E PLURIBUS UNUM
atop the U.S. Capitol

"No minority has a right to block a majority from conducting the legal business of the organization. No majority has a right to prevent a minority from peacefully attempting to become a majority." Robert M. Pirsig, American philosopher and author of "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," put that terse summary of Robert's Rules of Order in his later book, "Lila." To Pirsig, those two sentences set a framework for a democracy where "Dynamic Quality" can flourish, and society can evolve. But unluckily, in the world's first modern democracy one party has battered and cracked that framework. In both houses of the U.S. Congress a reckless minority of Republicans routinely blocks a majority from conducting the business of the nation.

In the Senate the Republican minority blocks the nation's business with the silent filibuster rule. Originally, the filibuster was a seldom-used tactic for a Senator to demonstrate one's displeasure with an issue by holding the floor for as long as one's wind held out. But the silent filibuster has practically become a 60% vote requirement. Since 2007, the minority Republicans have filibustered way more than any group before. They have filibustered legislation, such as that to close loopholes to keep the crazy and criminal from buying guns. And they have filibustered confirmations, such as that for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, trying to block its work, and for judgeships, creating a "judicial emergency" in 33 districts and circuits.

In the House a minority formed of the Republican Teabag Caucus and its followers blocks action on any bill it opposes with the "majority of the majority" rule. Also known as the "Hastert Rule," after the Republican speaker of the House that made it official party policy, it states that no bill comes to the floor, unless the speaker knows that a majority of Republicans, now a 233-201 majority in the House, favors it. Under the majority of the majority rule, any bill favored by a majority formed of most Democrats and less-than-half of Republicans would not come to the floor. Take for example H.R. 199, which closes a corporate tax loophole on a deduction for executive compensation of more than a half million a year. Such a sensible budget bill just might get 17 Republicans to join 201 Democrats for a majority to pass it. Or take H.R. 163, which protects the Sleeping Bear Dunes area of the Lake Michigan shore as a national wilderness area. That bill is sponsored by twelve Michigan congressmen of both major parties, and would very likely pass before the whole House. But it might be tough to get a majority of House Republicans, who in the last Congress passed a bill that would have gutted the Wilderness Act.

Now, this battered and cracked Congress can be fixed by electing more sane and sensible persons to it. In the Senate, a simple majority can change the rules, and dump the silent filibuster. Voters could enable that in the primary election by ousting any senator that won't support majority rule. And in the House, the majority party leaders could simply reject the majority of the majority rule. Voters could enable that in the general election by voting in the Democrats, who have never adopted such a rule. To help voters, a candidate in favor of fixing Congress would do well to sign a pledge for democracy and majority rule:

54 yeas to 46 nays - CNN calls that 'voted down.' I call it FILIBUSTERED!

Robert M. Pirsig - Wikipedia

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - WorldCat

Robert's Rules of Order - Robert's Rules Online

Lila - WorldCat

Dynamic Quality - Wikipedia

silent filibuster "The Curious Case of the Silent Filibuster" By Patrick Sharma and Josh Kalven (Newsbound) 2012-12-18

Now you might ask: Why don't the Democrats simply force the Republicans to conduct a talking filibuster?

The reason is this: When 40-plus minority senators are committed to a talking filibuster, the process is much more time-consuming and physically demanding for the majority waiting it out than for the minority doing the actual filibustering.

This is because of something called "quorum." Under Senate rules, the chamber can't technically conduct business unless a "quorum" of 51 senators are in the building and ready to take a vote.

... the first thing the minority will do is reduce its presence in the Senate chamber to just one member. This member can keep the filibuster going for a few hours, before being replaced at the podium by another minority member, who takes the next shift. It can go on for days and days without demanding too much of any one minority senator's time. Meanwhile, at least 50 members of the majority party must stick around to maintain quorum.

minority Republicans "Composition of Congress, by Political Party, 1855–2015" infoplease

filibustered way more "Senate Action on Cloture Motions" - U.S. Senate

close loopholes "Senate rejects expanded gun background checks" By Ted Barrett and Tom Cohen, CNN; April 18, 2013

crazy and criminal "Background checks on gun sales: How do they work?" By Corinne Jones, CNN; April 10, 2013

for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau "Senate Republicans vow to block consumer bureau chief's nomination" By Jim Puzzanghera; Los Angeles Times; February 04, 2013

The letter was signed by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and 42 of his GOP colleagues -- enough to filibuster a vote on Cordray's nomination.

