Pauly's Pontifications

This is the first year that I've worked where the library is open on Easter. These include all the libraries I have worked at (academic, public and school). I think it's a mistake, but no one seemed to notice until this week. UW-Platteville's library is open on Sunday, from 6 p.m. until midnight. Now my little IML on the campus is also open from 6 p.m. - 10 p.m.

I believe in a separation of church and state but I'm wondering how many people will want to come to the library on Sunday night. What makes it all the more strange is that although the campus is open on Monday, it is officially a spring break day and so no classes. Since the dorms close for this long weekend (we must take a furlough day on Friday so the entire campus is closed as directed by the governor) I wonder who will be around to even come to the library on Sunday night being that the dorms are not open yet. I feel bad for the students who are required to work and have to cut their vacations short. They don't make that much to begin with. I wonder where they will be staying that night?

This idea was first seen on www.tompaige.com under an article by Nick Turse, entitled, "The Fallen Legion". The article originally appeared in Tomdispatch.com.

How many people in government are so upset by the Bush Administration policies that they quit their job? How many workers have been fired by the Administration? The article goes on to list 35 people who were either fired or resigned in protest of Bush's policies. The list includes Bunnatine Greenhouse, the top official in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge of awarding government contracts in Iraq who was demoted when she raised objections at the secret, no-bid contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown and Root (a subsidiary of Halliburton) and other abuses of Halliburton contracts was demoted in August of 2005. Last year Captain John Carr and Major Robert Preston asked to be reassigned and quit their posts as Air Force prosecutors rather than take part in the trials in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba which they considered rigged against the alleged terrorist held there. Captain Carrie Wolf also asked for reassignment for the Office of Military Commissions due to what she considered unjust commission for trying prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. These individuals stayed but could not work in these departments because of the Bush Administrations policies. The article mentions these others who were either fired or resigned.

Tony Oppergard, a federal geodesic engineer who headed a team who investigated toxic wastes from mountaintop strip-mining in Kentucky was fired the day that Bush was inaugurated in January of 2001.

Mike Dombeck, chief of the Forest Service, resigned in March of 2001 when the Bush administration promoted to take the Forest Service away from a pro-conservation stance.

Thomas E. Novotny, a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services resigned in August of 2001 over frustration with the administration's decision to soften U.S. positions on key issues, such as restrictions on secondhand smoke and advertising and marketing of cigarettes.

Eric Schaeffer, Director of Regulatory Enforcement at the Environment Protection Agency, resigned in February of 2002 over the Bush administrations non-enforcement of the Clean Air Act.

Martha Hahn, the State Director for the Bureau of Land Management and responsible for 12 million acres in Idaho, resigned after being resigned to a previously non-existent job in New York after she took issue with grazing rights in March of 2002.

Mike Parker, Director of the Army Corps of Engineers testified before Congress the Bush-mandated budget cuts would have a negative impact on the Corps. He was asked to resign in March of 2002.

James Zahn, a microbiologist with the Department of Agriculture resigned in May of 2002 when ordered not to publish his study which identified bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics and found in the air on industrial-style hog farms.

Sylvia K. Lowrance, a top Environmental Protection Agency official resigned in August of 2002 in protest to the administrations failure to enforce environmental laws and put investigations on ice.

Paul O'Neil served as Secretary of the Treasury for two years. He was fired when he opposed the president's tax cuts in December of 2002.

Larry Lindsey a top economic advisor was fired in December of 2002 after he revealed to a newspaper that the war with Iraq could cost $200 billion.

Richard Clark held a cabinet level post of National Security Council and was the chief advisor on terrorism. He became disillusioned when the Administration ignored evidence and then put pressure to produce a link between Al Qaida and Saddam Hussein when there was no connection. Clark quit in January of 2003.

John Brady Kiesling, a career diplomat, resigned over the invasion of Iraq in February of 2003.

John Brown, a career diplomat, resigned in March of 2003 over the war on Iraq.

Rand Beers, the National Security Council's senior director for combating terrorism resign in March of 2003.

Ann Wright, a career diplomat in the Foreign Service resigned the day the Administration launched the Iraq war in March 2003.

Richard S. Lanier, Martin E. Sullivan and Gary Vikan all resigned in April of 2003 while serving on the White House Cultural Property Advisory Committee to protest the looting of the Baghdad National Museum of Antiquities.

Eric Shinseki. the Army's chief of staff told Congress that the occupation of Iraq would require "several hundred thousand troops" retired in June of 2003.

Paul Redmond, Assistant Secretary for Information Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security resigned in June, 2003 when he shared at a congressional hearing that his department didn't have enough analysts to do the job and his office still lacked the secure communications capability to received classified reports from the intelligence community.

Karen Kwiatkowski, a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force who served in the Department of Defense's Near East and South Asia Bureau resigned in July of 2003 over post-Iraq war decisions.

