We should have a rally titled "Take My America Back" ~Basically, instead of protesting, we have workshops...a workshop on how to manage your finances with credit cards--taught for free, by pros; workshop for easy how-to's to create less of a foot print on earth--all under 100 dollars (easy 'go green' meets HGTV); workshop on hospital terminology--so we can understand what doctors are actually telling us, now, and make better future decisions, now!; workshop on CPR--....enough said really; workshop on cooking for a family of 4--under 50 bucks a day; workshop titled 'xxnumber of ways to start losing weight--tomorrow' (take the steps, stretch more, really tho. Why do we only stretch when we have or anticipate the idea of future pain due to our own out-of-shapeness?;is that a real word?; workshop on being a new driver--partially taught by teens from that very same community; workshop titled 'not for me'-- workshop for young adults planning for their futures (only own what you can afford!); workshop on indentifying financial leakage--we dont 'need'...eeeeverything!; workshop on real third world countries--a humbling lesson learned when you see how good we really have it; and finally (cuz I really could go on forever)a workshop titled 'explain, please?!'--help people understand how to effectively utilize their cell phones (explain things like social networking/SMS/MMS/BBM/AIM/Apps/WAPs/GPS/VVM...wow!)
The Catch:
1)...I dont want to organize it by myself LOL 1.5) its FREE for all! 2) I would love to have each 'rally' have at least one local person in each and every workshop = dedicated AMERICANS giving up their free time to help other PEOPLE...and yes, I meant PEOPLE, all of them. 3)Ideally: head to toe voluntary...no one gets paid, its all voluntary!; not the sponsors, not the organizers, not the appearences, not the musical acts, not even the clean-up crew...I mean really...we have a ton of unemployed people sitting around with countless degrees and experience and nothing else to do. Lets step up! 4) Lastly, if this ever came to pass, I would love to present a check to the President of the United States, that day, on the National Debt (cummulation of tax free donations created from these events, by people who believe in helping others for the sake of helping others) This is our country...we already own it, so lets own up to it! I owe it to YOU! This is me taking ownership of my America (insert picture of Uncle Sam--ironic) America, you down?!
(i just got an email from Mitch Stewart asking me to donate to the "Personal Stories" advertising effort. Below is my response)
Dear Mitch et. al.,I think this campaign is a great idea – but I’m not quite ready to send money to it yet. In your communications, you remain vague about the program you are fighting to get support for. Are you advocating Single Payer, Public Option, Health Co-ops, 5 YearTrigger, 10 year Trigger? Please be more specific!! I understand that getting public support is important — but Public Option already has 72% support. How do you plan to get the support of the handful of democratic Senators and Representatives that seem to be more interested in money from the Healthcare Lobby than the interest and will of their constituents. I really want sweeping and significant reform, but I need more details from you before you get my donation.Many thanks for all you are doing.Sincerely,Michael A. Mufson
Today I read that President Obama's administration will not ask for caps for top executive pay for those corporations that did not receive a bail out from the American taxpayers. This alarms me since this lack of prudence on capping top executive pay helped greatly to provoke the financial calamity this country has suffered.
Corporations that received taxpayer bail-out money do have restrictions on them. This is good.
If there is to be no capping of top executive pay, then checks and balances must be set in place so that (1) corporate executives cannot write their own bonuses, perks, or pay; (2) complete transparency of corporate pay is instated; and (3) immediate accountability and penalties for the infraction of items (1) and (2) stated here are implemented.
Big corporations and big financial institutions must not be allowed to jeopardize the financial well being of this country or the American people ever again.
We often hear today that our government is doing too much too fast. Really?
We have an economic melt down that is costing hundreds of thousands of jobs every month putting us in an economic and financial crisis. We continue to debate the financial and climatic impact of an unsustainable energy policy that requires a transition to alternative, renewable energy. We have the year-to-year cost of health care crippling individuals, businesses and our governement (Medicare & Medicaid). We seem to lack a commitment to the fundamental requirement of an educational system that produces competent, world class citizens on a scale with other countries.
