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QUOTATION: People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. - Walter H. Judd

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2004-07-13 - 1:51 p.m.

Are We Gonna Have the Fox Guarding the Hen House?

We�ve got Secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs, and the Attorney General. Cabinet-level rank has also been given to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; the Director of the Office of Management and Budget; the Director of the National Drug Control Policy; the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security; and the U.S. Trade Representative. What we really need is a Secretary of Truth!

I don�t know about you, but I�ve become so cynical that I have no confidence in Ridge and his �evidence from variety of sources� that terrorists are planning to strike again before the election. Especially, I lack confidence when the timing coincides with a drop in the President�s approval rating and Kerry/Edwards team has been getting all the air-time.

Orwell in his novel (It was a novel, wasn�t it?) 1984 warned that the economic elites need �continuous war�. The Bush Administration has achieved what Orwell feared: A war against terrorism! And as many of the comedians have said, �How can you fight a war against a noun?� We are very apt to be as successful in the fight against terrorism as we have been in the fight against drugs. Fight against AIDS! Again�fighting a noun! It�s been like a bunch of Keystone Cops in and out of a VW bug at a corner stoplight with the na�ve public (and Congress, unfortunately) wanting to believe, wanting to trust their leaders. And we�re not getting any more security�what we are getting is a country in which our civil right exist only to whatever extent is convenient for the administration. And if you don�t believe me, just read the Homeland Security Act!

We�ve got the fox guarding the hen house in some instances.For one - Vice President Cheney and his close association with Halliburton. And another for instance may be coming up soon: John F. Lehman Jr., former Navy secretary under President Reagan and member of the �independent� 9/11 commission, as I understand it is a leading candidate to replace Tenet as director of CIA.

Over the past forty years, Lehman has been a consistent advocate of ever-increasing military budgets and U.S. military supremacy. He�s right smack dab in the middle of the military-security-industrial complex! � and two members of Congress yesterday on TV said they thought he�d be a good choice for the next CIA director. Directly from the J. F. Lehman, Co. website: �Since inception, we have used a consistent approach to investing; focusing in sectors and businesses that are well known and thoroughly understood by the firm's partners - each of whom brings an extensive and diverse experience base to our investments. Our targeted markets include aerospace, defense, marine, government and niche industrial technologies and services.�

Among J. F. Lehman�s primary investments:

  • Accudyne � manufacturer of electronic and electromechanical devices and subsystems for military and commercial uses, and marine munitions applications for all branches of the U.S. Armed Forces, and infrared decoy flares and air-sea rescue devices as well as medium caliber ammunition.

  • Elgar Electronics Corporation - design and manufacture of programmable power equipment and systems used to test electronic equipment during development, manufacture and operation. The company's products are used in a broad range of applications including semiconductor test equipment, telecommunications equipment, computers and peripherals, satellite ground testing, weapons systems, avionics, communications systems, medical equipment and consumer electronics.

  • Racal Instruments Group - high-end test and measurement instruments and integrated test systems for the aerospace and defense, communications, and commercial industrial test markets.

  • Racal Acoustics Ltd. - design and manufacture of communications headsets, handsets and audio ancillaries for military applications serving over 100 armed forces branches in 80 countries. The business also designs and manufactures field communications systems and avionics products for defense applications

  • Special Devices, Inc. - worlds' largest independent supplier of initiators to airbag system manufacturers with U.S. and world market shares in excess of 60% and 30%, respectively. SDI also has two aerospace and defense pyrotechnics businesses, SDI Aerospace and Scot, Inc.

  • Sperry Marine, Inc. - world leader in the design, development, manufacture, service, and supply of advanced electronics navigation and guidance systems for maritime and aircraft uses.

    Politicized intelligence is bad intelligence and we�ve had enough politicized intelligence to last us for awhile. Someone with not only ideological, but also definite economic ties to �continuous war� is not someone I would want restructuring the CIA. It�s also not someone I want as Vice-President for another four years. Certainly the CIA faltered in providing fact-based intelligence about the Iraqi/alQueda connection and the weapons of mass destruction threat. We will not know until after the election whether the CIA reworked its own intelligence estimates to reflect the convictions of the trigger-happy militarists of the administration. Conveniently, they have all joined together to blame the CIA for not checking its facts. [What ever happened to �The buck stops here.�?

    �For the ordinary man is passive. Within a narrow circle (home life, and perhaps the trade unions or local politics) he feels himself master of his fate, but against major events he is as helpless as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him.� George Orwell

    You've probably already noted that I am not passive. I want a Secretary of Truth � an Ombudsman for the White House and for the Pentagon!

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