Charles "Jack" Pritchard who served as the senior expert of North Korea resigned over the Administration's refusal to engage directly with the country in August of 2003.

Bruce Boler, an Environmental Protection Agency scientist resigned in October of 2003 because he refused to support the position that wetlands are a pollution source.

Jack Spadaro, a geodesic engineer on a team to investigate toxic wastes from mountaintop strip mining in Kentucky was harassed for years to sign off on a report and resigned in October of 2003.

Bruce Buckheit, Director of EPA's Air Enforcement Division resigned in November of 2003 over the Bush Administrations decision to put the economic interests of coal-fired power plants ahead of the public interest of reducing air pollution.

John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States, was pushed to resign by the White House allow no reason was told to him. He resigned in December of 2003.

Colonel Douglas Macgregor retired from the Army in June of 2004 because he felt that now dissent was equated with disloyalty and so no arguments were allowed.

Teresa Chambers, a U.S. Park Police Officer spoke with reporters about budget problems in her organizations and was fired in July 2004.

Andrew Eller, a researcher with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was fired in November of 2004 when his research didn't support an airport project in the Florida panther's habitat.

Rich Biondi, Associate Director of the Air Enforcement Division of the Environment Protection Agency retired in December of 2004 due to the Bush administration interference in allowing his agency to act.

Joanne Wilson, the Commissioner of the Department of Education's Rehanilitation Services administration quit in February of 2005 in protest of the attempts to dismantle programs and cut funding for programs that helped the disabled find employment. In February the administration announced it would close all RSA regional offices and cut personnel in half.

Susan Wood, the Food and Drug Administration's assistant commissioner for women's health and Director of the Office of Women's Health resigned in August of 2005 in protest of the FDA's decision to delay again a ruling on whether the morning-after pill should be made more easily accessible despite a 23-4 vote to do so.

Frank Davidoff, the editor emeritus of the journal Annals of Internal Medicine and an internal medicine specialist of the FDA's Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee resigned a few days later in September of 2005 over the same issue as Wood.

These people are promenient, but they seem like they are just the tip of the iceberg to me. The poor Environmental Protection Agency has lost a large number of people. No wonder the Bush Administration is able to claim the pollution is not related to global warming. Most of the people have left and just cronies remain. This Bush Administration is truly frightening. And with all these people resigning they don't even appear on any unemployment statistic. I wonder if there is any statistic for the number of people hired by the federal government since Bush took office. I wonder if almost half the people are new hires? I wonder if I could find that out somehow?

I didn't realize how lucky I was not to be a federal employee at this time.

The article asks that if you know someone who is a "fallen legion" to send the information to fallenlegionall@yahoo.com

I've decided to try to post more regularly to this blog. I've saved a series of Wall Street Journal articles (its the only paper I get) to give me food for thought. This one on John Roberts was from August 8th, 2005, pA4.

A friend the other day, a fan of Bush's, was saying that I should be happy with the choice of John Roberts for the Supreme Court. When I said I had concerns, she couldn't believe it. When I explained that he had very few rulings and there was two I knew of that had me very concern. First I said it that he was one of the three judges that sided with the Bush Administration that prisoners at Guantanamo should not be given rights such as those under the Geneva Convention. She thought prinsoners should not have rights. I didn't get it. Her own son is in prison, for something I believe he did not do. Here are men in Guantanamo with even less rights. Not able to speak to a lawyer or your family for over three years now. Abuse is rampant under this administration because the soldiers have few guidelines. Men in Guantanamo and in Iraq have died in the prisons due to the torture by Americans. How can Christian people say that prisoners have no rights? Where is the Christian love? Bush and Christ are not the same. He should be known by his actions. Would Jesus have started a war? No! Would Jesus have tortured men! Jesus preached love and forgiveness. Where are these people coming from?

Then I brought up John Roberts ruling on the child with the french fries who was held in a jail. She said that was a lie. Well, I had read that it wasn't a lie and a little girl was handcuffed and hauled away because she was eating a french fry and the Metro said no eating was allowed. Now adults, were only cited, and were able to pay a fine at a later date, but this child had her shoelaces removed, was handcuffed, and locked in a cell. And Judge Roberts felt this was fair and the police had done nothing wrong. This is what law.com said about it.

"In the unanimous ruling last October in Hedgepeth v. WMATA, Roberts upheld the arrest, handcuffing and detention of a 12-year-old girl for eating a single french fry inside a D.C. Metrorail station. "No one is very happy about the events that led to this litigation," Roberts acknowledged in the decision, but he ruled that nothing the police did violated the girl's Fourth Amendment or Fifth Amendment rights."

Now what kind of ruling is that.