...

The senators demanded changes to the bureau's structure before they would allow a vote on Cordray or any nominee to be its director.

They want the single director position to be replaced by a bipartisan board similar to those that run most other government agencies. The senators also want the bureau's funding to be part of the congressional appropriations process instead of flowing directly from the Federal Reserve.

And they want to make it easier for other banking regulators to block actions by the consumer bureau.

for judgeships "Judicial Vacancies Skyrocket During President Obama's First Term" by Jennifer Bendery; Huffington Post; 12/02/2012

Teabag Caucus "The Tea Party Caucus returns" By TARINI PARTI; Politico; 4/25/13

majority of the majority "Majority of the majority" - Wikipedia

233-201 majority "U.S. Congress - Party Summary" - Wikipedia

H.R. 199 "H.R.199 - Income Equity Act of 2013 - Actions" - OpenCongress

H.R. 163 "H.R.163 - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Conservation and Recreation Act - Actions" - OpenCongress

sponsored by twelve "H.R.163 - Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Conservation and Recreation Act - Overview" - OpenCongress

a bill "H.R. 4089 (112th): Sportsmen’s Heritage Act of 2012" - Govtrack.us

would have gutted the Wilderness Act "GOP-backed bill is most serious attack on America's Wilderness Act in history" By Stewart Brandborg; The Christian Science Monitor; November 30, 2012

First, H.R. 4089 elevates hunting, fishing, shooting, and wildlife management above wilderness protection within designated wilderness areas. Visitors or wildlife managers could drive motor vehicles and build roads, cabins, dams, hunting blinds, aircraft landing strips, and much more in wildernesses if any of these activities could be rationalized as facilitating opportunities for hunting, fishing, shooting, or managing fish and wildlife.

...

Perhaps even more troubling, H.R. 4089 would waive protections imposed by the Wilderness Act for anything undertaken in the name of wildlife management or for providing recreational opportunities related to wildlife. This would allow endless manipulations of wildlife and habitat.

simple majority "How To End the Filibuster Forever - The Senate can kill the rule any time! And with only 51 votes." By Akhil Reed Amar and Gary Hart; Slate; Jan. 6, 2011

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2013

• Nixon's Vietnam Peace Sabotage: "Huh, no. My God, I would never do anything to encourage ... Saigon not to come to the table," said Nixon to President Lyndon Johnson. Late in the 1968 presidential election season, Johnson was close to getting both North and South Vietnam to meet for peace talks in Paris. Such progress towards peace could have given a boost to Vice President Hubert Humphrey over Nixon in the presidential race. But someone from the Nixon camp felt sure it had the peace talks blocked, and sent that inside dope to some Wall Street banker buddies. Johnson caught wind of that, and ordered wiretaps. Soon, he got proof that the Nixon camp was urging South Vietnam to stay away from the peace talks, and offering a "better deal" should Nixon become president. When Johnson sent word that he might go public with the proof, "Tricky Dicky" Nixon phoned to try to fool Johnson with the lie quoted above. The Christian Science Monitor had also caught wind of Nixon's sabotage, and, before running the story, sought confirmation from the administration. But Johnson decided, "for the good of the country," not to go public. And, as it happened, the government of South Vietnam did stay away from the peace talks, Nixon won a close election, and the killing went on for four more years. And so began a recurring pattern where high Republican officials would do dirty deeds, some treasonous, some criminal, and high Democratic officials would cover them up.
• The Road to Watergate: "Godammit, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it," said Nixon to his staff members, H.R. Haldeman and Henry Kissinger. In June 1971, Nixon gave that command to break-in to the Brookings Institution, most likely to get the file with Johnson's proof of Nixon's treasonous peace talk sabotage – a file that could scuttle his re-election. And so we see, a year before their Watergate break-ins, the beginnings of Nixon's band of criminals known as the "Plumbers." But, before he left office, Johnson gave the file to his adviser Walt Rostow, and so kept it away from Nixon. In 1973, after Johnson's death, and as Nixon's presidency began to crumble from the Watergate scandal, Rostow sent the file, which he labeled "the X envelope," to the LBJ Library. He thought the contents to be such a blot on the U.S.A., that he wrote an instruction to keep it sealed for 50 years, at which time the library's director could open it, and decide to seal it for another 50 years. But in 1994, "just" 21 years later, Rostow and the library's director decided to open the file, and today it is largely declassified.