We need to know what our representation in Washington is doing about these critical issues. We need to let Washington know how we would like them to legislate on our behalf. We need to make every elected representative accountable for the actions they either have or have not taken on our behalf.
Become engaged - let Washington know where we stand.
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
A disturbing posture from the President has become painfully apparent. His desire to handle the alleged war crimes during the previous administration. I would remind all Democrats that it is not the place... if we are to believe the campaign rhetoric, let alone the LAW... of the President to decide the path of an investigation that could lead to indictments that lead to prosecution. This he should know from his days as a constitutional lawyer let alone his predecessor. Saying that those that carried out torture are absolved of responsibility is as heinous an act as those that devised torture policy and is against everything that we learned from World War II. If there is a course that he should follow, it would be silence. Let Congress investigate, turn over their findings to the Justice Department and any decision to proceed with any criminal investigation of perpetrators from the top to the bottom would be taken from there. President Obama may NOT make up law as he goes along, UNLESS he has taken the stand of President Bush and his "if I say it, it must be lawful". The President has the power of the pardon and if it is appropriate, he may use it in the future, but now is NOT the time.
Once again to hammer home the point. There are alleged war crimes that have been commited and as such NO president has the power by law to ignore or push for glossing over the now obvious fact that crimes were commited and no matter how inconvienent to his agenda, he must not interfere. Not only by US law, but by international treaty, we are compelled to investigate and prosecute where the facts support such prosecution. Again, there are NO exceptions on who is open to investigation and possible legal action. President Obama needs to bone up on international treaty laws including the Geneva Conventions. Ask any constitutional law professor, start with Jonathan Turley at George Washington University if he needs any clarification or John Dean, from another era, or those that died at the hands interrogators in WWII and Korea to name but a few conflicts where our troops suffered at the hands of the enemy. Are we to forget the past and in so doing be doomed to repeat it?
What are the repercussions of glossing this over? In my opinion, the President becomes an unindicted co-conspirator to torture. All of our troops captured during military conflict will have had their rights to any protection afforded by the Geneva Conventions rendered null and void. Not to mention that he has willfully broken US law and perhaps fatally wounded our stature in the world in addition to validating the arguments of the militant extremists that would do our country harm. I'd say that is very serious. The President has made a jaw-dropping positive start to his administration (except for taking away my governor, Janet Napolitano) that I would not like to see rendered irrelevant by his continuing path on not holding those accountable for their actions, well accountable.
Accountability...seems like I heard that word used in the campaign. I also seem to remember that President Obama was going to restore the Justice Department to an independent entity to do their job of investigating and carrying out the prosecution of those that break the law. The President is dangerously close to breaking the law now. I for one, hope he opens his eyes on this matter of overriding importance, for it affects both the proper re-alignment of our government back to the intent of the Constitution and laws on the books, but also restores the power, given by law, to agencies of the government to be free of political interference.
"THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING"
Committee Meeting
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Call To Order: Order
First order of business, nomination for Secretary
Susan Smith volunteers.
Nomination for President: Kyle Bussey
Vote to adopt Mission Statement. From fax sent to Senator Wyden
Ss: yes
KB: yes
Selection of Lane County Oregon as pilot county to focus on.
KB: moves to send e-mail to Faye Stewart requesting affiliations and committee information. What stimulus money he expects to be handling?
Ss: moves to send e-mail to Bill Dwyer requesting affiliations and committee information. What stimulus money he expects to be handling?
Report on Initial Contacts by KB
We have sent a fax outlining our proposal to Senator Wyden in his DC office care of Jacquelyn Elder.
Attention Jacquelyn Elder
Kyle Bussey
47822 HWY 101
Bandon, Oregon 97411
541 347-3509
Iris@theEYElady.org
Friday, March 20, 2009 I spoke with the DC office about Accountability to the citizens of the United States of America for how the Stimulus funds are being spent. I want to speak with you about the Citizen Oversight Committee system outlined below.
