Conspiracy?

Scoop! We did it again. In “… Or Maybe They Should Retire,” Gadfly reported that Republican IT specialist Mike Connell was ordered to a deposition before a federal judge just before election day. Mike Connell was involved in voting machine and election fraud in several major elections, most notably the 2004 presidential games. The Republicans won via voter suppression, vote flipping, and other “techniques.” Connell had set up an operation, through SmarTech and two other firms in Chattanooga TN, to switch enough votes to change the election outcome, and we were yoked to George Bush for four more years.

Since the Gadfly column, Connell was deposed and did as much stone walling as he could. However, he miraculously became unhappy over subverting the American tradition of free & fair elections when he had to appear in federal court. He asked the US Attorney General and the Ohio Attorney General for protection for himself and his family, and was reportedly ready to blow the whole election larceny scheme.

Karl Rove, Gadfly said, wanted Connell to take the fall by refusing to cooperate with the court and go to jail for a while. Connell knew of the risk to his life if he went to prison and refused. Connell also refused to continue with the vote tampering for the 2008 election. Obama won, and the Connell case never made the national news.

On Friday evening, December 19, Connell’s light plane exploded near the Akron-Canton airport. Connell was killed. Shades of Paul Wellstone, except that Connell’s body has not been recovered. There are lots of unanswered questions, just as with the disastrous events of 9-11-01. Another conspiracy theory? Actual conspiracy has occurred in Washington DC, time to time, for at least eight years. Just ask Jack Abramoff, Bob Ney, and Randy Cunningham.

Who Controls The Present ...

“Who Controls the Present …”

by Mort Malkin

Naram-Sin took the conquests of his grandfather, Sargon I, past mortal ultimacy. He declared himself to be the “King of the Four Corners of the World” and wore a horned helmet, a signet of deity.

Five thousand years later, the great historian Louis XIV, tried to do as well with “L’Etat c’est moi.” He was called the Sun King, a reference likening him to Helios the sun god. He ruled as an absolute monarch, mistakes and all.

In the 20th century Richard Nixon was as memorable, “When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.” It was satire writ large, except the rest of the country saw as attitude, not parody. Nixon was soon teleported from the White House to his home in California via resignment.

Now we are up to the 21st century. Although it is less than a century since the last absolutist, we have another in our midst. Rich Cheney (courtesy of having been the CEO of Halliburton in the nineties) has tried to establish the unitary executive, that anything the President does, legal or illegal, is within his authority as Commander In Chief. Especially if the President is wooden George, Cheney’s puppet. But, the Constitution says the President is Commandeer In Chief of the Armed forces, not of the civilian population. For Cheney the Constitution is an inconvenience that can be disregarded, except for the Second Amendment.

A few of Cheney’s pronouncements of late have confirmed his truity to the line of succession from Naram-Sin to Richard Nixon. In two separate interviews, a couple of years apart, his succinct responses to questions of the lack of public support brought answers of a) “That won’t stop us” and b) “So?”. More recently, he said he was right about everything in the last eight years. He said that even if there were no WMDs found in Iraq, he would have invaded because Saddam could have been thinking about such weapons in the future. He also said that waterboarding was appropriate to extract information from enemy combatants, whether it did or not. He also, also said the Guantanamo detention center should be kept operational for the foreseeable future.

Also, also, also. he said in a deposition before a federal court that “the Vice President alone may determine what constitutes Vice Presidential records versus personal records.” He insisted it is within his power to determine “how his records will be maintained, managed and disposed, and all are actions that are committed to his discretion by law.” That means in colloquial legalese, “L’etat, c’est moi.”

The saving grace is that Cheney strangely thinks that history wll judge him as a wise man. He may want to keep the records undestroyed so he will be vindicated by the historians of the next generation.

Perhaps the best judgment came from his wife. When Dick joked that he was nicknamed “Darth Vader,” Lynne quipped “It humanizes you.” Truth in humor!

How The West Was Lost

Gadfly
by Mort Malkin

How The West Was Lost

The taxpayers get to: bail out the investment banks, give subidies to Big Oil, cut taxes for people so rich they feel embarassed by the giveaways, and generally make the rich richer & the poor unemployed. But, it is not all happening in Washington DC or on Wall Street. A large area of the country that receives government largesse is out West where the buffalo used to roam, and the beneficiaries today are the ranchers and Big Beef.

