FREE WHITEWATER

City

Downtown Whitewater, Inc. Board Elections

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Downtown Whitewater, Inc. is in the midst of its own election season, for candidates to its Board of Directors.

Here are the details:

The 2008 election is now open for four seats on our Downtown Whitewater Board of Directors. Attached please find the 2008 ballot and candidate bios. [Ballot and bios are attached online. One can right click and download these links.]

You may vote immediately and marked ballots will be accepted until Monday, November 17, at 10 AM. The ballot can be cast in one of two ways:

1. Return your marked ballot to the Downtown Whitewater office downstairs at the Main Street Shoppes either by dropping it off (there will be a ballot box to leave it in if the office is locked) or by mailing it to: Box 688, Whitewater, 53190.

2. Scan your marked ballot and email it to zaballos@charter.net.

Remember, you must be a Downtown Whitewater stakeholder to vote. To qualify you must have done ONE of the following:

– been a founding member of the DRG
– donated to Downtown Whitewater
– volunteered for DW within the past year (includes serving on a committee)
– agreed to donate or volunteer in the next year (by signing the form on the ballot)

Please read the attached ballot carefully; ballots that are late or with incomplete information will not be counted. We hope the attached bios provide you with the information you need to make your choice. If you have any other questions, please contact DWI Executive Director Tami Brodnicki at 262-473-2200 or director@downtownwhitewater.com.

Note — on a topic related to Downtown Whitewater, Inc., I commented on the new logo for the organization. It is ‘new,’ but that’s a confusing description, too — it’s the first logo for Downtown Whitewater.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: November 13, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are, again, no municipal public meetings scheduled in City of Whitewater today.

The National Weather Service predicts that today offers an even chance of rain, with a high of 52 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac continues its multi-day series with a prediction that “very unsettled weather sweeps in from the west.”

Yesterday’s better prediction: NWS. I have no idea what unsettled weather means; no one at the FA does either.

In our schools today, there’s no school, but Parent-Teacher Conferences instead.

In Wisconsin History on this date, in 1858, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that the Heileman Brewery was Founded:

On this day, one of Wisconsin’s best-known breweries was established by John Gund and Gottlieb Heileman (1824-1878). By the time Gund retired in 1872, the firm’s annual beer production had increased from 500 barrels in 1860 to 3,000. By the turn of the century…it had become one of the city’s largest manufacturing concerns, and throughout the 20th century its storage tanks (painted to resemble a six-pack of beer) were a LaCrosse landmark. At its peak, Heileman’s annual sales of 7.5 million barrels brought in $900 million, making it a target for purchase by a series outside investors whose management eventually forced it into bankruptcy in 1991. The brewery officially closed in 1999, throwing more than 500 workers out of work. Today the former Heileman Brewery is home to City Brewing Co., which manufactures and packages beers, teas, soft drinks, energy drinks and other new age beverages. Its packaging capacity of over 50 million cases makes the LaCrosse firm one of the largest beverage producers in the country.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: November 12, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are no municipal public meetings scheduled in City of Whitewater today. If there were, I’d do my best to warn you.

The National Weather Service predicts that today offers a strong chance of rain, with a high of 46 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac begins a new multi-day series with a prediction that “very unsettled weather sweeps in from the west.”

Yesterday’s better prediction: NWS. It was wet, and the FA just didn’t catch that.

In our schools today, there’s a 7:00 p.m. National Honor Society induction at the high school, and also at 7:00 p.m. an Athletic Booster Club meeting at the high school, and the book fair continues at Lakeview School today.

