pulpit or for the podium. However sound, however well reasoned, however grounded in Constitutional principle, they fall on deaf ears. But opposition to prescribed public prayer is not just unconstitutional, it is also un-Christian....click here for entire article

December 5, 2003 - When the story broke that Rush Limbaugh had admitted his addiction and entered a treatment program I wrote that I would not have any further comment about the conservative talk show polemicists drug case. I have kept that pledge. This morning I am going to bend it. The fact that Limbaugh is addicted to drugs is independent from his expression of far right political positions supported by doubtful and distorted facts. He was peddling that product long before he tossed back that first pill.

What changed this morning was the number of talking heads appearing on the cable news shows to excuse his alleged criminal acts because his addiction is claimed to stem from his medical condition. The thrust of their argument is that his alleged excursion into the criminal drug market should be ignored because his addiction was a byproduct of medical treatment. Their common thesis is that Rush is a victim and that he should be treated as a victim and not as a criminal....click here for entire article

December 4, 2003 - It turns out that the turkey and trimmings that the President was photographed carrying around the mess hall at Baghdad International wasn't being served to the troops. It wasn't intended to be eaten. It was a prop, window dressing for the chow line. The President, a Washington Post account reveals, picked up the bird, got his picture taken, and after only a few seconds, put it back on the table. The press has had as much luck locating the BA pilot who the White House reported had recognized Air Force One enroute to Baghdad as Hans Blix had locating the apocryphal Weapons of Mass Destruction before Bush went to war. Mary Matalin admits that the crafts these events to "capture the Bush we know".

It was just a couple weeks ago that the Administration called Paul Bremer back to Washington to tell him that the new Administration policy was to turn Iraqi sovereignty back to a democratic Iraqi government by the end of June 2004. In October Iraqi officials developed a plan to hold a census creating a voter roll to elect a transitional assembly in time for the Administration target date. It was sent to the Iraqi Governing Council for approval. Members of the Council say that they never saw it. It seems that it got lost in the bowels of the Coalition Provisional Authority, rejected by the Americans as impractical. American officials are saying that Iraq is not ready for national elections. Instead they propose a system of caucuses, the members appointed by the CPA to select the assembly. That appears to be the Administration's definition of "democracy". To an administration that chooses to govern by staged photo-ops; on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln or the Baghdad mess hall; it is not a surprise that it is the image rather than the reality of democracy that counts....click here for entire article

December 3, 2003 - Increasingly the President is living inside a protective bubble. Like the turtle encased in his protective shell he takes it with him wherever he goes. It went with him to London and to Baghdad International Airport . It goes with him to Crawford and to Camp David and on his fundraising excursions. To some degree a concern for any President's physical security justifies the erection of a security bubble around the President. We need only to look back to the successful, if fortuitously non-fatal, assault on President Reagan to justify security precautions. But President Bush's bubble goes far beyond protecting him from physical threats.

As we saw in London and again at the airport at Baghdad the bubble around Mister Bush is intended as well to protect him from contamination by unscripted interactions with any discordant influences, foreign or domestic. With differing opinions kept at bay, the President and his handlers are undisturbed by inconvenient facts and dissenting opinions. They are free to construct any view of the world that suits their ideological predispositions without restraint and uninfluenced by the reality that surrounds the bubble. When the President speaks only to pre-selected audiences at fundraisers and military bases he is exposed only to those whose ideas are either in congruence with his own or stifled by military discipline....click here for entire article