Notepad Provisionally Endorses Bill Richardson

I'm proud to announce, everyone, that, with you, the readers', collective consent, that Notepad is provisionally endorsing New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson for President of the United States.

More on this Friday, for another of our '08 Election Spotlights, on Bill Richardson.

With this, join the Notepad team for Notepad presents: The Debates, as we watch the Democratic Debates on CNN, including Gov. Richardson. Come to The Pecoraro Household on June 3rd at 6:47 PM for some rousing debate, discussion, and the modern American media inaction.

On Executive Orders

A belated Happy Memorial Day to the dead both here and abroad fighting for our country's freedoms, and the living while praying they all come home alive and safe.

Also, I'd like to apologize for not posting for five days.

I was online yesterday, when I read about an interesting Executive Order on Countdown w/Keith Olbermann's blog. Known with the exceedingly long title of, National Security Presidential Directive 51, it is, what I like to call the "Buzz Windrip" theory.

If anyone has read Sinclair Lewis' It Can't Happen Here, you understand what I mean. If not, here's the gist on this unlawful and unconstitutional Executive Decision:

• This President can, in the instance of "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions,"
• Make himself the leader of all three branches of government,
• while making the judicial and legislative branches advisory positions.
• Finally, the President has the jurisdiction as to what is considered an incident in those bounds, be it a bad day on Wall St., at OPEC, and even an election in which a Democrat will win(like, say, the '08 presidential election).

In summary, the President is destroying the concept of the Constitution, which was written to prevent a king to be crowned after declaring and winning its independence; the Magna Carta, which lessened the powers of an incompetent leader; the Warsaw Pact, which formed NATO, which tried to ally themselves against the Soviet Union empire, and even more documents. Apparently, Mr. Bush has taken all too seriously his sardonic nickname, "King George the W."

Of course, when you try to look for it on the link provided, you get a 404 error on the White House website; probably because the White House purposely corrupted it. In other words, they don't want anyone to know about this.

Mr. Bush is trying to pull the wool over our eyes, playing pretend that he is Mussolini, creating his own little fascist government in a country known as the "land of the free." Mr. Bush is trying to use the mathematical proposition of the Reflexive Postulate, that the President=the President=the President when it comes to balance of power. And he is mistaken in its use; it is used in math, not in politics. He is not the decider, he is not a king. But he will succeed, because he is already doing what he wants in the executive order-by being able to create this executive order.

Gonzo-Gate --And Commentary on the Iraq War Supplemental Bill

I will respond-hastily and angrily-on the subject of the recent passing of the Iraq War Supplemental Spending Bill momentarily, but first, our scheduled commentary on the subject of the U.S. Attorney Debacle.

It is good timing on the part of the one-man Notepad Team that we speak of Gonzo-gate, a day after a evangelical law school graduate at which less than half of the graduating class passed the bar on their first try, a woman who had never taken on a court case of any kind, admitted under oath that she was given the authority to fire 8 U.S. attorneys based on political bias, gracing every major newspaper in the nation saying she "crossed the line."

First of all, who in the world gave Monica Goodling this power to hire any personnel? For a woman who had never even gotten her feet wet in the federal court system, she had the power to fire any District Attorney, not just the 8 fired, or the 26 which were planned to be fired, but all District Attorneys, because of the PATRIOT Act. Also, being a White House liaison, the Justice Department is definitely at fault; how could they allow someone to have that power when it should be in the hands of, in my opinion, the Judiciary Committee? This is ludicrous.

As for the reasons why, this scares me more. This was done to take out attorneys with cases against Republicans and replacing them with-who else?-Bush cronies. In other words, because of the wonderful PATRIOT Act, they could have taken out Patrick Fitzgerald, the Special Prosecutor on the U.S. v. Scooter Libby trial, who some attorneys say is on the rise, and replaced him-indefinitely-with Rush Limbaugh!

Now my opinion on the Iraq Spending Bill. This is total cowardice by the Democratic Party. A compromise, says Mr. Reid of Nevada? A compromise, says Madam Pelosi of California? A compromise, say Mr. Hoyer of Maryland? No, this is not a compromise, this is rolling down and dying by the Democratic Party! Do they know they won both houses last November? Do they know that they won both houses because the American people, en masse, were sick of what was being done in Iraq? And what about Sen. Biden of Delaware, who has seen young men and women, in body bags, come into Dover Air Force Base? Why did he vote yes? And John Murtha? Doesn't he want to help the troops by getting them the hell out of there? And he actually has a spine?

The Democratic Party needs a spine transplant. And quick. Because they can be gone quite quickly.