In Wisconsin History on this date, in 1836, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that Governor Dodge Signed the First Wisconsin Law:

On this date territorial governor, Henry Dodge, signed the first law passed by the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature. The law prescribed how the legislators were to behave, and how other citizens were to behave towards them. For example, it authorized “the Assembly to punish by fine and imprisonment every person, not a member, who shall be guilty of disrespect, disorderly or contemptous behavior, threats, in the legislature or interference with witnesses to the legislature; also to expel on a two thirds majority in either house a member of its own body…” This did not keep the members from vociferous arguments, fist fights, or even shooting one another

The first law of the territorial legislature, and already off to a bad start — how others should behave toward legislators? Perhaps if legislators had engaged in fist fights less often, they might not have needed to regulate ‘disrespect.’

Then and now, what a self-interested incumbent public servant cannot earn freely, he takes by legislation.

Register Watch™, Uncategorized

Register Watch™ for the November 6th Issue of the Paper

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This is Register Watch™ for the November 6th issue of Whitewater, Wisconsin’s weekly newspaper, the Whitewater Register. 

Above the fold this week, there are two main stories in the Register, and both are straightforward.  Not easy, I’m sure – but a better paper for it.  The first talks about the clear majority for Obama among city voters.  I made a prediction along this line earlier this year, but that’s not much of a prediction – Obama has a large, confident group of supporters in the city, and was sure to win.  One might as well have predicted cold weather in Antarctica. 

The story reveals how close the vote between Obama and McCain was in Walworth County, though, and that’s a difference from elections prior. 

As with progressives within the city, however, I don’t see what progressives county-wide will make of the result.  Obama represents change – doubt not about that – but many of the local and county Democrats are just dull, slightly different versions of their local Republican opponents.  It’s laughable to think that some local Democrats represent any change at all. 

It proves the point that a man can support Obama, and ride on his coattails, but still be a self-important mediocrity. 
Obama, like Reagan, will have the support of many who would be an embarrassment to the party leader himself, were leader and partisan ever to be acquainted.        

The other principal story on the front page describes the continuing budget planning for the City of Whitewater. The city held a special budget meeting Thursday, having been scheduled two days later than usual because of the November 4th election. 

The fourth paragraph tells a preliminary tale: “…the tax levy is $2,315,066, an increase of 2.1 percent over the current budget.”  You can guess why it’s a familiar 2.1% increase, as of the story’s publication: “The 2.1 percent increase is the highest allowed under the revenue caps mandated by the state.”  (Emphasis added – the Register does not use color within its copy.)

Like tax incremental financing, a governmental ceiling often becomes a governmental floor – “if we don’t spend or borrow it, gosh darn it, we’ll lose it!”  Sheer ability to act justifies the actions themselves. 

The Register also sports a brighter white jacket with darker – quite dark, really – newsprint inside.  It’s a cost-savings measure, perhaps, to avoid using brighter newsprint throughout.  Perhaps it’s necessary.  Still, few will see it as a sign of a healthy paper.  

Good stories will produce a good look, and the newsprint will take care of itself. 

Register Watch™, Uncategorized

Register Watch™ for the October 30th Issue of the Paper

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Here is my edition of Register Watch™ for the October 30th issue of my town’s local, weekly newspaper, the Whitewater Register.  In my small town of 14,000, the Register is the only conventional newspaper.  There are several nearby newspapers, a college newspaper, a local website with entries that a local politician publishes, and a few shopper-advertisers. 

There are also a few blogs, of which FREE WHITEWATER is one. 
We have no daily hometown newspaper – online or in print – that amounts to true journalism by adhering to standard journalistic ethics.  (See, from October 19th, Press Ethics for fundamental journalistic standards from the Associated Press.)

I wish that we did; nothing would improve our small society more effectively than true journalism.  Our politics would be better, as the standard of public conduct – subjected to constant press scrutiny — would have to be higher. 

Until then, I offer occasional commentary on the weekly newspaper that bears our town’s name.

The front page of the October 30th Register has two different, above-the-fold stories: one on efforts to market our downtown business district, and one on our school board’s approval of a tax levy increase.    

Downtown Whitewater, Inc., the body that represents downtown business owners, has unveiled a new logo – a triangle in the shape of the district.  The group would like to market the area under the slogan, “The Triangle: Eat – Shop – Enjoy.” 

