pantoum's Diaryland Diary

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LET THE DNA CHIPS FALL WHERE THEY MAY

284.

It�s 12:02 AM and I�m in my home office backing up some of my thousands of iTunes files in anticipation of upgrading to the new Creative Suite tomorrow. (New toys. Yippee!) I rarely use my unorganized home office so it�s weird to be in here�weird to live in a house with two bedrooms I rarely use, actually. And it seems so wasteful ... so grossly American.

I packed this room really carefully and labeled every box after I made an offer on the house, but then the Ginger and I ended our ten-year relationship between my offer and closing and I had to unpack and then repack our three-bedroom house.

I hastily separated and repacked stuff in a haphazard fashion in oh about ten days, during which time I was frantically trying to come up with double the money I thought I�d have to spend at closing while operating in a state of numb dumb bewildered and pissed-off shock.

Then I moved into what I thought would be a piece of rental property as scheduled, but the contents of my boxes were no longer organized and this room still isn�t organized (and, to tell the truth, I close the door and ignore it because I mostly use my laptop for everything now anyway.

So. Lots in the news to ponder these days. A Virginia coroner�s preserved blood samples were subjected to modern DNA tests, exonerating five inmates who spent a total of ninety years in prison on rape convictions. Gov. Warner has since ordered that the coroner�s other samples be tested and has vowed to �let the DNA chips fall where they may.�

Meanwhile, at a time when it�s well nigh impossible to avoid suggestions of Republican corruption, King Bush the Latter has announced his nominees for the Federal Election Commission and his choices �would keep the policing of campaign abuses firmly in the hands of party wheel horses,� according to the New York Times. Shrub waited till the Senate recessed to make his announcement in the hopes of avoiding confirmation hearings, which certainly makes me believe that there�s nothing, nothing at all, to worry about. Even though one of his nominees �is reported to have been involved in the maneuvering to overrule the career specialists� at the Justice Department who �warned that the Texas gerrymandering orchestrated by Rep. Tom DeLay violated minority voting rights� and in �such voting rights abuses as the purging of voter rolls in Florida in the 2000 elections.�

It appears that big money has even taken over our voting rights now. (And let�s don�t even talk about Shrub�s connections to the company that makes the popular [untraceable] electronic voting equipment.)

And I suppose I could have entitled this entry �Let the Republican Chips Fall Where They May,� since Ralph Reed (ha ha ha snort snort it�s about damn time) and Tom DeLay (who will be found guilty of money-laundering and conspiracy yet) and Dennis Hastert and Sonny Bono�s widowed wife turned representative and Trent Lott and numerous other Republicans who accepted $4.4 million in funneled corporate funds plus lavish gifts from super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff have been squirming in their tighty-whiteys ever since Abramoff agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the burgeoning corruption and bribery investigation of Washington lawmakers. According to the Times, the soon-to-be-falling Republican chips could make Abscam and the Keating 5 look like small potatoes.

So let�s see, there�s CIA leaks and NSA wiretapping. And Michael Scanlon, former aid to Tom DeLay pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe officials and is cooperating with prosecutors. Abramoff, who scammed $80 million from Indian tribes, is cooperating with prosecutors too. Follow the bouncing Abramoff ball to David H. Safavian (indicted former head of the White House procurement office), Karl Rove (Abramoff�s personal assistant used to work for him), Tyco executives ($2 million funneled to Grassroots Interactive), Ralph Reed (purported to have received laundered tribal money from him), Tom DeLay (�Abramoff is one of my closest and dearest friends�), and Rep. Ney (R-OH)( who went to Scotland on a golf trip that he provided). And that�s just what we know right now.

For people who aren�t paying attention let me reiterate that these are the fucking lawmakers of our country! Say that out loud fast: law makers breaking laws no ethics none. This certainly explains the Democrats' strategy of fighting the Republican culture of corruption in the next election, eh? (And who knew that Ralph Reed is a candidate for lieutenant governor in GA? Is this a step to higher office � la Pat Robertson? Reed is, after all, the strategist who came up with the idea of placing stealth Christianist candidates in public office. And gosh, don�t those untaxed Christian Coalition purse strings keep getting looped around every goddamn thing?)

Meanwhile, Free Press has moved up the release date of James Risen�s State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration to Today, since the AP already exposed Risen�s major revelation (secret eavesdropping on US citizens). The book also outlines how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer has weapons of mass destruction though. In fact, Time magazine says "State of War provides an account of the origins and scope of the wiretap program that basically repeats the revelations contained in Risen and Lichtblau's stories in the Times. But the book also argues that the NSA's eavesdropping policy shows the extent to which the war on terrorism has spurred the intelligence community to flout legal conventions at home and abroad. Risen's chief target is the CIA, where, he argues, institutional dysfunction and feckless leadership after 9/11 led to intelligence breakdowns that continue to haunt the U.S. Though much of State of War covers ground that is broadly familiar, the book is punctuated with a wealth of previously unreported tidbits about covert meetings, aborted CIA operations and Oval Office outbursts."

I am losing faith. Not that I had much to begin with. When exactly will the impeachment procedures begin?

4:03 p.m. - 2006-01-04

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