On the Iraq War

"I remember a sign from the Old West, that said: "Wanted...Dead or Alive."

-President George Walker Bush, on Osama bin Laden

"I don't know where he is. I just...haven't spent that much time on it."

-President George Walker Bush, on Osama bin Laden

The Iraq War should have never happened: we should have stayed in Afghanistan, hunting down our true enemy, Osama bin Laden, to the death; we should have sealed the mountains of Tora Bora; we shouldn't have left what we started to begin with; we should have actually defended our country against an imminent threat.

I've read the papers, I've read the documents, I've read the Iraq Study Group report, I've done my research: this War wasn't necessary. Neither war was necessary; this President could have read the Presidential Daily Briefing that said "al-Qaida Planning to Attack Major American Landmarks" instead of My Pet Goat.

I saw the Twin Towers fall, as did my father and the rest of my family. My uncle worked at the WTC; he survived, while a few of his co-workers in that North Tower Blue Cross/Blue Shield office didn't. And we fought a meaningless war, a preemptive strike, against the country of Iraq.

It all began with a little conspiracy circle known as the Project For a New American Century(PNAC), filled with Republican wackjobs such as Vice President Cheney, newly resigned World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle, and others. Their mission: to create a colonizing America, especially in the oil-laden parts of Afro-Eurasia. It just couldn't have been done without a "Pearl Harbor-like incident." Cue 9/11. That's why this is happening.

There are a few people to blame. One is Congress, for not coming to a compromise, especially after seeing young men and women come home in body bags, without prosthetics, without some brain functions, and with post-partum depression syndrome. The other is the President and his kitchen Cabinet, for insulating the President from reality as a whole, not able to see the men and women going through this time, not meeting the silver- and gold-star mothers and fathers, and not even making appearances at sites and 'think tanks,' that disagree with him. He won't even speak at the Cato Institute, which is libertarian. To think, this president is more right-wing than a libertarian.

Here's what we can do about this crisis in Iraq:

• Open up the bidding for contracting jobs in Iraq, especially to European businesses. I believe that European businesses getting into Iraq will curry favor with Europe and score points diplomatically, which can bode well in the greater fight against terror.
• Focus brigades and battalions on certain areas. Right now, troops are doing this: clearing out a city of any terrorist threats, then leaving, all for it to sprout up again. When brigades and battalions are centered in certain areas, then order can be restored on a local level, which can lead to restoration of order on the national level.
• Rewrite the Iraqi constitution, to make it democratic, and not the fascist-supporting government it is after the interim American government got to it.
• Help out the Iraqis, for once: restore a full 24-hours of electricity, water, &c; if you were going to "liberate" the Iraqis, you have to make it a better situation.
• Finally, set up timetables to leave Iraq. We can't stay forever. We mustn't stay forever. Thus, we have to set timetables for the Iraqi government so that they can finally take control of this mess.
• Redeploy troops to Afghanistan, and finish what we started.

There you go: strong, constructive ideas for what to do in Iraq. Now, where's my post as Defense Secretary?...wait, it's already been taken by Dr. Gates?...Oh well, I'm still better than Rumsfeld.

Here's a link on PNAC: http://newamericancentury.org. It's crazy, loony stuff.

Wednesday I'm off, mainly because I need a day off. Thursday: I'll be talking about Gonzo-Gate.

New Book-Al Gore's "The Assault on Reason"

Here's something I forgot to tell all of you: President Al Gore's new book is out.(Yes, I said President Gore.) The title is The Assault on Reason, and is on the threat to democracy that is the current political system. I've read an excerpt in the latest issue of TIME; it's marvelous, it's eloquent, it's what Al Gore would write about the current time.

It's $15.57 on Amazon and $18.16($16.34 for members) at Barnes and Noble; I think that's worth it. If it's not worth it, borrow it from your local library. Or a friend. Or a coworker.

Read the book. Before Al Gore unrightfully falls into obscurity and political purgatory.

Election 2008 Spotlight-Chrisopher Dodd

Well, you asked for it. (Right after I gave it to you.) Here's the facts about Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd:

• Contrary to popular belief, Dodd is not the Junior Senator from Connecticut; while Joe Lieberman was first elected in 1989, Dodd was elected in 1981.
• Dodd is a classic modern-day liberal: he is for gun control, has called for an end to the Iraq War, and has called for environmental and healthcare reform.
• He has called, along with a handful of his Democratic colleagues, to restore the Constitution and the right to habeas corpus.
• He is against same-sex marraige and for NAFTA and CAFTA; this is one of the ways in which Dodd diverges from this.