The article in the Register notes that details including color and signage are yet to be made final.  I am often critical of logo changes as a substitute for substantive policy, but marketing is an integral, not a peripheral, part of this sort of organization.  (Obvious contrasts – logos for schools, hospitals, public policy groups, etc.)

I think there’s little question that a name other than “Downtown Whitewater” would help catch people’s notice. Most towns call their commercial district the downtown, and there’s nothing distinctive about the term.

How all this will develop, especially if a lingering recession through 2009 should make marketing more difficult, one cannot say.

It’s a good idea, though, and one hopes for the best.    

There’s another above-the-fold story: “School Board OKs Tax Levy Increase.”  Well, that’s different – there was little meaningful coverage of district policy under the Register‘s last editor.

How much of this might have gone unreported, or given only hideaway coverage, if that prior approach had continued?  I don’t know. 

The Register reports, in the first paragraph, a tax levy increase of 7.11%.    

I have long held off — some have said too long – from consistent coverage of our school district. There are no excuses on my part; one either writes or does not.  In this regard, the Register‘s ahead of my blogging. 

The first part of the story is a direct recitation of budget and tax information.  There’s much more to say about all this, but reporting on these these basic figures is what any community deserves, and should expect. 

Below the fold is a story on the Whitewater Arts Alliance’s 2008 Holiday Card Winner. The winning selection shows two deer looking in the direction of Whitewater’s old train depot, the ground covered with snow.  It’s an attractive scene, from a local artist. 

Some have wrongly said that I see no beauty in this city.  The claim is false; I contend and debate over a small, but worthy, place.  It will be far lovelier, too, when its politics and culture are freer, more honest, more respectful of civil liberties.  Art is, to my mind, no substitute for these needed reforms, but I easily see its independent worth. 

There is even now, though, great beauty in the city.  I am surely neither the artist nor the photographer to capture any of it.  I have taken fewer pictures of Whitewater than I might like, but there is no loss to aesthetics in that.        

That the winning selection is an attractive depiction is, on its own, praiseworthy.   

Holiday

Veterans’ Day 2008: Thank you, Corporal Buckles

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Today honors millions, but one of that number deserves a particular moment of honor and appreciation. I have embedded a news clip from the Voice of America, recounting the extraordinary service of Corporal Frank Buckles, the last known surviving American veteran of the First World War.

Buckles is now aged 107, and lives in West Virginia.

Buckles had to bluff his way into the service at age sixteen, and served with distinction in the First World War. His service and discipline on behalf of our country did not end when that war ended. Astonishingly, only a generation later, he also spent three years as a prisoner of war of Japan during the Second World War.

The VOA’s Deborah Block reports on a life singular and inspiring —

Thank you, Corporal Buckles more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: November 11, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

There is one municipal public meeting scheduled in City of Whitewater today. At 6:30 p.m. the Common Council will meet at the municipal building, and possible future site of Whitewater’s available online.

The National Weather Service predicts that today offer a ‘wintry mix,’ with a high of 41 degrees. The Farmers’ Almanac ends a multi-day series with a prediction of “Wet over the Great Lakes, then Fair and Cold” weather. That seems a backwards prediction, but I’ll not judge these silly planners fine prognosticators in advance

Yesterday’s better prediction: NWS.

In our schools today, there’s a 6:30 p.m. PATT meeting at Washington School, a book fair continuing at Lakeview School, and a PTO meeting at Lincoln School.