There was a time that the buffalo (really bison) dominated the landscape — over 50 million of the great beasts that were the livelihood of the Indian nations. Today, the herd of genetically pure wild buffalo — about 3600 in number — live in Yellowstone Park. Settling the West required getting rid of the Indians and their sacred buffalo. It took a while, but the US Army, the railroad barons, the cattle tycoons, the British banks, and the industries that dealt in pelts, belts, and leathers generally, wiped out buffalo by the millions. With the Indians and the bufflo they depended upom gone, cattle raising could go forward, indeed, fast forward. You may ask why raise cattle, why not domesticate buffalo that were already there. The answer is that buffalo are powerful, ornery creatures that are difficult to raise. If a buffalo, especially a bull, wants to go from point A to point B — pasture, water, or buffalo whimsy — the beast will just break through a fence. In a rodeo with buffalo, coyboys would lose. Cattle are more docile and, besides, not associated with Indians. The English and formerly English (now Americans) liked beef, not gamey buffalo. Buffalo were only good for robes, coats and leathers — soft, yet tough.

Today, there are vast stretches of public lands managed by governmental agencies, where cattle are permitted to graze.for a token fee. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Forest Service, and various state agencies such as Montana’s Department of Livestock (DoL) encourage cattle grazing, often right up to the borders of Yellowstone National Park where the buffalo are supposed to obey the White man’s regulations and not transgress the artificial boundaries.

The real problem is not the buffalo but the cattle that are destroying the landscape. Buffalo have sharp hooves that break up the turf, increasing aeration and establishment of a diversity of grasses and shrubs. They also eat a greater variety of greens. They don’t congregate around streams as cattle do, preferring to wallow in water-filled potholes and shallows. Cattle flatten and compact the soil, deplete it of oxygen, worms and insects, and muddy the banks of streams.

Buffalo are strong constitutionally and survive adverse weather conditions. They are resistant to the devastating effects of brucellosis even though they may be carriers. Brucellosis will ravage a herd of cows, causing miscarriages ad other endocrine disturbances. The ranchers say their cows contract brucellosis from the few buffalo that wander beyond the arbitrary confines of Yellowstone Park, but those buffalo have not been seen consorting with cattle. A more likely suspect is the elk feeding grounds of Wyoming and Montana, used by both elk herds and cattle. But, elk hunting is big busineess in the Northern plains, and it would never do to eliminate the elk.

In return for cattle turning the plains into a nice flat dustbowl, the government: builds roads & fences, plants grass (monoculture, unnaturally), “controls” predators, and tries to reclaim streams. The grazing fees don’t begin to approach the costs to the taxpayer. Wall Street investment banks, of course cooperate with the beef enterprise by making loans to the ranchers, the only collateral being the grazing permits. It makes the financial crisis and the markets for unregulated mortgage derivatives and credit default swaps seem like ethical business practices.

It would all be under the radar except for the recent book “Turf Wars” by Mike Hudak published by Biome Books. Hudak’s book is a series of extrensive interviews with rangers, fish & wildlife biologists, and range conservationists from Texas all the way up to North Dakota, from New Mexico thtough eastern Colorado to Montana and the Canadian border. Many of them are or were government employees out in the field, not political types sitting in well appointed offices. They are all quoted in their own words, and so the writing style changes from one to the next. How cattle grazing ravages the botanical ecosystems, archeological sites, and natural animal populations are all documented. Some of the writers point fingers at both politicians and the “system” as well as at Big Beef. The most valuable resource, the watershed of the great plains, is being destroyed.

There are 25 free-ranging interviews with men and women who love the land of the plains, the animals and the fish. The interviews, all arranged into basic topics that are relevant, are called “chapters.” The experience and thoughts of the many authors seem unprompted, and the writing/speaking styles are as varied as personalities could be. Many of them work or worked for the BLM or Forest Service; others were independent conservationists. They all describe the destructive effects of cattle grazing on public lands and the political power of the cattlemen. The establishment blames probloms with the cattle and overgrazing on coyotes, prarie dogs, the buffalo of Yellowstone Park, and even the few wild horses left in the West. Luckily the large ranchers who didn’t like the wild horses were stymied. Horses in America can’t be treated like buffalo. Horses have a constitutiency of horse lovers.

The book is well documented with over 500 notated references but could use a few maps to orient the reader. Despite the detailed organization (maybe because of it) the book is a good read. It is highly recommended for its insight into how our country is run. It may even be enough for you to swear off hamburgers in fast food joints.