On Tuesday: I opine on the War in Iraq.

On the Constitution & its Shrinking Civil Liberties

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

-Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

I’ll be blunt: no intro, no opening joke; our Bill of Rights is on the line and in the hands of a destructive Justice Department. With the introduction and twice reintroduction of the PATRIOT Act, the usage of warrantless wiretaps-even though the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act has courts was created to allow for clandestine warranted wiretaps-the suspension of Habeas Corpus, and the lack of countermanding between the DOJ and the Executive Branch, the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being attacked-blatantly and without precedent.

The first attack on our civil liberties was not 9/11, an act of destruction, but the aftermath; the formulation of the USA PATRIOT Act, an act asked for by President Bush to assert his ‘wartime powers’ was the act of terror-or at the very least the countermand to terror. But, while 'protecting' us from 'outside threats,' it has spawned another scandal; the firing of 8 DOJ prosecutors, which would be at least 26 and possibly all prosecutors, and hiring Bush cronies and right-wing loose constructionists would not be possible without the 98-2 vote on the USA PATRIOT Act(Bob Menendez[D-NJ] and Russ Feingold[D-WI] were the only Senators not to vote yea). Also, people who are considered imminent threats cannot get trials; they get 'military tribunals,' in which they are not entitled to a lawyer, not entitled to take the Fifth Amendment, nothing.

And then there was our second Civil Liberties Scandal, in which the President and the DOJ approved the illegal wiretaps of phones of millions, many of them American citizens who were not imminent threats. But, although there is a right to privacy in the Bill of Rights, as it is not fully shown to have a written right to privacy; thus, they went right ahead. Even though the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Surveillance Act is in place. Even though the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court has accepted all but four of all warrant applications-a rubber stamp!

Finally, there's the biggest breach of civil liberties of all-the suspension of the right to habeas corpus. Now, all people-citizens or not-cannot receive the reason they are being detained; they are not told the date of a trial; they do not know if there will be a trial to take place.

And then, people ask: who is allowing this to take place? The Bush Cronies in the Department of Justice, that's who. There is supposed to be an act of countermandance, an act of censure, when the Executive Branch steps too far in their duty to carry out law. But this DOJ doesn't do that; they don't uphold the law, they destroy it? Who allowed warrantless wiretaps: Alberto Gonzales and his DOJ didn't just allow it, he supported it and asked for it, too. Who allowed for the PATRIOT Act: John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales did.

And the Senate Judiciary Committee-And the Senate themselves? Where were they when our civil liberties were at risk?! Do they care about our freedom? It's exactly as the great Framer, Ben Franklin, said. But they gave up our safety in the process, putting our country in danger; not from Islamic extremists, but our own Executive Branch.

Monday, we go to the Election 2008 Spotlight on Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd. And remember, join us on June 7th for our preview show of Notepad.

"Good Night, and Good Luck."

-Edward R. Murrow, See It Now

On Education

Today, my little, elementary-school brother had his "state fair" at his school today; each student had to pick a state and do a poster board on it, along with bring in food, design a sculpture, and do other tasks. And the question arose: why aren't they doing this all the time?

In the Bushworld society we live in, we can foresee three things: death, taxes, and poor education reform. Due to No Child Left Behind, the public education system is deteriorating. Just as the Bush administration wants it to. Here's what's happening:

• Due to change in funding set-up, the schools who are doing well-because they have money-are getting more money, while the schools not doing well-mainly in the inner city, because they have no money-get nothing.
• Schools and states have to spend more money for the materials for standardized-tests needed to get federal funding, supporting capitalism and big business.
• High-schoolers, due to NCLB, unless an opt-out letter is signed, will be phoned, e-mailed, and snail-mailed information on recruiting, closing in on their right to privacy(it's not military recruiting that's bad; it's the way that the recruiters are doing it).

Education is quite an important issue, one issue that people focus on every year, right up there with the economy and national defense. Why isn't anyone standing up for this? Now, with high-stakes testing, principals teach to tests, creating a lack of curricula for rote memorization and learning processes in math, science and spelling. Now, with high-stakes standardized testing, arts and sciences are taken away year by year in favor of test prep upon test prep. Why can't we have both? Here's what we can do:

• Give the funding in reverse order: worse schools get the most, best schools get the least.
• Have teachers, and not corporations, create these standardized tests.
• Allocate funds from the war in Iraq, taking up almost a trillion dollars in our budget, and put it in education.
• Decrease class sizes and build more schools in the inner city; small class sizes are proven to raise grades and increase learning.
• Finally, make test-prep extracurricular, while keeping the arts and sciences in the curricula.
  