  

• October Surprise: The movie "Raiders of the Lost Ark" portrayed a vast underground government archive warehouse, where the powerful Ark of the Covenant was to be stashed for all time. That is how Lawrence Barcella, chief counsel of the House's October Surprise Task Force, imagined the place where he had sent the Russian Report on the plot. The report came from old Soviet intelligence files, and was sent by the Russian parliament, to answer a request from the task force. But Robert Parry got a pass to the archive warehouse and copied the Russian Report, and other documents, from the boxes of task force materials he found there. The documents backed reports of some 24 witnesses to the deal between presidential candidate Ronald Reagan's camp and Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's faction. The deal went through: the Iranians, who had been holding 52 Americans hostage for nearly a year, delayed their release until Reagan took office, and the Reagan people sent arms to Iran. The Russian Report confirmed that Ronald Reagan's campaign chief William Casey, Reagan's running mate George H.W. Bush, and CIA officer Robert Gates were among those who met with Iranians in 1980. Like the treasonous Nixon, Reagan became president helped by his camp's sabotage of negotiations by the sitting president, Jimmy Carter in this case. Unlike Nixon's Vietnam peace talk sabotage, the October Surprise plot got a Congressional investigation, spurred in part by Robert Parry's reporting for PBS's "Frontline." And though Barcella asked for a three-month extension to study other new evidence flowing in, the committee, led by Lee Hamilton (D – IN), rushed to wrap up the investigation, skipping the Russian Report, making up alibis, and clearing the Republicans due to "no credible evidence."

The book also tells the stories of:

• how the government of Israel helped the Reagan crew set up the October Surprise plot and the arms pipeline through Israel to Iran, which likely continued into the Iran-Contra scandal.
• how the Bush I White House foiled the October Surprise and Iran-Contra investigations with a program of media pressure, arm-twisting, subpoena-dodging, and delay, while raising a stink about the cost of the probes.
• how alibis for high-level Republicans, such as George H. W. Bush and William Casey in October Surprise, and Robert Gates in Iraqgate, dissolved after a little investigation.
• how two ladder-climbers, Colin Powell and Robert Gates, by doing dirty deeds and cover-ups for their bosses, rose to the highest levels of government, while being toasted by the Washington Establishment.
• how the American Right tries to revise history with its ideas of constitutionality that are more in line with the Articles of Confederation than with the Constitution, whose authors aimed for a strong, pragmatic central government under sovereignty of "We the People."

A nice feature of the book is that many of its notes have web links to original documents and recordings. For example, here is a link that shows the sign-in sheet that helped dismantle Robert Gates' alibi that he was at a White House meeting with the prime minister of Belize and not at an Iraqgate meeting with an Israeli intelligence agent on April 20, 1989. And here is a link where you can hear the phone call noted above, where Nixon lies to Johnson about sabotaging the Vietnam peace talks.

The book's author, Robert Parry, wrote some of the earliest stories of Iran-Contra and October Surprise. He has followed up on these and other such stories, digging up and keeping up on new evidence along the way. "America's Stolen Narrative" is the latest, and, I think, the greatest, result of that work. It is not a long book -- 221 pages not counting the index and notes – but it is a meaty book. Virtually every word in it advances the stories told. And they are the classic product of investigative reporting – exposés of dirty, anti-democratic deeds by the highest officers of the republic, a type of story crucial to an informed citizenry in a democracy. These stories show that some conspiracies really are true. But, as the author points out, it is only "careful research and open-minded reporting" that can separate what is real from what is "just a curious anomaly or something hard to explain." While these stories were largely missed in real time, they are here now, and should rightfully become well-known American history. You the reader can help that come to pass.

To buy "America's Stolen Narrative":

• Paperback from Robert Parry's site, Consortiumnews.com
• Paperback from Amazon.com
• e-Book for Nook from Barnes & Noble
• e-Book for Kindle from Amazon.com

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I have several copies of Robert Parry's prior book, "Neck Deep - The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush" to give away. E-mail me your (U.S.) mailing address, and I will, while they last, send one to you postpaid.

