Alien and Sedition and the FBI

From the Washington Post September 13, 2008:

"Under the new plan, agents pursuing national security leads could employ physical surveillance, deploy informants and engage in "pretext" interviews with their identities hidden to assess the danger posed by a subject. Such threat assessments could be initiated even without a particular fact or concrete lead that a person had engaged in wrongdoing."

Compare the above to:

The Alien Friends Act (officially An Act Concerning Aliens) authorized the president to deport any resident alien considered "dangerous to the peace and safety of the United States."
The Sedition Act (officially An Act for the Punishment of Certain Crimes against the United States) made it a crime to publish "false, scandalous, and malicious writing" against the government or its officials.

The above are #2 & #4 of the 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts. These were aimed at French immigrants living in the United States. The Acts were deemed so repulsive by many Americans that they probably resulted in the election of Thomas Jefferson as president in 1800. He had been in opposition to the Acts based on the Bill of Rights.

Think about this in today's terms and it is not far fetched to see parallels in our attempt to sanction foreign nations deemed enemies of "Democracy" and spy on alleged terrorists merely because their neighbor calls the FBI.

Deja vu all over again.

PS The third Alien and Sedition Act, passed in 1798, is still in effect:

The Alien Enemies Act (officially An Act Respecting Alien Enemies) authorized the president to apprehend and deport resident aliens if their home countries were at war with the United States.

The truth shall set US free

There's the old saying, "How do you know when a politician is lying? His (or her) lips are moving!"

This seems to be more and more true as we get closer to the November election.

Why can't these people just stand up and say, "Here is my plan." It always comes back to, "Here is my plan. The other guy is an idiot, and a liar." Personally I think in this election the idiot and liar part is probably true, but to paraphrase Isaac Newton, "for every lie there is an equal and opposite lie." And who really believes anything these people say. Just take a look at the 2006 election that the Democrats claimed would be 100 days of radical change. Oh yes, been there. And Bush claiming in 2000 that he was against "nation building." Oh yes, been there.

So I don't really care that much that one says a "pig with lipstick (which the other candidate has also said and which he conveniently forgets)" and the other goes on about the "bridge to nowhere." That's all history and these are the two candidates we are stuck with.

Now what they need to tell us is not how awful the other guy is, but what they will do for all Americans. Not this, "Change" deal that they spout, but a real honest to goodness plan. Like saving the housing market, stop the leaking US dollar, reduce the horrific deficit, get us out of foreign conflicts, and on and on. But will we believe anything they say when they base their candidacy on bad mouthing the opposition and distorting their own political record and just outright "falseifitoods?"

9/11

To honor those who died on 9/11 seven years ago I will observe a moment of silence...

Now that it's over, how is it that Osama bin Laden is still on the run? I mean Sadam Hussain was found hiding underground in the forsaken desert but we can't find this guy who needs kidney dialysis and is reported to be taller than the average palm tree. But he can't be found.

Just asking.

Palin vs. Persia

There's a pretty weird story floating around, again, about Sarah Palin. Here it goes:

Mrs. Palin asked her pastor for some guidance after she was elected governor of Alaska. She needed a good biblical role model. Her meshugener pastor, and this comes supposedly directly from him, suggested Esther (Hebrew name Hadassah). Esther was, of course, Queen of the Jews. And like Sarah Palin she too was a beauty queen, though unlike Sarah she finished first in her contest. As you may know, Esther is credited with persuading the Persian king to save the Jews from annihilation. The Jewish people celebrate Purim in her honor.

Ancient Persia is today called...IRAN! Oy vey.

Esther is also considered by Jewish scholars to be one of the most beautiful women EVER! Even more beautiful than Joan Rivers or Sophie Tucker! A real looker you should know. And such a nice girl, and smart, too. Kept Kosher. Great personality. A shayna ponem.

I suppose some folks will see this as the coming of a Queen to save the Israelites from the Persian Iranians. I hope you don't take this too seriously Mrs. Palin, should you indeed become VP. You know, because the Jews wound up slaughtering the Persians. I mean like 75,000-0. But thank you for noting the beauty and majesty of the Story of Esther.

And what's with the moose? Esther probably never saw a moose. Or snow. Or nosh a nice bisele ham sandwich for lunch.

Thinking Without Speaking

I was listening this morning to one of the many "jazz" groups that I regularly pay a visit to. I would not label it jazz in the classic sense, i.e. front line and rhythm section. This is AMM, a rather unclassifiable group. In one form or another they have been around since the mid sixties. The group currently is down to only two members: pianist John Tilbury and percussionist Eddie Prevost. Guitarist Keith Rowe left the band a couple of years ago for some political or personal reasons. He was a founding member, and to me is sorely missed.

Enough of that. What came to mind while listening was the nature of sound. You see, AMM is not like any other music you have ever heard. When we listen to music there is an expectation of certain devices at work: organization, method, rhythm, melody, harmony, something to follow. None of that exists with AMM. It is at times pure sound, beginning nowhere and ending nowhere. In recent years their sound has mellowed, to me become more "Feldmanesque" in its near preciousness. The now absent Rowe added an edge that is gone. But listening this morning had me thinking "what is music?" AMM music is a challenge to the listener. It is not easy. But I think my interest in AMM is the challenge. You have to listen, really listen. Not talk or maybe even not think. But most of all not talk. Clear the mind.

Now this brings me to a book my little daughter Anna read for school. The name of the book is No Talking. To summarize, a fifth grader named Dave reads a few words about how Mahatma Gandhi did not speak one day each week. Why? To clear his mind. So Dave challenges the female fifth graders to a contest where they would not speak for two days. This is very upsetting to the teachers at the school who cannot deal with this sudden silence. And most of all it upsets the principal who feels it usurps her power. But clearly the teachers are unable to think outside the box. They cannot clear their minds, or think in non-traditional ways. But Dave, through the power of thinking without speaking saves the day. Adults could learn a thing or two from this book. My hat is off to the author.

AMM thinks of music in non-traditional ways. They challenge you to go along with them.

You can find more information about them here: http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/
No Talking is by Andrew Clements

Apologies Mrs Palin

Seems as though the blog I wrote below may not be accurate. The books listed have not been verified as those Mrs. Palin wanted banned, nor is there any proof that she had a list at all. The list is one that has circulated on the internet, but in fact contains books (Harry Potter) printed after the alleged book banning proposal. So until there is some solid proof, other than the word of the librarian she allegedly asked about book banning, then I must recant.

So, Mrs Palin, I do apologize and if you are ever in Sebastian be sure to stop by and have some delicious Chinese food!

Oh, and I have some books on Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and a couple by Al Gore that you might like to read, since they were all VPs.

BTW, I could easily have deleted the blog, but hey, when you are wrong it's healthy and liberating to admit it. I feel much better now!

Palin's Banned Books

Here is a list of books that Sarah Palin tried to have banned from the Wasilla library. This is not a rumor. It has been verified by Time magazine. I'm sure that many of you have read quite a few of these books, as I have. Shakespeare? Twain? Steinbeck? Huxley?

There was a very long list of books here which I have now removed. I did not do so when I first discovered that the list was not directly attributed to Mrs. Palin. In fairness, now that I have had time to research this a bit, I have indeed removed the book titles. Please don't think of this as censorship. All I have done is censored my own poorly researched material. I did not want to delete the entire blog because I felt that some people may have read the previous version and thought it was accurate, only to come back and find it was gone and wondered why.