Sen. Ron Wyden (DEM)
District: 0S2 United States Senate 230 Dirksen Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510-0001 Phone: (202) 224-5244
Fax: (202) 228-2717
Accountability to the Citizens of the United States of America for how the Stimulus funds are being spent.
The citizens of The United States of America wish to exercise their right to know how the people’s money is being spent. To this end, we request that strict detailed accounting measures be put in place so that we, as a nation, can track and account how the Trillions of the people’s money in the Stimulus Funds of 2008-2009 are being dispersed and ultimately spent. We wish to be able to track and account for the funds as it goes from the Federal Treasury to the States to the County level, to the city level and down through the “Not for Profit”, NGO, Contractor level. The detail of accounting information should include the prices for materials, wage\hour, fees, and be detailed enough to provide a complete break down on every project, how the recipients were chosen, complete access to board/committee correspondence and meeting notes in which the peoples business is being conducted, who had influence in the selection process and what prior business they have had with the granting agencies. This accounting information and grantee database information should be made available and stored in a standardized easily usable format so that any citizen could access and scrutinize the databases from any public library or home computer. I propose the setting up of citizen monitoring committees, which would be organized at the county level, with full access to the data. Saturday, March 20, 2009 my wife and I are having a public meeting to start the process in Bandon, Oregon. (http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gptq7y )
Kyle Bussey & Susan Smith
Here is a better way to address the failing housing market. The government opens up a new hosing department. One that is understood to have a hopefully temporary life span. This new agency will negotiate a new value for the home. The new housing authority will then buy the house from the bank for whatever “payoff” is. They get their money back. If they had planned on that interest coming in, they are no different then the home buyer who though he would be employed and healthy for 30 yrs. “You guessed wrong. Here is your consolation prize, your money back.”
People who sign onto these programs are relinquishing the ownership of the house. The difference between the payoff value and the newly negotiated market price becomes a debt to the participant. Strict limits would be placed on their ability to hold credit. The ex-homeowner has proven by their situation that they do not grasp the risk of credit. A 5% increase in their taxes will be asses in order to pay off the remaining balance.
Credit Default Swaps are a BIG problem.....as markets swirl down and economic activity slows, more and more swaps are triggered....which then weighs down the balance sheets of the swap sellers....and the cycle gets more and more vicious....
I can think of THREE things we might start with here -- I'll list 'em, and you tell me what you think:
1) get state insurance regulators to clarify -- or pass federal legislation if they won't -- that a credit default swap bought by a party who has an economic interest in the Default Event NOT occurring is.....an insurance policy, subject to rate reviews and reserve requirements for the seller. If swaps had been regulated as insurance right along, we would not be bailing out AIG, am I wrong?
2) get state attorneys general to clarify -- or pass federal legislation if they won't -- that a naked credit default swap, that is, one which is sold by and bought by parties who have no connection to the transaction out of which the default might arise -- is GAMBLING, and illegal. I can't see that naked swaps are any different from betting on dogs or gamecocks or any other sort of betting....
It seems to me that this ought to have been obvious from the very beginning, if you know the legal definitions of insurance and of gambling....somebody clarify for me why I am wrong?
3) GO AFTER and punish if possible or humiliate if not possible to punish, the CEOs and corporate attorneys who piled on to the credit default swap thing, AND the insurance commissioners and attorneys general who just stood by and watched. WE NEED SOME ACCOUNTABILITY HERE, or it will just keep on happening. The mess at AIG generated a lot of fancy fees and salaries.....and now we taxpayers get to EAT all those swaps.....