America's Stolen Narrative "America's Stolen Narrative -- From Washington and Madison to Nixon, Reagan and the Bushes to Barack Obama" by Robert Parry

here is a link "America's Stolen Narrative" Note #152: Sign-in sheet for White House meeting with prime minister of Belize, 1989-04-20.

here is a link Nixon's phone call to LBJ, 1968-11-03 - LBJ Presidential Library. Referenced from "America's Stolen Narrative" Note #28

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2013

Moore: Mm, put the hammer back.
Nichols: No one has the right to tell me I can't have it. That is protected on our constitution.
Moore: Where does it say a handgun is protected?
Nichols: No, gun. We should...
Moore: [interupting] It doesn't say gun. It says "arms".
Nichols: Arms. What is "arms"?
Moore: Could be a nuclear weapon.
Nichols: It's not these - That's right. It could be a nuclear weapon!
Moore: Do you think you should have the right to have weapons-grade plutonium here in the farm field?
Nichols: We should be able to have anything...
Moore: [interupting] Should you have weapons? Should you have weapons-grade plutonium?
Nichols: I don't want it.
Moore: But, should you have the right to have it if you did want it?
Nichols: [thinking about it] That should be restricted.
Moore: Ah! Ah, so you do beleive in some restrictions?
Nichols: Well, there's wackos out there.

Where would you set the limit of what arms you – and your next-door neighbor – could legally keep at home? In the poll below, pick one level of banning. Each ban includes all those prior. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting - Wikipedia

Obama asked "Obama to ‘Put Everything I’ve Got’ Into Gun Control" By PETER BAKER and MICHAEL D. SHEAR; The New York Times; January 16, 2013

such as "STATE POLICE IDENTIFY WEAPONS USED IN SANDY HOOK INVESTIGATION; INVESTIGATION CONTINUES" - Connecticut State Police Public Information Office; January 18, 2013

was used "Newtown shooter's guns: What we know" By Steve Almasy, CNN; December 19, 2012

The primary weapon used in the attack was a "Bushmaster AR-15 assault-type weapon," said Connecticut State Police Lt. Paul Vance. The rifle is a Bushmaster version of a widely made AR-15, the civilian version of the M-16 rifle used by the U.S. military. The original M-16 patent ran out years ago, and now the AR-15 is manufactured by several gunmakers. Unlike the military version, the AR-15 is a semiautomatic, firing one bullet per squeeze of the trigger. But like the M-16, ammunition is loaded through a magazine. In the school shooting, police say Lanza's rifle used numerous 30-round magazines.

marched in favor "Thousands march for gun control in response to Newtown shooting" - ASSOCIATED PRESS; January 26, 2013

against it "Second Amendment supporters rally in Rexburg" By Mike Mooney; (Idaho Falls) Post Register; January 26, 2013

... Matt Brady of Ashton was among those who made the trek. He had an AR-15 military-style assault rifle slung over his shoulder and a Glock pistol strapped to his waist.

“I think our (Second Amendment) rights are being eroded,” Brady said. Still, he wasn’t ready to condemn all of the Obama administration proposals to reduce gun violence. Brady, who said he is a psychologist, supports the president’s call for more money for mental health programs.

“My concern,” he said, “is what the (larger) legislative agenda is going to be. I have a lot of concern about (the federal government) taking away our Second Amendment Rights.”

Second Amendment U.S. Bill of Rights

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

well-settled law "The Second Amendment’s History" By Beverly Bandler, Consortium News; 25 January 2013

Professor Robert J. Spitzer discovered in the course of his research for the “2000 Symposium on the Second Amendment” that from the time U.S. law review articles first began to be indexed in 1887 until 1960, all law review articles dealing with the Second Amendment endorsed the collective right model.

The first law review article asserting an individual’s right to own firearms for self-defense (or sport) did not even appear until 1960. Eleven articles discussing the Second Amendment were published during this 73-year period. All endorsed the collective right model.

“If there is such a thing as settled constitutional law,” wrote law professor Carl T. Bogus in 2000, “the Second Amendment may have been its quintessential example.” The United States Supreme Court addressed the Amendment three times in 1876, 1886, and 1939 and on each occasion held that it granted the people a right to bear arms only within the militia. [See United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542 (1876); Presser v. Illinois, 116 U.S. 252 (1886); United States v. Miller, 307 U.S. 174 (1939).]