It sorta goes in line with a case he help prepare in 1992 that said if a defendant had a fair trial, even if new evidence came up that suggested his innocents, that if he was sentenced to be executed, then he should be executed regardless of this new evidence. Does this man have a heart? Is this what Jesus would have ruled? I doubt it. This Texas man was executed four months later

In 1992 Judge Roberts also argued (although he did not win this case) that police had the right to make false promises to prisoners in exchange for a confession. So basically he is saying that we should make a law saying that Americans have the right to lie to one another.

In 1991 he argued before the Supreme Court that the federal government should bar doctors from receiving money for abortion counseling. So here are women who feel they are in a desparate situation and counseling is barred from them because of John Roberts.

Why does the religious right like people such as Roberts and Bush. I see no love in either of them. Are Christians not to follow the example of Christ?

I'm a Christian and a liberal. I'm sure that's what Jesus would be a liberal. He was in his lifetime. Jesus was always trying to help the down trodden, the lower class, not the rich and the powerful. He tried to bring love and equality for all. As for sentencing others, did he not suggest that those who are without sin should cast the first stone. What has happened to the love in Jesus's teachings? Why have many of the Christian right forgotten about love?

I just wonder how President Bush can be handing out water and ice to victims of Hurricane Frances the day after it struck in September 2004 where there was smaller damage but waits five days to visit after Hurricane Katerina. Of course his brother is governor of Florida.
And how is that three Walmart trucks with water were turned away? And how is that military helicoptors can be on the ground near Mississippi and New Orleans and people on television are literally pleading for their lives but no one thinks to order these helicoptors into the air for days?
How can a president say he is for life, and do nothing while people die?
His lack of response reminds me of the video of him listening to the "Goat went up a Hill" after he was told another plane hit the second tower. He just doesn't know how to react in a crisis. I wonder how he would rate on a leadership test? Probably not very well, in my opinion.

I watched the movie, JFK, directed by Oliver Stone tonight. I had previously seen a documentary saying that there had to be more than 3 bullets, and more than one position of the shooters. It hinted of a conspiracy. I thought Stone did a brilliant job of convincing me that the Warren Report was false, and pointing out all the carelessness of the president's visit and aftermath. I now believe thåt there was a conspiracy against the president, and peace lovers in general. Having lived in the East Falls section of Philadelphia, about a mile from Senator Arlene Spector's house, I was shocked to learn that he was the prosecutor at the time for the Warren Commission. That he participated in this cover up. This certainly lowers my estimation of the man.

What I kept thinking about while watching the movie is how the Bush Administration reminds me so much of these man who killed Kennedy. The movie implied that war was essential for keeping power and feeding money to illicit purposes. The amount of money that has been lost during the war is out- ragerous. Billions upon billions have been lost by Halliburton - and the connection to this administration is obvious there - and the company admits it can not account for this. Yet the government continues to award contracts to Halliburton, often without other outside bids. Just recently a new Guantanamo Prison has been awarded. I can't remember the exact amount the company received but I believe it may be about half a billion dollars. I know that is not something I want.

Another feature pointed out in the film was the need for secrecy by these high officials, so that even a district attoney could not obtain the documents. This administration is doing the same in classifying documents as top secret even when they reveal little. I read an article about this in the Wall Street Journal last year and an example they gave was how an announcement for an office party was labled as secret information. The also mentioned how documents they were used to requesting under the Freedom of Information Act where now being denied as being essential for the nations security. Now we have the Patriot Act which I feel allows the governement too much control. And now I feel more worried about treason and conspiracies than I do about terrorists. I really do believe I will receive more harm from my own government than I will from terrorists.

Why is it that Republicans have ceased being free-thinkers any more? I've long suspected that this administration must be very good at collecting dirt on others. This element was also depicted in the film where the former priest confussed to taking part in the conspiracy because they are incriminating evidence against him. Why else would Republicans become so robot like. Republican senators were saying that Bolton was the poster child of who should not be a diplomat and yet would also vote for his nomintation. Now does that make any sense. When Bill Frist said he was for stem cell research, then immediately people withdrew speaking engagements and money. Whatever happened for politicians that were not for sale? This is the higher ground I would like to see for our country. Honesty and courage. If we really promoted those two elements in society than the world would be a better place. If only the human race had the inability to lie. What we need is a president who doesn't lie. George Bush has demonstated, time and time again, that he is very good at lying. I knew there was no weapons in Iraq because generals at the Pentagon, and people in the intelligience community were say this - yes even before we invaded Iraq. The President kept linking Hussain to 9/11. Hussain doesn't even like Osama Bin Laden and had no connection to 9/11 . The administration did such a good job of snow-balling the nation that I was talking with a Republican last week who still said we had to invade Iraq to protect ourselves from terrorists. The 9/11 Comminisstion can investigate and say there is no link, journalists can say it, Michael Moore can say it, but people still believe this president even though he has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. The President lied about his National Guard service and then smeared the journalist who reported it as well as the other candidate who actually went to war and served his country admirably. And there are still those who believe that Bush served his country better than Kerry did even though you can find military men and women who say Bush often did not report for duty and Vietnamese who say they say Kerry fighting in Vietnam. I'll have to check and see if someone wrote a book on the Lies of George W. Bush because I am certain with only a slight amount of investigation one could find enough to write a book about. And this is the man who half the country believes is so righteous. Let's start first with the truth.

