Motto: The surest way to get a reputation for being a trouble maker these days is to go about repeating the very phrases that the Founders used in the struggle for independence.

-- C.A. Beard

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On last month's Fix;

the answer to last month's Fix,
"a. Is the person (people?) who exposed CIA agent Valerie Plame guilty of treason? If so, should the traitor(s) be executed?"

Can be generalized to

b. Should a US soldier recently returned from war be arrested for treason if, while still in uniform, he appears on TV and declares all of his comrades  performed torture contrary to the rules of war?"

Not all of you may know who Valerie Plame is so some background. Her husband, Joe Wilson, was a US Ambassador to some Arab country. He irritated a Bushie with a story to US News about how the intel for going to war in Iraq was cooked, so the story goes a Bush staffer leaked to reporter Bob Novak that PLame was a CIA agent in WMDs as a retaliation (putting her life at risk you see). Now the FBI is grilling Novak and other reporters who the leaker was. Those reporters are at risk of going to jail - supposedly Tim Russert has already struck a deal. People want the Bushie's head. When Jeff suggested part A of the question last month, I think his unspoken agenda is, kill Bushies.

Now, to another piece of history, should traitors be executed? Under the Intelligence Protection Act of 1982, it is a crime for anyone with classified access to reveal the name of covert agents. You may recall the names of ALdridge Ames and John Walker. Both of them were working on top secret Navy stuff and sold  it  to the Russkies, in the past 5-10 years. Both of them are in jail on treason charges and have not been killed, so I think the fashion is against killing traitors these days.

 Now, what constitutes being a traitor? The US Constitution defines it as taking up arms against the US or giving aid and comfort to the US's enemies.

Flashback to the 1960's. Hanoi Jane Fonda goes to N Vietnam to show her contempt for US Policy. She is led by a N Vietnamese General to a line-up of US POWs, ostensibly so she can see that they are being treated well. One of the POWS slips a paper note to Jane, which she then shows to her N Vietnamese host. We may never know what that note said, but Jane's narcing on the POWs cost them their lives - they never returned home.

Continuing late 60's and early 70's. JF Kerry returns from Nam. He goes on TV (the Dick Cavet show and in front of Congress) to say that US troop morale is in the tank, that GIs are about ready to desert, and that GIs are comitting war atrocities. We know this resulted in POWs being more severely beaten in order to extract similar confessions - and not just form the 21 Congressional Medal of Honor winners that are part of the Swift Boat Vets group. Some of Ho Chi Min's aides have said that the Viet Cong were near capitulation, but the images from US TV allowed the VC commanders to rally their troops for another year, extending and ultimately winning the war.  Some of this is conjecture, but one thing is certain. In Hanoi's museum of the Vietnam war,  there is a section of War Heroes for the Motherland. There are two US people listed on that wall: Jane Fonda and JF Kerry.

So Question B - is behavior that leads to the death of your countrymen treason? What should be done with those who performed it?

On CLinton's Coronary;
I have a theory. Bill and Hill have been and continue to be (along with their pet Terry McCoulough) the controlling force in the Dem Natl Comm. JF Kerry was relying on their help to win the election. And now Bill, former Pres. and access to the best healthcare in the world, discovers that he has a bad ticker not one week earlier when it could have sucked the Oxygen from the Rep Convention, but now in the final 60 days before the Presidential Election. Oh, and he will be in recovery and so unable to help JFK. This cannot be an accident. Hill and Bill are handing the election to Bush. Where is Fahrenheight 911's Mike Moore?

On the Sun Setting of the Brady Bill;
 We may agree or disagree about the need for a given law, but  there is a way to never have to argue about a law's effectiveness again - outcomes based legislation. The termination of the Brady Bill got me thinking about a moderate proposal. In addition to saying what a new law will do operationally, and the methods of enforcement, all new laws shall

1. State in the bill's preamble precisely and succintly what the purpose of the law is
2. define metrics that shall measure if the purpose is being met
3. methods shall be defined to measure those metrics
4. after a trial period, the law's effectiveness shall be reviewed and if found deficient, it is expired

 Example Bill HR 1412:
Purpose: Raise the salmon populations in the Pacific NW
Metrics: Salmon counts in the upper Columbia
Method: shock pole counts in the Columbia between Vancouver and Elwa WA
Outcome Measure: The law shall be judged effective if the count increases by 50% in 5 years, otherwise it shall be revoked

Here is another one that the author missed.
"The evil Bush 2 won't let people buy cheap Canadian drugs cuz he's in bed with the drug companies"
Re: This was Clinton policy enforced by former Secy of HHS Donna Shalala. The current Admin just extended the Clinton policy. How evil!

And another;
"The evil Bush 2 was handed the election by the Supreme Court"
Re: There were five recounts in the  State of  FLorida. Bush won every one. The  law suits being brought by Gore were delaying the announcment of a winner, the world was getting nervous, and the Court stepped in to say, "Enough, Bush 2 has won." And as for the winner of the popular vote not getting the office, that is just the way the electoral college works. There have been at least 4 instances where this happened, this was not a first time event.

Dr. Thorne asks;
  "Should the persons who outed Valerie Plame as a CIA agent be convicted of treason and executed?"

you've 5 days

-S

Colarado;

Minnesota;

Wisconsin;

Washington;

Florida;

Washington D.C.

1. Sept 22: In a shocking demonstration of partisanship, the evil right wing media is picking on Dan Rather for basically fabricating a story about GW Bush's National Guard service, based on the fuzzy recollections of an 86 year old secretary and forged documents. The Wall Street Journal, demonstrating their lap dog allegiance to conservatives, suggests that Rather may have also been coached by a Kerry operative in writing up his story. Clearly, the Supreme Court, Army and Natl Guard need to be brought in to restore order, fairness and right minded thinking to the Journal,  it being a biased organ of the GOP!