In Wisconsin History on this date, in 1964, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports theRolling Stones first played Milwaukee:

On this date the Rolling Stones first performed in Wisconsin, to a crowd of 1,274 fans at Milwaukee Auditorium. Although Brian Jones remained in a Chicago hospital with a high fever, the rest of the band performed. According to a dubious reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, “Chances are, few in the audience missed his [Jones’] wailing harmonica. Screams from a thousand throats drowned out all but the most insistent electronic cacaphony and the two-fisted smashes of drummer Charlie Watts.” The reporter continued, “Unless someone teaches guitar chords to chimpanzees, the visual ultimate has been reached in the Rolling Stones. With shoulder length hair and high heeled boots, they seemed more feminine than their fans. The Stones make the Beatles look like clean cut kids. You think it must be some kind of parody – but the little girls in front paid $5.50 a seat.”

Orange Salamander

The Orange Salamander Thus Far

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The Orange Salamander describes a small-town mystery, but ‘small-town mystery’ is as conventional as the story’s description gets. If you mixed a hard-boiled crime story with a cyberpunk novel, and asked a non-writer to write it, The Orange Salamander is what you might get.

The sound of waves crashing against the beach repeats every 42 seconds. Less than a minute and a seagull squawks again.

I could measure time easily if the pattern repeated every 60 seconds. Instead: 42, 84, 126. Two minutes gone. Forever.

I reach up, turn off the machine. Without ocean sounds, I can’t sleep. Is my conscience heavy? No, I’m just masking the sounds of town.

No ocean nearby. No seagulls. Just students, dogs, drunks. I like the first two, tolerate the third. It’s my sensitive side.

Millhaven: rural college town, miles from the big city. Locals, immigrants, newcomers, students. Four towns: unshaken, unstirred.

I live downtown, above the Agneau Grille, a Tunisian restaurant. Tasty lamb requires no passport.

Restaurants, bars, small shops behind aging facades. Banners welcoming returning students, faded flyers in windows.

Outside, cool autumn air. Cigarette butts on sidewalk – tokens of indifference, rebellion. I smile, lighting a Lucky Strike.

A fat man walks by, eyeing a bakery’s cherry pie. The bakers are brothers, nicknamed the Pie Men. They do everything together.

A scone and a cup of kona to go. Real kona, but Hawaiian means something else to the Pie Men, Ronnie and Donnie. They seem almost sober.

How are you, Ronnie asks. We saw Sophie. Ex-wife number two, back on campus after sabbatical. His way of warning me. Thanks.

The mayor walks in. Our first mayor, first term. Gray hair, gray suit, blue tie, blue blood of Millhaven’s hue. Pale blue, watercolor.

The mayor glances dismissively my way. He opposed the office, ran when we adopted it, will rely on apathy to hold it. Not a bad bet.

Part-time mayor, full-time defender of convention, tradition, propriety. Private club manners, if the club’s small, decaying, dull.

We’re a town without left or right – incumbency is the only political party. Get office, justify conduct, keep office. Our way, since forever.

People drift to work, starting early to end early. Local notables pass outside, the mayor leaves, to make Millhaven more orderly

Lyons, the university president for a decade, passes – a smug and subtle cheerleader Does what town fathers ask Considers student silence golden

Phil Bartram, city planning consultant, here a year, seems longer Thinks a half-Windsor’s a short arisocrat Crush on Felicia the MBA

Felicia the MBA, of the college-city-business task force We’ve a task force for every issue incumbents won’t tackle Say, 8 or 9, minimum

City workers hang a banner across Main Street with Millhaven’s logo and a new slogan: We’ll Make Our Way Your Way – Just You Wait!

Last real danger was two years ago, ending in capture and commitment of Loretta a.k.a. ‘Lottie the Psycho’ Only caught after confession on live TV

Since Lottie, garden variety crime and administrative mediocrity are enjoying an extended run before packed houses each night

Felicia the MBA: friends with ex-wife #2, still cordial Smart, hard-working, clever What we’d like to be if we stopped insisting we already were

Elderly Betty Crockman walks by Called Betty Crock o’ for her b.s. Sure she hears God’s voice in her own humble opinions

I step inside Felicia’s office She looks concerned Have you ever seen something like this? she asks, as she pushes a small metal case toward me

