Washington DC, August 28, 2009 -- The Polish American Congress, one of thecountry’s largest umbrella groups of Polish American organizations, joinswith millions of other Americans to mourn the passing of Sen. Edward M.Kennedy, a great statesman and a tireless advocate for human rights in theUnited States, Poland and around the world.
“The memories held by many Polish Americans of Senator Kennedy are cherishedones that span his life and our own,” said PAC President Frank Spula in astatement released Friday in Washington.
When the new Pope, John Paul II, made his first papal journey to Boston in1979, it was Senator Kennedy who led a joyous throng to meet him at theairport, Spula recalled.
“Later, when Senator Kennedy was denied a visa by Poland’s communist regimebefore Christmas 1986, he persisted in his quest and just five months laterwas able to present awards to Zbigniew Bujak and Adam Michnik, organizers ofthe Solidarity movement, for their achievements in the spirit of his latebrother Robert,” Spula noted. “When he gave them the Robert F. Kennedy HumanRights Award, Edward Kennedy praised the pair for their willingness to‘speak truth to power.’
“But on that trip Kennedy’s own example of speaking truth to power camewhen, under surveillance by the communist regime, he took three of hischildren, three of his sisters, Robert Kennedy’s widow Ethel, as well asseveral of their nieces and nephews to the grave of martyred Rev. JerzyPopieluszko, who was killed two and a half years earlier under marshal law,”Spula recalled. “There he embraced Popieluszko’s elderly parents, goodpeople of the land with gnarled hands and stooped postures.”
There, as the New York Times reported, Senator Kennedy remarked that, “LikeFather Jerzy’s mother and father, my mother and father lost sons tosenseless violence. Like Father Jerzy’s brothers and sisters, I and mysisters lost brothers to senseless violence. And I know that my brothers andsisters, like Father Jerzy, would want all of us to carry on their goodwork.”
“Senator Kennedy did just that,” Spula continued. “He fought hard for therights of working men and women in the United States and across the globe;his name became synonymous with the fight for freedom and human rights.”
“You saw that in how he fought for immigration reform and how his voicethundered a resounding ‘yes’ to Poland’s accession to NATO. He was indeedthe ‘Lion of the Senate’ in Washington, but he was also fierce in hispursuit of the betterment of the lives of millions of Poles and PolishAmericans.” (MEA)
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________________Polish American Congress1612 K Street NW, Suite 410Washington, DC 20006Tel.: (202) 296-6955Fax: (202) 835-1565Web: www.polamcon.org
May 11, 2009President Barack H. ObamaThe White House1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.Washington, D.C. 20500
Dear President Obama:
Like millions of Americans we, the undersigned national security whistleblowers, are inspired by the bold and creative measures you have taken to put people back to work while at the same time re-engineering government to make it more responsive to people’s needs and more accountable to voters and taxpayers.
We are particularly heartened by your special relationship with America’s young people and by your call on them to make a significant contribution to their country through public service.
For those reasons and more, we write you today to ask that you take concrete steps in favor of national security whistleblowers that will help to restore time-honored values of openness, honesty and transparency to the federal service – and help those entrusted with the nation’s secrets to do their jobs in a manner consistent with the public interest.
A call to public service without needed whistleblower protection can only - at some future date - put at risk those most inspired by your leadership. We the undersigned feel we have a special bond with you and your Administration, given your long-standing support for federal employee free speech and against acts of bureaucratic retaliation against those who dare to “commit the truth.” We have been thrilled by your strong statement of support for whistleblowers, both during your presidential campaign and the transition:
Often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government is an existing government employee committed to public integrity and willing to speak out. Such acts of courage and patriotism, which can sometimes save lives and often save taxpayer dollars, should be encouraged rather than stifled as they have been during the Bush administration. We need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoing and partners in performance. Barack Obama will strengthen whistleblower laws to protect federal workers who expose waste, fraud, and abuse of authority in government. Obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process.
In the years before your presidency, each one of us undertook a largely solitary battle in favor of the values we share with you and against the kind of wrongdoing that resulted in many of the American people flocking to your standard last year. And in doing so, each one of us, together with our families, and sometimes our friends and colleagues, have paid a heavy price for our ethical dissent.
The steps we are asking that you take are a necessary remediation for past wrongs and would be a clear signal to those now heeding your call for service that by adhering to the standards you have so clearly embraced, they will not become – as we did not so long ago – victims of bureaucratic wrongdoers, who may still feel that they can get away with continued misdeeds.
As the federal government of necessity grows in response to the many crises that you have inherited from your predecessor, the lack of protection currently afforded to whistleblowers means that federal workers – the front line in the fight against fraud and waste, and best guarantee that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and government works effectively – must either sit on the sidelines or, still forced to look over their shoulders for signs of reprisal, risk their careers.
Not only did the U.S. Office of Special Counsel fall into ridicule under the stewardship of George W. Bush appointee Scott Bloch. In the last nine years, the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), charged with adjudicating federal worker claims, has found only one case of illegal retaliation in 56 decisions on the merits. And only three whistleblowers out of 212 prevailed in decisions on the merits in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals since October 1994, when the current whistleblower “protection” law last was modified.