This may sound like a crazy idea but I have a proposal for the use of some of the funds that would otherwise be directed to banks and credit card companies. It seems that a lot of the people who have been losing their corporate jobs previously worked in banks, brokerage houses and administrative jobs in large corporations. Perhaps a new compliance branch of the government could be set up, then hire these individuals and train them to be compliance auditors and then send them to Wall Street and into all of the banks that received TARP funds. The purpose would be to find out just exactly what is going on in the market. What is motivating trading trends? Can we ferret out those people who are in Hedge funds that are using the stock exchange as Las Vegas? Can we figure out how the bankers who took TARP funds actually spent them? Can we figure out what is driving the corporations to do mass layoffs, thus creating a deeper recession by the moment?
This action would put a lot of middle class people back to work. Benefits would be restored. Mortgages and credit cards could be paid, thus eliminating bad loans and thereby eleminating the need to have taxpayers fund the finance industry. I personally would prefer to put money in the hands of employees rather than the hands of bankers looking for more cash to grow their banks.
As for the remaining bad loans that never should have been given, let the banks deal with the consequences of their predatory lending games.
We are all asking for transparency and accountability. The only way to achieve that is to have the adequate number of people working who can audit. We cannot go to war with Wall Street with guns and weapons of violence but we can go to war with pencil pushers descending on all of the businesses that have laid off vast numbers of employees and let them know that the party is over and greed is no longer an acceptable business plan.
"I occassionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if we were facing an alien threat from outside this world and yet I ask you: Is not a alien force already among us?" President Ronald Reagan
"The Third World War has already started. It is a silent war, Not, for that reason, any less sinister. The War, is tearing down America, Latin America, Brazil and practically all the Third World. Instead of Soldiers loosing their lives, Civilians are loosing their jobs, their homes and their money. It is a war over debt and one which has its main weapon, INTEREST, a weapon more deadly than a laser beam, more shattering than the Atom Bomb! This weapon, if it is not curtailed in its infancy will perpetuate until Future generations will wage war against indefinitely. Counter-measures must be established immediately so this minion of a virus does not become an unstoppable juggernaut."
If you doubt this statement or believe its some far-fetched idea, examine how Wallstreet, GM and select banks failed and were bailed out by the Treasury Department as the Federal Reserve stood helplessly aside as these banks and lending institutions were purchased by larger banks? Why didn't the Federal Reserve bail out its greatest ally Wallstreet? How could it stand quietly by when failing banks NEEDED their 'Reserve' funding? The answer . . . Big fish eat small fish and with that in mind, remember what President Thomas Jefferson once said "If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and the corporations which grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Is this idea being manipulated and realized through the use of interest?
Economics have been deliberately neglected throughout our education system, particularly among the public education system and many institutions of higher learning also avoid teaching Monetary Theory. Educating the masses about Money and the Banking system is extremely important and can be helpful for many people that are purchasing high priced products, starting their own businesses and planning the future for themselves and their families. The world awaits a new leader in Washington. A leader that will be the active representative of the people of America through a Global perspective. The decisions our new President will bring and the causes he will support & impliment will be closely scrutinized by other Countries and Nations. The reactions of the people will also be viewed and publicized globally.
The way we address and support the Nation of Isreal will be crucial because OPEC nations will be watching particularly close and will deal with us based on how we relate with them. Therefore, the American People must be resolute and have a primary, collective view of Israel as well for us to better support our President's decisions.
Q: What is the PRIME cause of debt?A: Interest & Usury laws
Q: Why do governments need to borrow money when it can create interest free money itself?A: Banking system is creating digital money out of thin air from loans.
Q: How can we create money that circulates permanently, so it doesn't have to be paid back with interest?A: By increasing the value of the item money is being spent on, so that interest is reversed onto the borrowers favor.
Q: Is there currently a way to build a sustainable economy today?A: By discarding the application of Usury and the laws that banks currently use to offset the balance through interest.
Q: HOW CAN WE REPAIR THE NATIONAL BUDGET/DEBT?
To accomplish this goal we must duplicate & employ methods and measures that have worked in the past under similar circumstances.