5-4 ruling "DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER - Syllabus" - Supreme Court Reporter; Argued March 18, 2008—Decided June 26, 2008

new reading "DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA v. HELLER - Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Souter, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer join, dissenting."

The Second Amendment was adopted to protect the right of the people of each of the several States to maintain a well-regulated militia. It was a response to concerns raised during the ratification of the Constitution that the power of Congress to disarm the state militias and create a national standing army posed an intolerable threat to the sovereignty of the several States. Neither the text of the Amendment nor the arguments advanced by its proponents evidenced the slightest interest in limiting any legislature’s authority to regulate private civilian uses of firearms. Specifically, there is no indication that the Framers of the Amendment intended to enshrine the common-law right of self-defense in the Constitution.

can admit "Bowling For Columbine Script - Dialogue Transcript" - Script-O-Rama

James Nichols: If the people find out how they've been ripped off and... and enslaved in this country by the government, by the powers-to-be... they will revolt, with anger, with merciless anger. There'll be blood running in the streets. When a government turns tyrannical, it is your duty to overthrow it.

Bowling for Columbine "Memorable quotes for Bowling for Columbine" - IMDb

Oklahoma City terror bombing - Wikipedia

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012

Since the onset of the greed-is-good era, and even more so with the clamor over the "fiscal cliff," some fat cats have been pushing hard to cut benefits to the old, the disabled and the poor from the big public insurance programs -- Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

For instance, Peter Peterson ($1.2B net worth), who made his fortune with a boost from the fund manager's tax break, has so far spent $485M on hyping the national debt problem and pushing propaganda to undermine the public insurance programs -- what he has called "the entitlement monster." He said, "We have to protect the very poor, but it's a period of shared sacrifice." But, in the throes of the Great Recession, the non-rich have already sacrificed. And if we would bring back the top bracket ($2.3M in 2011 $'s) 91% income tax rate that was in place from 1941 to 1964, we might help Peterson with his end of the "shared sacrifice."

Another such fat cat, Lloyd Blankfein ($450M), runs Goldman Sachs, a company that throughout history has inflated Wall Street bubbles, including the housing bubble that popped to bring the bank crashes of 2008 and the Great Recession. Blankfein is a member of the CEO council of the Peterson-funded "Fix the Debt" organization, which was established during the "fiscal cliff" clamor. About the public insurance programs, Blankfein said, "You're going to have to undoubtedly do something to lower people's expectations -- the entitlements and what people think that they're going to get, because ... they're not going to get it." But wouldn't it be better to instead lower Goldman Sachs's expectations? If we would bring back the .04% stock transfer tax, which was in place from 1932 to 1966, we might lower them a bit, and might even slow Goldman Sachs's work on the the next bubble and crash.

Other such fat cats, the brothers Charles and David Koch ($31B each), own and run Koch Industries, which they inherited from their father. The Kochs bankroll so wide an array of political groups -- such as the Heritage Foundation, ALEC and the Teabag Party -- that it is called the "Kochtopus." The Kochtopus also pushes propaganda to undermine the public insurance programs, as well as to stifle action on global warming. And the Koch brothers seem to approach their policy drives with the same results-oriented, focused follow-through that has worked in their company business. Charles Koch said, “To bring about social change [requires] a strategy [that is] vertically and horizontally integrated, [spanning] from idea creation to policy development to education to grassroots organizations to lobbying to litigation to political action.” Though it would hardly be enough to corral the Kochtopus, if we would bring back the top bracket ($40M in 2012 $'s) 77% estate tax rate, which was in place from 1941-1976, we might at least, when the Kochs' children take the reins, slow the flow of its poison.