We the undersigned, national security whistleblowers from agencies across the federal government, know the special vulnerability people like us have in trying to do right by our principles and by the country we love. And we still do not have any real safeguards against retaliation. Instead, for protecting this nation, we and others face having our security clearances yanked, as well as a rosary of humiliation, demotions, threats, punitive polygraphs and myriad other intimidatory measures. To be sure, these are meant not only to destroy our careers – and in the process our physical and mental well being, our marriages and the tranquility necessary for nurturing our families in a wholesome environment. They also serve as a warning to others – that the price is high, too high, and the possibility for real vindication remote. Even if Inspectors General, Congressional committees, the reputable news media, or other outside groups are fully able to corroborate our complaints, wrongdoers are mostly allowed to retain their posts - and many even receive promotions.
For all that you have accomplished in little more than 100 days in office, we are sure you would agree that ensuring true transparency and accountability means the enforcement of a zero-tolerance policy for repression and retaliation, and the guaranteeing of the legal rights of every federal employee.
We urgently need a law to protect national security whistleblowers from retaliation, including those in agencies where even paper protections do not exist. We ask you to make one of your highest priorities support for whistleblower protection legislation that would end our second-class status compared to that of all other federal employees, contractors, and private sector workers who report threats to public health and safety, violations of laws or regulations, or waste, fraud and mismanagement. We also ask that you seek the criminalization of bureaucratic retaliation against whistleblowers, whose only “crime” is the exercise of their employee free speech rights for the common good.
Finally, we respectfully request that for those of us who have lost jobs, reputations and significant professional opportunities because we stood fast in favor of the principles you maintained even before you announced your presidential candidacy, consideration be given to “making us whole” once again. In giving us the opportunity to restore our often shattered lives, others will know that better times are in store for people who tell truth to power on behalf of the American people.
With warmest best wishes to your and to your family, we remain,
Martin Edwin Andersen, Former senior advisor for policy planning at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division; Winner of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel’s 2001 “Public Servant Award”
Mark Danielson, Department of Energy SRT whistleblower
Michael DeKort, Former Lockheed Martin program manager/systems engineer; exposed waste, fraud and abuse on Coast Guard Deepwater program and major security/safety issues
Bogdan Dzakovic, Aviation Security whistleblower regarding the 9-11 attacks, as well as current issues within the Transportation Security Administration
Richard E. Hoskins II, Formerly of the Federal Air Marshal Service; Only Non-Air Marshal to report corrupt behavior and violations of veterans rights to the Office of Special Counsel and Congress
Robert J. MacLean, Former Federal Air Marshal, U.S. Department of Homeland Security/National whistleblower liaison, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA)
Spencer A. Pickard, Federal Air Marshal, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Coleen Rowley, Retired FBI Agent (retired 2004) and former Minneapolis FBI Division Legal Counsel
Craig R. Sawyer, Former Tier-1 level U.S. Navy SEAL Operator, decorated for "Heroic Service" in combat; "Original 33" Air Marshal and whistleblower, as an ATSAIC (manager) in the Federal Air Marshal Service, against gross mismanagement and retaliation.
Lt. Eric N. Shine, Graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point [1991]; Federal maritime engineering watch officer
George R. Taylor, U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Air Marshal Service
Frank Terreri, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association director of labor relations; FLEOA Federal Air Marshal Agency President
Russell D. Tice, Former intelligence analyst and capabilities operations officer for Special Access Programs (SAP) Information Warfare, National Security Agency (NSA)
(Non-National Security Whistleblower Category)
Peter D. Nesbitt, FAA Whistleblower Alliance
www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/obama/chi-barack-obama-speech,0,524762.story
November 4, 2008
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.It's the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.It's the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he's fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader. I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead.I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last sixteen years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation's next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that's coming with us to the White House. And while she's no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics – you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you've sacrificed to get it done.But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you.I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn't start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give five dollars and ten dollars and twenty dollars to this cause. It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation's apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organized, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth. This is your victory.I know you didn't do this just to win an election and I know you didn't do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century. Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us. There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they'll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor's bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as President, and we know that government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it's been done in America for two-hundred and twenty-one years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.What began twenty-one months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it's that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers – in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity. Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours, "We are not enemies, but friends…though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection." And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your President too.And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand. To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that's on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She's a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn't vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the color of her skin.And tonight, I think about all that she's seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can't, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.At a time when women's voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.When the bombs fell on our harbor and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that "We Shall Overcome." Yes we can.A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:Yes We Can. Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
Costco, Walmart and K-Mart are all reporting runs on all kinds of chairs and stools, particularly high chairs.
Sources say that the Little People are rushing to these and other retail outlets to make sure that on Tuesday they can reach the Obama-Biden lever at their polling booths.
Costco, Walmart and K-Mart are all reporting runs on all kinds of chairs and stools.
The Little People are rushing to these and other retail outlets to make sure that on Tuesday they can reach the Obama-Biden lever at their polling booths.
The GOP's doleful prospects extend to North Carolina, where the fruits of a rotten campaign mean Sen. Libby (Dole) is about to be canned.