In 1694, International Banker William Patterson obtained the Charter for the Bank of England when he proposed raising the 1.25 Million Pounds to be lent to the British government. Only 750,000 pounds was received and the newly formed Bank of England began lending money to the government shorly afterwards.
They secured the debt by direct taxation of the people.The government had no fixed period to repay the loan and interest would be paid in perpetuity. Patterson & the government agreed that "The Bank has benefit of interest on all loans". This was the big mistake England would later regret and many countries fell into this same trap. England then bagan financing and repaying War debts and also Borrowing more money again and again.
At first the Colonies avoided this trap by using Colonial Script (a totally Fiat currency) and exchange worked reasonably well until this same principle was applied.
Today. . . . With the advent of the mybarackobama.com donation accounts currently being used for fundraising, the general Public has access to finance the election of the President; the next step would be to provide for Public Works and Means.
If the funding for these multiple accounts were combined into One PRIME account (Universal Citizen's Dividend), OR, if a small of each account was continually added to a SINGLE account that could still be monitored by everyone, Government spending could become better controlled and waste could be prevented, likewise, the People could regulate where the needs would be best applied. Communities could increase "their" VALUE by adding more to their local committees or programs as these funds are directed towards that means.Taxes Federal & State, Social Security, Treasury, Donations, etc., if monitored properly would reduce frivilous spending. The people would be more incline to pay or donate because they would receive the BENEFITS. Perpetual Debt would be converted to sustainable income to maintain a functional society and the rate of forclosure would be lowered. This would also assist with the failing Social Security system and the Treasury would control the amount of money in circulation while the Federal Reserve notes are being replaced with Treasury items (Notes, Bills, Bonds, Etc.).
I would welcome any suggestions you have of possibilities that may fill in any gaps with this theory, after all, The more Great Minds are working together, the better the outcome.
Together, we can make change happen.
Thank you for your support!
One of the first acts of the new Attorney General should be to start an investigation of the Bush administration for war crimes, violation of international law, and failure to keep their oaths to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. These are grave violations and should not be allowed to go unanswered. We, the people, need to show ourselves and the world that we stand behind the principals on which this country was founded. That even after a heinous attack and an emotional reaction, we still value those principals and are willing - no obligated- to correct our mistakes.
The war crimes charges are easy to prove against Cheney. He went on national television and admitted to authorizing and aiding in the implementation of waterboarding. After world war 2, US led tribunals executed Japanese officers for using this technique on allied forces. If that isn't enough justification to indict Cheney, what is?
Bush, Gonzalez, and others blatantly disregarded the Contitution they swore to uphold and defend by illegally wiretapping americans. Bush repeatedly overstep the powers of the president. He fabricated information to declare war on another country for his own, personal reasons and caused the death and injury of tens of thousands people, both Americans and Iraqis. I could see Bush getting an insanity verdict, since he has no grasp of reality and lives alone with Laura in a world of his own making.
This would restore our reputation with the rest of the world and allow us to lead by example again. It would make it harder for terrorist organizations to find new recruits when the people of the world see that we can and will hold ourselves accountable and punish those that initiated and conducted the crimes in our name. We need to show the world that our system works and that we hold our leaders to the same standards we tell them to hold theirs to.
In his Philippine Daily Inquirer column, Amado Doronilla argues that US President-elect Barack Obama is "no friend to the Philippines" because Obama snubbed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's congratulatory call.
Amado Doronilla is wrong. Since when did we equate Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo with the Philippines? Certainly, Gloria as an unpopular leader comes strong in Barack Obama's radar. Joc Joc Bolante's trial in Chicago, put in spotlight by very vocal anti-Gloria protesters outside the courthouse, was too scandalous to escape Obama's attention. (Joc Joc Bolante, a Department of Agriculture under- secretary, was accused of pocketing for the the first couple 3 biilion pesos that were intended for farmers and was eluding Philippine Senate investigation when arrested in Chicago). Gloria's misconducts are also all over the Web. Even US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is no fan of Gloria.