Small pewter box, unmarked Inside: orange plastic salamander & note, folded in thirds

The note: ‘Walk Swim More Talk Write More Never a Chore’ Notebook paper, cut unevenly, folded awkwardly

Odd handwriting in blue ink Confident, bold Spoof? Mental patient? Politician? All possibilities

Felicia asks me what it means I don’t know Unusual acquaintances? Anyone/anything different? She stares back at me

Salamander left at her office door this morning I take the items, head to my place to ponder The Clergyman drives past

Clergyman: If gossip were Doctrine, he’d be a bishop Scurries for info like a pigeon for breadcrumbs, hoping for bits to drop

My apt: bdrm, lr, den books computer dog-crap DSL connection parrot named Ludwig Scandinavian austerity

All my ex-wives use Microsoft – justification for annulment Only Apple here No crashes OS X boots fast, Safari ready

Search of note’s message – nothing but Irrelevant, Unlikely Google, deep web nothing Lyrics? Poem? Stoner talk? Why now? Why Felicia?

Note’s meaning? Walk, Swim More – salamanders walk & swim, what more? Orange ones live in Midwest, in forest streams

‘Talk Write More’ What’s more? Read, publish, photograph, film? Handwriting’s bold, in blue ink

Toy salamander’s made in China, like toys, textiles, government corruption, dissidents People’s Republic mass produces everything

Notebook paper, cut from a composition book, wide ruled Pewter box has no other contents

Library visit: small, modern, expanding A book on salamanders, few on amphibians On the shelf, a book not listed online: Salamanders and You

Unlisted salamander book: page 12, in margin, bold blue marker: ‘Not old books, but new pages, form the plan’

2 Millhaven clues: salamander & note, marginalia in library book. Plan, plot, mystery.

If a plan, then a planner. Phil the city consultant? Crush on Felicia the MBA. Time for a visit.

Phil’s office: shambles, papers everywhere, wrapper from yesterday’s egg salad on rye, half-eaten pickle, gum, few scattered trading cards

Phil’s books: dictionary, directory, Time, Newsweek, Government’s Your Co-Pilot, Zoning for Social Control, Pride in Planning, Farmers’ Almanac

Could Phil the planner have left the salamander with Felicia? I scan his office – no hint of nature-loving in him.

Will you be at the community meeting? Phil asks Yes, I reply Felicia will coordinate it, I observe Phil looks up, about to speak

Small-talk with Phil. Nothing unusual about him, unless one correctly concludes that planning others’ lives is unusual

He’s downcast, and volunteers that Felicia hasn’t returned his voicemail from last week

No one ever hears from Phil, he has a poor feel for the community, and the one person he calls doesn’t know he’s alive

I wonder: What is it with all the screwball weirdos in this town sending each other salamanders and ill-timed birthday cards?

In other places, people see ghosts, or werewolves, or Bigfoot Not a single extraterrestrial – it’s 100% terrestrial weirdness in Millhaven

Outside, I see the Millhaven police chief’s latest energy-saver: a three-wheeled cart powered by a human cyclist, like an old ice cream cart

Police carts debuted last month Uniformed officers, horn, lights & message banner: Community policing – We’re green to save you green

Millhaven’s four towns: locals, students, immigrants, newcomers Immigrants are newcomers, but some locals see a distinction

Immigrants came as migrant workers, now stay as factory laborers Over 10% of town, but official statistics undercount

Who’d come to America to send a toy salamander? Weirdness like this is homegrown, isn’t it?

Students, locals, newcomers? How about a campus visit, to see if someone there might have a message for Felicia? Administration first.