So, before we cut one dollar going to the old, the disabled and the poor, let's try bringing back tax rates that worked during the prosperous times before the greed-is-good era, and that would raise many billions for the public till.

greed-is-good era "Reagan’s ‘Greed Is Good’ Folly" by Robert Parry; Consortiumnews.com; October 5, 2011

fiscal cliff "6 Reasons the Fiscal Cliff is a Scam" By James K. Galbraith; AlterNet; 2012-11-22

Peter Peterson "Profile: Peter Peterson" - Forbes; September 2012

fund manager's tax break "Tax breaks for billionaires" By Randall Dodd; Economic Policy Institute; July 24, 2007

pushing propaganda "Peterson-Pew Commission Uses Jingoism to Advance Budget Agenda" by Dean Baker, t r u t h o u t; 04 January 2010

he has called "Tax Break Helps a Crusader for Deficit Discipline" By LANDON THOMAS Jr.; New York Times; February 15, 2008

91% income tax rate "Income tax in the United States - History of top rates" - Wikipedia

$450M "Lloyd Blankfein Net Worth" - Celebrity Networth

throughout history "The Great American Bubble Machine" by Matt Taibbi; Rolling Stone; July 9, 2009

The first thing you need to know about Goldman Sachs is that it's everywhere. The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money. In fact, the history of the recent financial crisis, which doubles as a history of the rapid decline and fall of the suddenly swindled dry American empire, reads like a Who's Who of Goldman Sachs graduates.

CEO council "CEO Council Demands Cuts To Poor, Elderly While Reaping Billions In Government Contracts, Tax Breaks" by Christina Wilkie & Ryan Grim; Huffington Post; 11/25/2012

Fix the Debt "The CEO Campaign to ‘Fix’ the Debt: A Trojan Horse for Massive Corporate Tax Breaks" By Sarah Anderson and Scott Klinger; Institute for Policy Studies; 2012-11-13

Blankfein said "Goldman Sachs CEO: Entitlements must be contained" by Scott Pelley; CBS News; November 19, 2012

.04% stock transfer tax "Speculation and Taxation: Time for a Transaction Tax?" by Joseph J. Thorndike; Tax Analysts; September 26, 2008

Charles and David Koch "Inside The Koch Empire: How The Brothers Plan To Reshape America" by Daniel Fisher; Forbes; 2012-12-05

ALEC ALEC Exposed

Teabag Party: a more apt name for the fervent anti-tax political movement that calls itself the "Tea Party," and whose policies abet corporate power. Formed in 2009, the Teabag Party soon held a Tax Day protest, at which a protester threw a box of teabags on the White House lawn. The Teabag Party has virtually no connection to the Boston Tea Party, which was a direct action against a corporate monopoly.

Kochtopus "The Kochtopus" - The Influence of Koch Cash

Charles Koch said "Covert Operations - The billionaire brothers who are waging a war against Obama." by Jane Mayer; The New Yorker; August 30, 2010

$40M in 2012 $'s
1976 top bracket of $10M x total inflation rate from 1976 to 2012 (4.05) = $40M in 2012 $'s

77% estate tax rate "The Estate Tax: Ninety Years and Counting" by Darien B. Jacobson, Brian G. Raub, and Barry W. Johnson; IRS

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012

Graham Hughes reaches South Sudan

The main feeling today is just one of intense gratitude to every person around the world who helped me get here, by giving me a lift, letting me stay on their couch, or pointing me in the right direction.

Hughes began his journey on New Year's Day, 2009, after reveling in Buenos Aires the prior night. He got up late, rushed to catch the ferry, and crossed the first border of his journey -- the River Plate into Uruguay.

They say that every journey begins with a first step. Mine began with a drunken stumble.

I think if I didn't harbor certain personality traits, I couldn't actually do this. I'm stubborn and fairly arrogant, but I'm also friendly and jovial with pretty much everyone I meet, which goes a long way.

I arrived in Bucharest around lunchtime and headed to the coach station. A political rally was taking place in the park between – I gave it a wide berth. I’ve never been one for mob mentality; I prefer to operate under the radar, subverting people’s opinions by means of stealth, cunning and outright ridicule.

The first time I was thrown in jail was after a boat ride to Cape Verde ... I'd arrived on a fishing boat with a bunch of Senegalese fishermen, and naturally the policemen at the port assumed I was a people smuggler. No talking them out of it. I ended up sleeping on the floor of a tiny jail cell with 10 other people for five nights before I was freed without charge.

There is no precedent for this. I can’t refer to a single book or call up one person and ask them how to do it – I’m making it up as I go along, dealing with the best information I can lay my heads on and leaving myself completely at the mercy and good will of my fellow human beings from Timbuktu to Kathmandu.