Sorry about the spelling mistakes but when I write on a Mac I don't check to use the spell check option and I'm now too tired to double check my spelling.

I was reading about the new Supreme Court nominee in the Wall Street Journal on Thursday and now I am a little worried. When I first heard of him as a choice everyone was saying he had such a great resume so I wasn't so concerned. I figured he was against abortion and so that bothered me because I totally disagree with someone who says I don't have a right to determine what I should do with my body, I can however respect their decision. Nevertheless, I can not respect someone who was part of a three judge panel that agreed with the Bush Administration (in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, 2005) that they should be able to try suspected terrorists before military commissions without comstitutional protections. Now this is a man who terrifies me. Taking rights away from people is his choice. Roberts doesn't appear to be for human dignity, or believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. Even the Constitution in the Sixth Admendment assures people should have the right to confort their accursors. Sixth Amendment: “In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to be confronted with the witnesses against him.” These detainees have few rights. The majority have been released, after years of imprisonment without being charged of anything. They are not allowed to speak with a lawyer, and can not even speak with their families. Most are innocent, but they have been robbed of years of their lives and their families have to survive without their help or love. The children do not have fathers during this time, nor the wives, husband, nor the parents their child. And this is what Judge Roberts believes in. Remember, most of these prisoners are innocent, I feel someday it could be either me or you in prison, Pulled off the streets and held for years without communication with one's loved ones, nor any rights of due process. Is this the type of America I want! What happened to the love of this world.

The statistics have shown less than less than 5 percent of the people who the administration placed in Guatanamo have any evidence to hold them. The Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday, July 18th listed that so far 12 people have

Just read an article Tuesdays (7/19/05) "Wall Street Journal" by Carol Hymowitz, called "To Rein in CEOs' Pay, Why Not Consider Outsourcing the Post?" I think it's a great idea because already I am upset between the average worker and the disparity between them and the money the head of the company is getting. I'm in a government job so it's not true for me (the chancellor may make five times what I do but that seems very acceptable to me), but I hate reading the CEOs salaries. In the past the average head of the company made 42 times the average worker. Now however it is about 100 times more than that and it just doesn't seem fair to me. I think the down fall of a society starts with something like this. Placing so much money and power in a small handful of individuals while the rest of us are losing our standard of living doesn't seem right even if I was the one with the money.

Hymowitz compares the salaries of American CEOs, who make on average 2.3 million (including cash bonuses) in 2004 to those of CEOs in other nations. United Kingdom - 1.2 million; France - $857,000; Sweden - $386,000; Japan - $317, 864; Hong Kong - $302, 078; Sinapore - $263,301; and India - $88,117. She goes on to say how rarely in America is compensation linked to performance. Even if they fail and are dismissed, American CEOs are given more money. She points to Morgan Stanley where CEO Phil Purcell received a severance and retirement package of 106 million dollars, including a new $44 million cash bonus for leaving. Co-President Steve Crawford walked away with an estimated $32 million in severance after 3 1/2 months on the job. Carly Fiorina left Hewlett-Packard this year with a severance of $14 million plus a $7 million bonus and $23.5 million in stock and pension payouts. Mark Hurd, her successor, will receive a base salary of $1.4 million and a $2 million signing bonus plus future performance incentives that could be as much as $12.6 million, most of which are guaranteed even if he fails. Last year CEOs salaries rose 14.5%, while paychecks for nonunioned workers rose 3.4%. Mine, as a government worker, has actually decreased because in four years I have not received a raise and now pay part of my health insurance. The Wisconsin legislation wants about another $1000 decrease in my salary this year to pay for more of health benefits. I seem to be operating at a negative, if that is possible, even though my performance ratings are always outstanding.

The article goes on to state that in 1960, CEOs earned about twice as much as the president of the United States. Today they earn an average of 62 times as much as the President. Hire one CEO from India and it will automatically save millions for the company. With that you could probably hire back many of the workers that are outsourced. You could retain at least two dozen workers at $40,000 for every million saved.

Let's keep America great by pushing all workers forward, not just the top 1 percent. And maybe after 100 jobs are outsourced in a company, the 101st should be the CEOs. I like to think that workers, or what I refer to as humans, matter as much as a company's excessive profits to CEOs and stockholders, all of whom can survive on less.