No post Friday or Sunday. Saturday: On the Constitution and its Shrinking civil liberties. On Monday: A lesson on Chris Dodd.

DC Idol!

Countdown w/Keith Olbermann, the hit news show on MSNBC, is at it again; why focus on the twenty-odd scandals affecting the Bush administration, and the crisis in Darfur, and the climate crisis, and the threat of terror, and a lack of diplomacy in our society today, when you can have a musical contest, lining up the Best of the Beltway? Yes, it's DC Idol, and it's sweeping the nation! (Well, just this Neo-Populist slanted blog with an author with too much free time on his hands.) Cast your vote on the link below for your favorite, and remember, vote on talent-be nonpartisan!

The nominees are:

• General and former Secretary of State Colin Powell, singing "YMCA"
• Congressman and two-time fringe Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich(D-OH), singing "Sixteen Tons"
• Former Attorney General and professed Anti-Semitic John Ashcroft, singing "Let the Eagles Soar"
• Bush administration political advisor and "Bush's Brain" Karl "MC" Rove
• Former President Bill Clinton singing "Imagine"

Watch the nominees and cast your vote at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18682547/

Czars, Wars and Abortion Bars?

First of all, disregard the idiot's rhyme in the title. If you enjoyed the rhyme in the title, disregard the first sentence. The title represents the faults of Karl Rove and the Bush Administration, with the 'war czar' enactment, the War in Iraq boondoggle-and Congress' plan to end any legislation by shuffling their feet, and the Republican debate, from which all laid down their abortion stances on the line.

First, the war czar scandal, if you like to call it a scandal(we all know the Bush administration has had enough of the 's word'). President Bush has asked for the past two months for a 'war czar,' or, as the exceedingly long title puts it, "Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan," who would brief the president on the sister wars and hold gravitas over the Pentagon, is quite a stupid idea. First of all, there are just too many people advising on the subject of the Wars on Terror, such as the National Security Advisor, the Joint Chiefs, and the director of CENTCOM, that a war czar isn't necessary. Second, this decision on a war czar has to go to the Senate, based on the fact that Mr. Bush has nominated 3-star Lieutenant General Douglas Lute was nominated. I'm surprised twofold: primarily that the Bush Administration actually nominated someone who is not one of the Bush cronies, and secondarily that they didn't know the Senate rules, that the Senate has to confirm any new job of a three-star or above general, which will make it, as Sen. Trent Lott said about the Iraq War Funding Bill, "Dead on arrival." Finally, there is absolutely no way of spinning this: “Even the spinning champion[White House press secretary Tony Snow]…could not spin the subject of a war czar," said MSNBC host Keith Olbermann on the subject of Tony Snow trying to approve of this at today's White House press briefing.

Secondly, there is the subject of the War in Iraq itself. With two regulations on the war being rejected in the Senate just today, three in the past two months, when will the Senate understand that people are dying there? When will the Senate understand that our young men and women, some under 20 years old, will return home with prosthetics, and some will return home with Post-partum Depression Syndrome, if not some 20-year olds and teenagers returning from Iraq and Fallujah in body bags?! When will the Senate understand that Iraq will not break into civil war if we leave; it is already in civil war. Just today, in the Green Zone, a mortar bomb exploded, killing a few while injuring dozens. This is the Green Zone-which is supposed to be safe! And yet neither the Democratic nor the Republican Parties will not come to a happy medium to solve such a macabre and morally backwards subject!

Finally, staying on the topic of morally backwards, the GOP debate was last night on the Faux News Channel. Republican candidates, along with Libertarian Candidate Rep. Ron Paul(TX), debated on several topics, including abortion. Many GOP candidates called themselves flip-flops(and what a time to be talking about summer footwear) in the debate, one of a possible six leading up to the primaries, and rightfully so; many have changed their stance on abortion, such as Mitt Romney, while others have quasi-changed it, such as former New York City mayor Rudy Guliani. This is growing worse than John Kerry's "I voted for it...before I voted against it" speech on Iraq; these are Republican candidates, and front-runner Republican candidates at that, having to change their opinion-on a Republican-spawned, Karl Rove "wedge issue!" The hilarity of this is overwhelming.

Well, there you have it. A GOP in shambles, with Presidents Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt rolling in their graves.

"Patriotism means to stand by your country. It does not mean to stand by your President."