The other reason that Iran is now in my Top Ten countries of the world is this guy here. I was on the overnight coach from Shiraz to Khorramshahr when the dear old lady in front of me who didn’t speak a word of English passed me her mobile phone. The guy on the other end of the line explained that the lady was his grandmother and that she was concerned that the bus got in at 5am and I’d have nobody to meet me. He invited me for breakfast at Granny’s house (how could I refuse?) and sure enough, Hossein picked me up the next morning and we shared the most scrummy breakfast in the world in Granny’s flat. After breakfast he drove me down to the port and made sure I made it safely onto the ferry to Kuwait.

The following people are just some of the many ODYSSEY HEROES – believe me, there are many more, but it’s not always possible to snap a pic of border guards who welcome me into their country with a cup of tea, the policeman who slips his mobile phone through the cell bars so I can call for help or the bus driver who drives through the night to get me where I need to be.

I ... spent seven days in Tibet and warned schoolchildren in Afghanistan about the dangers of men with beards.

I met the Prime Minister of Tuvalu, rode on top of a 18-wheeler through the northern badlands of Kenya, hitched a ride on a cruise ship to The Dominican Republic, joined a Bwiti tribe in Gabon, screamed at the ocean in El Salvador and watched a space shuttle blast off in the USA.

I've fed the crocs in Australia, hunted the dragons of Komodo, befriended the orangutans in Borneo, played with the lemurs in Madagascar, washed the elephants in India and eaten live octopus in South Korea.

I ... danced with the Highlanders of Papua New Guinea and was rescued from Muslim fundamentalists in The Philippines by a ladyboy called Jenn.

The main highlight I have to say, ... for me, has been the reaffirmation of my faith in humanity and the fact that people I have met on the road have been so friendly and hospitable.

Graham Hughes' route as GPS bread crumb trail.
CLICK for Country Checklist.

The main feeling today 'Global first: Brit visits all 201 states without flying' By Mike Pflanz, Correspondent, The Christian Science Monitor; November 26, 2012

Graham Hughes The Odyssey Expedition

a charity WaterAid - a UK-based registered charity fighting to alleviate the disease, misery and death caused by open sewers, contaminated drinking water and lousy sanitation in developing countries around the world.

They say that every journey 'Day 1: Hey-Ho LET’S GO!' by Graham Hughes; The Odyssey Expedition; January 1, 2009

I think if I didn't harbor certain personality traits 'Globe-trotting Brit sets a new 'Guinness' record for itchy feet' By GREG CORMACK, Special to The Japan Times; May 16, 2010

I arrived in Bucharest 'Day 119: Carlos The Jackal' by Graham Hughes; The Odyssey Expedition; April 30, 2009

blagging 'blag' - The Free Dictionary

The first time I was thrown in jail 'Globe-trotting Brit sets a new 'Guinness' record for itchy feet' By GREG CORMACK, Special to The Japan Times; May 16, 2010

There is no precedent About The Odyssey Expedition

Iran is now in my Top Ten 'Asia' - The Odyssey Expedition - Heroes

scrummy breakfast 'Day 465: Breakfast of Champions' by Graham Hughes; The Odyssey Expedition; April 21, 2010

The following people 'Heroes' - The Odyssey Expedition

I ... spent seven days in Tibet The Odyssey Expedition

The main highlight 'After 201 Countries, Man Ends World Tour in South Sudan' by Hannah McNeish; Voice of America; November 26, 2012

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012

Romnesia is a memory malady typified by the 2012 United States presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. There are at least two types of this malady. The first type is the habitual politician's flip-flop, but, upon taking the "flop" position, blacking-out on having ever held the "flip". Among the many that have noted this malady in Romney is Rudy Giuliani, a candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. He said, "I've never seen a guy change his positions on so many things so fast, on a dime." After the second candidates' debate, Romney's opponent, President Barack Obama, sought to define this type of Romnesia:

[N]ow that we’re 18 days out from the election, Mr. “Severely Conservative” wants you to think he was “severely kidding” about everything he’s said over the last year. He told folks he was “the ideal candidate” for the Tea Party, now suddenly he’s saying, “what, who, me?” He’s forgetting what his own positions are, and he’s betting that you will too.

I mean he’s changing up so much – backtracking and sidestepping. We’ve gotta name this condition that he’s going through.. I think it’s called “Romnesia.” That’s what it’s called. I think that’s what he’s going through.