Lyons has been college president for years Dislikes student activism Attends any local society party

Felicia’s smart, assertive, industrious – too much of these for Lyons’s taste, whose favorite person stares back from a mirror

Baxter, the Director of Administrative Direction? Unlikely – no one ever sees him, or knows what he does

Jane Crowton, the Director of Counseling, famous for the ‘Words Hurt’ campaign for speech restrictions on campus? Maybe

I’ll visit the anti-speech Jane Crowton – who hates me since I pointed out she was a narrow scold – to see what she might say

Counseling Director Crowton’s at her desk, proposed new speech code -HUSH – Help the University Silence Hate – before her

Crowton’s examples of hate speech – Racism, Sexism, Capitalism, Masculinism, Growthism, Meatism, Petroleumism, Expressionism, Individualism

She’s no ordinary progressive – Jane Crowton’s a defender of all things status quo in Millhaven as they were, are, and must always be

Crowton serves on city committees, runs interference for appointees and entrenched incumbents, justifies municipal policy at every turn

Crowton looks at me as though I were something the cat brought in – What do you want? So I ask: Ever send anyone a toy salamander?

Uncategorized

The Half Million

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Looking at electoral returns, the Libertarian Party received just over a half million votes nationwide.

The LP was not on the ballot in every state (mid 40s of 50), and has rarely received this many votes nationally.

Far from expectations, of course.

Wait a few years, though, when big government looks less desirable, and these half million may have been a beginning only.

Bush did half the damage to big government’s reputation with big government conservatism; Democrats will finish the damage with big government liberalism.

The near future will offer opportunities for libertarian alternatives.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: November 10, 2008

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Good morning, Whitewater

There are three municipal public meetings scheduled in City of Whitewater for Monday. At 4:30 p.m. the CDA Business park Marketing Committee meets at the municipal building. At 5:30 p.m., the Park & Recreation Board meets in the municipal building, and at 6:30 p.m. the Irvin Young Library Board meets at the library.

The National Weather Service forecast predicts that today will be sunny — or becoming sunny – with a high of 38. The Farmers’ Almanac is in the middle of a multi-day series with a prediction of “Wet over the Great Lakes, then Fair and Cold” weather.

Last week’s better prediction: NWS. The FA has never been more accurate for a whole week’s time, since I have been comparing the two.

In our schools today, there’s a fall book fair at Lakeview School.

In Wisconsin History on this date, in 1862, the Wisconsin Historical Society reports that there was a Draft Riot:

On this date angry citizens protesting a War Department order for 300,000 additional troops, rioted in Port Washington, Ozaukee County. As county draft commissioner William A. Pors drew the first name, cannon fire resounded and a mob of over 1,000 angry citizens wielding clubs and bricks and carrying banners scrawled with the words “No Draft!” marched through the streets. The mob stormed the city destroying buildings, setting fires, and gutting the interior of homes and shops. Troops were brought in the next day to quell the violence. The Ozaukee rioters were captured and remained prisoners at Camp Randall for about a year before they were finally released. In all, more than a half-dozen homes were damaged and dozens of citizens were injured.

Draft riots took place in other parts of the country, perhaps the most notable being New York City, as depicted at the time:

Then and now, just another reason to favor a volunteer army. See, for example, Milton Friedman, “Why Not a Volunteer Army?”

Coming Attractions for the Week:

Here are some posts coming this week, in the approximate order of arrival during the week (with other posts — unlisted — likely, too).

  • Orange Salamander Thus Far
  • Register Watch™ for October 23rd
    [correction: should read November 6]
  • Register Watch™ for October 30th
  • Democrats and a Smoking Ban for Wisconsin
  • Common Council Meeting for 10/21
  • Common Council Meeting for 11/6
  • Police and Fire Commission Meeting for 8/20 — Why they really are the worst public body in the city, overseeing the worst leaders in the city
  • On the Constitutional lawsuit against Larry Meyer

Uncategorized

And You Thought Obama Won…

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From the Onion, America’s Finest News Source, one finds election results I’ve yet seen reported elsewhere.


