Bob Morris @ Jul 7th 2004 19:13 - Category: Unfiled ;
Do that funky perp walk, white boy
Grand jury indicts Ken Lay for inflating Enron earnings
Former Enron chairman Ken Lay is expected to be led in handcuffs into a Houston courtroom today <Thursday> following his indictment on charges related to the earnings inflation fraud that shook corporate America, destroying its seventh largest company.
Bob Morris @ Jul 7th 2004 00:13 - Category: Unfiled ;
That’s because they never existed, Tony. But you knew that.
Bob Morris @ Jul 7th 2004 00:12 - Category: Unfiled ;
I write badly, therefore I am a would-be terrorist
From the new EFF blog
The Houston Chronicle has a disturbing-yet-amusing tale of airline security gone awry with a disturbing and not-so-amusing ending — security officials adding an innocent man to the Homeland Security watch list.
Bob Morris @ Jul 7th 2004 00:11 - Category: Unfiled ;
Bob Morris @ Jul 7th 2004 00:10 - Category: Unfiled ;
Nader’s petition signatures from the rightwing
A friend emails:
“This is an example of why I have trouble viewing Nader as a serious progressive candidate. In the most important election of my lifetime–an election not to achieve a lot of what I really want, but to merely maintain little things like due process–this guy is slamming the Dems and taking help from Dick Army and his ilk. What an asshole.”
After a dismal week of defeats and unexpected challenges, it is clear Nader will miss his goal of running for president in all the states. It’s equally clear that his ideological intentions for his third campaign have, at least in the short term, been surpassed by the logistics of running for president…
The pressure has created an ends-justify-the-means tinge to the canvassing. If, say, a voter announces his deep disagreement with Nader but says he will sign because it will draw votes from a Democrat, George <a petition signature gatherer> readily hands over his petition.
“That’s fine. I don’t care why they sign,” George says. “I’m just a mercenary in that regard.”
The attitude has drawn attacks from Nader’s critics. They say accepting Republican help is a hypocritical stance from the supposedly pristine candidate.
Nader dismisses the attacks. He said the petitioning is a matter of free speech and expanding the pool of candidates, so a signer’s political affiliation is irrelevant. “If they want to help us speak freely inside the electoral arena, that’s fine,” Nader said Friday.
For Nader, who maintained his stature by being squeaky clean and hugely ethical to do something this slimy seems to call into question everything he says he stands for, as well as being self-destructive. What a sad, bizarre way to end decades of public service.
Yes, we need progressive third parties. But these parties need to be backed by genuine progressives. And Nader currently has little, if any, such backing.
Bob Morris @ Jul 7th 2004 00:07 - Category: Unfiled ;
Saudi secret service ‘riddled’ with al-Qa’ida
Saudi Arabia’s intelligence agencies are so infiltrated by al-Qa’ida sympathisers that the kingdom’s counter-terrorist campaign is failing and militant operations are spreading into neighbouring states, senior Arab and Western officials have warned.
“Their staff is 80 per cent sympathetic to al-Qa’ida,” one senior Arab source said.
Maybe it’s not accidental. Or, consider the Saudi Royal Family, which has something like 15,000 princes, of whom a few hundred are players, and a dozen or two really matter, and controls billions of dollars, with members who have political sympathies ranging from supporting Dubya to funding bin Laden, and I doubt any outsider could figure out what’s happening inside it. Because, of course, there is no central focus or plan, because, with something that size, how could there be?
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