“A FEW GOOD, ALMOST LUCID, MOMENTS” KEITH OLBERMANN PLAYS ‘HARDBALL’ WITH JOHN MCCAIN, WHO’S DOWN FOR THE COUNTJOHN MCCAIN: You want answers?KEITH OLBERMANN: I think I'm entitled to them.JOHN MCCAIN: You want answers?KEITH OLBERMANN: I want the truth!JOHN MCCAIN: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has a certain, precious amount of wealthy people. And those wealthy people have the right to protect what they have, any way they can. If they don’t do it, who's gonna do it? You? You, Keith Olbermann? I, as their candidate, have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for those lower and middle classes and you curse the people who give them jobs. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that all those unemployed, underemployed and soon-to-be-unemployed people, while tragic, probably didn’t work very hard anyway. (Look at how little they earned compared to CEOs' salaries and their well-deserved golden parachutes!!!) And the existence of trickle down Republican economics, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, is what has raised that free market tide so that all boats, big and small, could float...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about these facts, like with your friends at Georgetown parties, you want me on call. You need me on call.We use phrases like “loose regulations, squishy credit lines and a warm place to count the profits” ...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending our captains of industry. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who still rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very economic bubble I helped George Bush to provide, then questions the manner in which we provided it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you grow some patriotic gonads and eschew socialism. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!KEITH OLBERMANN: Did you support George Bush and all his works?JOHN MCCAIN: (quietly) I did the job that the Republican Party sent me to do.KEITH OLBERMANN: Did you support George Bush and his economic policies?JOHN MCCAIN: You're goddamn right I did!!
(c)
IMAGINARIUM:
“A FEW GOOD ALMOST LUCID MOMENTS”
(KEITH OLBERMANN PLAYS ‘HARDBALL’ WITH JOHN MCCAIN, WHO’S DOWN FOR THE COUNT) JOHN MCCAIN: You want answers?
KEITH OLBERMANN: I think I'm entitled to them.
JOHN MCCAIN: You want answers?
KEITH OLBERMANN: I want the truth!
JOHN MCCAIN: You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has a certain, precious amount of wealthy people. And those wealthy people have the right to protect what they have, any way they can. If they don’t do it, who's gonna do it? You? You, Keith Olbermann? I, as their candidate, have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for those lower and middle classes and you curse the people who give them jobs. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that all those unemployed, underemployed and soon-to-be-unemployed people, while tragic, probably didn’t work very hard anyway. (Look at how little they earned compared to CEOs' salaries and their well-deserved golden parachutes!!!) And the existence of trickle down Republican economics, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, is what has raised that free market tide so that all boats, big and small, could float...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about these facts, like with your friends at Georgetown parties, you want me on call. You need me on call.
We use phrases like “loose regulations, squishy credit lines and a warm place to count the profits” ...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending our captains of industry. You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who still rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very economic bubble I helped George Bush to provide, then questions the manner in which we provided it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you grow some patriotic gonads and eschew socialism. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!
KEITH OLBERMANN: Did you support George Bush and all his works?
JOHN MCCAIN: (quietly) I did the job that the Republican Party sent me to do.
KEITH OLBERMANN: Did you support George Bush and his economic policies?
JOHN MCCAIN: You're goddamn right I did!!
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/261355http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/261355
BREAKING NEWS: Colin Powell Says He Is Voting For Obama
Colin Powell did indeed endorse Illinois Democrat Barack Obama for President. ... he called John McCain a friend and a capable individual who would do a job as president, but that he feels the country needs a generational shift that Barack Obama can provide. He also expressed dissappontment with the McCain campaigns tactic of attempting to tie Barack Obama to william Ayers, and the fact that they were labeling the Democrat as a socialist. He also specifically sighted his displeasure with Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann's statements that the Democratic members of Congress should be investigated for their anti-American views....
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5goINYNQHy_vv8cBCBiZYaDYakrKA
Obama wins Colin Powell's vote
... He had harsh words about the tone of McCain's campaign and rising Islamophobia in Republican circles as smears purport to portray Obama as a secret Muslim.
"I have said to Mr McCain that I admire all he has done. I have some concerns about the direction the party has taken in recent years. It has moved more to the right than I would like to see it," he said.
McCain had gone "too far" with a negative advertising barrage over Obama's ties to former 1960s radical William Ayers, Powell said.
He said the economic crisis engulfing the United States had made up his mind, along with McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Palin as his vice presidential nominee.
"In the case of Mr McCain I found that he was a little unsure as to how to deal with the economic problems that we are having. Almost every day there was a different approach to the problem, and that concerned me," he said.
"I was also concerned at the selection of Governor Palin," he said. "I don't believe she is ready to be president of the United States. And so that raised in my mind some question as to the judgment that Senator McCain made."
Powell said that Obama, in contrast, had come out of recent weeks looking presidential.
"He displayed a steadiness, an intellectual curiosity, a depth of knowledge and an approach to looking at (economic) problems like this, and picking a vice president (Joseph Biden) that I think is ready to be president on day one."