-President Theodore Roosevelt(R-NY)

Election 2008 Spotlight: Mitt Romney

Hey, guys. So, I come home after a long day at school and at work, and I look in my mailbox, finding a (late) edition of TIME Magazine-with a large portrait of Former Gov. Mitt Romney(R-MA) on the cover. Aside from the fact that his first name is Willard, I really knew everything about him. In layman's knowledge, here's what you need to know to vote right in
Twenty-ought-eight on Mitt Romney:

• His father was a politician, running for(and winning) the gubernatorial election in Michigan, but losing his senatorial election. Mitt considers his father, George, his hero.
• His father also was a businessman, buying American Motor Company and turning it into a reputable national car company.
• Mitt is former governor in Massachussetts, in which he was strict on economic reform, while spending billions upon billions for the infamous Boston 'Big Dig' project.
• Mitt helped save the '02 Olympics in Salt Lake City from corruption and bankruptcy, making it, in my opinion, one of the best Winter Olympics ever.
• Mitt is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.(In other words, he's Mormon.[I think you know that.])
• Mitt can't decide on any Karl Rove 'wedge issue.' On abortion: he hates it, but thinks that women have a Constitutional right to choose(which he developed over time-a few months, to be exact); on gun control: he supports it but is against it(after he started his campaign, saying he was an avid hunter; he really just hunted twice for "varmints"); the list goes on. Any question why his nickname in some political circles is "Multiple-Choice Mitt?'
• He raised the most money in the first 6 months of his campaign(the 'money primary').

So, there it is. Mitt Romney, everybody. (Not a lot).

Next week, we go to the other side of the aisle, talking about Sen. Chris Dodd(D-CT).

On Energy and the Environment

First, a Happy Mother's Day to all who are reading, their mothers, their grandmothers, et cetera.

I am quite a believer in environmental reform. Being on my high school's Students for the Preservation of the Earth club, I believe we have to break away from our Hummer-using, gas-guzzling attitude and start to conserve. There are many ways in which we can do this:

• Rewrite the tax code, rewriting any loopholes(especially for businesses). Then, formulate a tax break for businesses that use at least 50% of gross income for research, development, and marketing of alternative energy sources.
• Create recycling systems and increase marketing for mini-flourescent bulbs(the 'spiral bulbs').
• Do what the Europeans do: when using nuclear power, recycle nuclear waste.
• Increase CAFE standards(gas mileage standards, not the amount of caffeine at your corner Starbucks) to 30 MPG.
• Finally, encourage American car companies to create alternative energy cars, which would decrease carbon emissions and increase jobs.

In conclusion, there are a variety of things we can do. Then, the question lies: why aren't we doing anything about the climate change problem? Why isn't the Bush administration doing anything about it? The answer is simple: The Bushes are from the highest 1%! They are, and have always been, in cahoots with the oil industry! That's the reason why gas prices are going up!

I know I sound like a liberal hack by saying it's the Bush administration's fault, but they're not the only ones to blame. The modern media has erred in not covering the climate crisis-and the gas crisis-enough, and (dare I say it, being a union supporter) it is the UAW's fault as well, being that they have stood strong for years that they do not want to raise CAFE standards.

There are a lot of people to blame, but we have no time to blame. All that we can do is reform and change.

Send to the Notepad

Anyone who's interested in the show(coming June 11)-please send your e-mails to mailbag.notepad@gmail.com. I'll read off and answer the e-mails on each week's Friday "Town Hall" show.

Daniel

What I Believe

I consider myself neither a Democrat, nor a Republican, nor an Independent. I consider myself a Neo-Populist. If you're new to politics and political history, The Populist Party was a third party at the turn of the 21st Century, that believed in unions, increased minting of silver, and labor regulations.

We need to return to this era, to fight not for the fascists, but for the people, for whom the Framers built this country upon, by, of, and for. Obviously, the Free Silver Party isn't making a comeback, but what about reform in education, voting rights, the economy, and national defense?

Why must we follow the 24-hour 'newstainment' cycle, laden with entertainment news and 'wedge issues' such as abortion and homosexual marriage and rights? We don't have to follow it; we can-no, we must-change it.

Daniel

P.S. For more info on the Populist Party, please read former Senator-and Presidential candidate-Mike Gravel(D-AK)'s book, Citizen Power.

Welcome to Notepad

Welcome to the Notepad blog, in which the new political radio show will be broadcast. New shows, broadcast from Rosedale, Queens, NY, will be posted on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.

Every now and then(probably every other day), I'll be posting my own political commentaries, be it the Bush administration, Congress, and the political effects on education, science, national defense, et cetera.

Enjoy the blog.

Daniel Pecoraro
THHS Class of 2010