Voting Machines Elect One Of Their Own As President

For more on electronic voting systems, in a serious way, see HBO’s Hacking Democracy. (The documentary contends, I recall, that optical scanners of paper ballots such as those used in Wisconsin have a higher error rate than other electronic systems, but I do not know the source for the contention.) more >>

Libertarians

ACLU’s Actions for Restoring America: Day One

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Limited government is good government. The ACLU’s efforts to limit government power, power that often denies rights of oversight, have been useful for America.

At the ACLU’s website, there’s a program entitled, “Actions for Restoring America,” listing steps a new federal administration can take on its first day, within 100 days, and beyond.

Here are their sound suggestions for the first day:

STOP TORTURE, CLOSE GUANTANAMO, END EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS

The next president will have a historic opportunity — on day one — to take very important steps to restore the rule of law in the interrogation and detention of detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq, Afghanistan, and in secret prisons around the globe. Every action taken pursuant to an executive order of President Bush can be reversed by executive order of the next president.

Therefore, on the first day in office, the next president should issue an executive order directing all agencies to modify their policies and practices immediately to:

Cease and prohibit the use of torture and abuse, without exception, and direct the Attorney General immediately after his or her confirmation to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute any violations of federal criminal laws prohibiting torture and abuse;

Close the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay and either charge and try detainees under criminal law in federal criminal courts or before military courts-martial or transfer them to countries where they will not be tortured or detained without charge;

Cease and prohibit the practice of extraordinary rendition, which is the transfer of persons, outside of the judicial process, to other countries, including countries that torture or abuse prisoners.

STOP TORTURE AND ABUSE

The next president should issue an executive order, on the first day in office, that orders all agencies to take immediate steps to ensure that torture and abuse is prohibited by the federal government, that no agency may use any practice not authorized by the Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogations, that no president or any other person may order or authorize torture or abuse, that all violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions are prohibited, that all persons being held overseas must be registered with the International Committee of the Red Cross in conformity with Defense Department practices, and that all intelligence interrogations must be video recorded.

In addition, the president should order all agencies to comply with requests from Members of Congress for unredacted copies of documents related to the development and implementation of U.S. interrogation policies. The president should also ask the U. S. Attorney General to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate and, if warranted, prosecute any violations of federal criminal laws prohibiting torture and abuse – focusing not just on crimes committed in the field, but also on crimes committed by civilians, of any position, in authorizing or ordering torture or abuse. Finally, the president should order the immediate closure of all secret prisons, and prohibit the CIA and its contractors from detaining anyone.

CLOSE GUANTANAMO AND RESTORE THE RULE OF LAW FOR DETAINEES

On the first day in office, the president should order the shutdown of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and restoration of the rule of law for the detainees now held there. Specifically, the president should order the prompt shutdown of the detention facility, the transfer of any prisoners charged with a crime to a facility within the continental United States for trial in a federal criminal court or before a military court-martial, and the transfer of all uncharged detainees to countries where they will not be abused or imprisoned without charge.

END AND PROHIBIT THE PRACTICE OF EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION

The president should order all agencies, on the first day in office, to end and prohibit any rendition or transfer of any person to another country without judicial process. The president should prohibit the rendition or transfer of any person to another country where there is a reasonable possibility the person would be subject to torture or abuse or detained without charge. Any person subject to any transfer shall have a due process right to challenge any transfer before an independent adjudicator, with a right to a judicial appeal.

In each instance, the executive order should by its terms rescind any conflicting previous order – none of which have been made public and remain secret to this day.

Good recommendations, all.

Uncategorized

The Cold Arrogance of a Former Elite

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In the film The Good Shepherd, about the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency, there’s an exchange between an Italian American and a patrician WASP.


Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something… we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition… What about you people … what do you have?

Edward Wilson: The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.

Such is the view of all elites, disappearing only when they disappear, through the dynamism, or by contrast the decay, of their societies.

Note: There’s no implication to local society in this message; those who first settled Whitewater were not a patrician class. On the contrary, they were vulgar. It was only later that the descendants of those who settled here developed a false sense of class entitlement. more >>