Iran_Contra Criminals like Fox's Oliver North Have Nothing On Chimp_junta & GopPer ThuGs

The White House pretenders

By Richard Kirkpatrick
Texas City Sun
Published July 20, 2004

Upon seeing this week’s Time magazine cover that labels John Kerry and John Edwards as “The Contenders” for president and vice president, the word “pretender” instantly came to mind. I was reminded of the coup d’etat of 2000. “Pretender” as used in history’s successions to power as in king or queen is defined as one who claimed the throne, despite the lack of certainty in the legitimacy of succession. England’s 15th century civil conflict, “The War of Roses” gave common use to the term.

Many among us believe that “pretenders” now sit as president and vice president. We also remember Florida’s malfunctioning voting machines, voters improperly turned away and the documented purge of thousands upon thousands of registered African-American voters (claiming them falsely to be convicted felons) by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, as well as the unconscionable decision issued by the US Supreme Court, a decision that the court itself said should not be used as “precedent” for future decisions.

Famed Harvard law professor Alan Derkowitz, whose legal analysis’s are frequently aired on television, laid out the process taken by the State of Florida and by the Supreme Court in his well documented book, The Hijacking of an Election. Remembering that election hijacking, millions of Americans were alarmed when, last week, the Bush administration floated a trial balloon, suggesting that the postponement of the 2004 election could occur, should a terrorist attack be considered imminent. Still others in Washington want a touch-screen- computer election without a paper trail, an invitation to another hijacked election.

But all our fears and cries, “Oh no, not again,” are, I hope, unfounded, because the US Constitution renders election postponement an unavailable option, even with today’s computer technology.

The US Constitution states clearly in Amendment XX that the terms of the offices of president and vice president shall end at noon on the “20th day of January,” ending four years term of office. Moreover, each State’s presidential electors must meet, cast elector ballots, and, as required by Congress, forward those results to Congress in December. Even so, many of us get the jitters when executive branch floats the idea of election postponement, inasmuch as it feeds the appetite of those who would hijack another election.

As speculated earlier by this corner that the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal goes right to the top, it is now confirmed. In a newly released Pentagon memorandum from 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld personally authorized the use of controversial interrogation tactics, including using dogs to intimidate, and stripping prisoners of their clothes and placing hoods on prisoners so they cannot see. Rumsfeld also ordered military officials to hold prisoners without listing them on prisoner rolls requested by the International Red Cross. Source: New York Times, 6/17/04.

The only thing that approaches this scandal in the last two decades was the congressional investigation of the 1980’s sale of arms to Iran in violation of the US “Arms Export Control Act.” Among the charged principals were Marine Lt. Colonel Oliver North (now a commentator on FOX News) and President Reagan’s cabinet members Casper Weinberger and John Poindexter. For Internet user purposes, more information is available under the official title, “The Iran-Contra Affair.”