Now, I’m not a medical doctor but I do want to go over some of the symptoms with you because I want to make sure nobody else catches it.

If you say you’re for equal pay for equal work, but you keep refusing to say whether or not you’d sign a bill that protects equal pay for equal work – you might have Romnesia.

If you say women should have access to contraceptive care, but you support legislation that would let your employer deny you contraceptive care – you might have a case of Romnesia.

If you say you’ll protect a woman’s right to choose, but you stand up at a primary debate and said that you’d be “delighted” to sign a law outlawing that right to choose in all cases – man, you’ve definitely got Romnesia.

Now, this extends to other issues. If you say earlier in the year I’m going to give a tax cut to the top 1 percent and then in a debate you say, I don’t know anything about giving tax cuts to rich folks – you need to get a thermometer, take your temperature, because you’ve probably got Romnesia.

In later stump speeches, Obama warned against contagion:

[Governor Romney]’s hoping that you come down with what we call a case of ... Romnesia. He’s hoping you won’t remember that his economic plan is more likely to create jobs in China than here in Ohio, because it rewards companies that ship jobs overseas instead of companies that are creating jobs right here in Ohio, right here in the United States of America.

He’s hoping you won’t remember that he wants to give millionaires and billionaires a $250,000 tax cut. And the reason he can’t explain it is because the only way to pay for it is either by blowing a hole in the deficit, making it even bigger, or making your taxes higher.

... He’s hoping that if he just keeps on saying how much he loves cars over and over again that you won’t remember he wrote an article that was titled, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

The second type of Romnesia is the illusion of the rich person born on third base that thinks one hit a triple, but blacking-out on one's given advantages to the point of losing sympathy and a sense of responsibility towards those without such advantages. The columnist, George Monbiot, defined this type of Romnesia in an article published in September:

We could call it Romnesia: the ability of the very rich to forget the context in which they made their money. To forget their education, inheritance, family networks, contacts and introductions. To forget the workers whose labour enriched them. To forget the infrastructure and security, the educated workforce, the contracts, subsidies and bail-outs the government provided.

...

There is an obvious flip-side to this story. “Anyone can make it – I did without help” translates as “I refuse to pay taxes to help other people, as they can help themselves”.

... “Everything that Ann and I have,” Mitt Romney claims, “we earned the old-fashioned way”. Old-fashioned like Blackbeard perhaps. Two searing exposures in Rolling Stone magazine document the leveraged buyouts which destroyed viable companies, value and jobs, and the costly federal bail-out which saved Romney’s political skin.

He said "What Republicans Say About Romney" - Political Irony

sought to define "President Obama Explains 'Romnesia'" By karoli; Crooks and Liars; 2012-10-19

Obama warned "President Obama's remarks at Cleveland, OH, campaign event" - Transcripts and Documents; Daily Kos; 2012-10-25

an article "Romnesia" by George Monbiot; September 24, 2012

Rolling Stone told how "The Federal Bailout That Saved Mitt Romney" by Tim Dickinson; Rolling Stone; 2012-08-29

Romney said "What Romney Wants You (and Ohio) to Forget About the GM Rescue" by Jonathan Cohn; The New Republic; October 23, 2012

[F]or more details about the bankruptcy process, and why Romney's preferred solution was different from Obama's, see Jacob Adlerstein in the Huffington Post:

Romney was a vocal critic of the auto bailout, and most notably of the billions of dollars that the government loaned GM and Chrysler in the months preceding their bankruptcy filings. Implicit in his critique, however, is the belief that the restructurings of GM and Chrysler would have been just as successful (or more so) had the companies immediately filed for bankruptcy and only thereafter commenced negotiations with their stakeholders. This is known as a "free-fall" bankruptcy, and while many large and systematically important companies have successfully emerged and prospered after such bankruptcies (for example, most of our domestic airlines), many have also cratered, as such bankruptcies are generally recognized to be far more lengthy and costly, with an outcome that is far less certain. Indeed, no bankruptcy professional would counsel a free fall bankruptcy when an equally effective pre-negotiated bankruptcy is achievable.

However, even if a free-fall was, for whatever reason, Romney's preferred prescription, the vital question his proposal left unanswered was who, if not the federal government, would have financed these free-fall bankruptcies? The Obama administration believed that its loans to GM and Chrysler, especially the loans made before they filed for bankruptcy, were necessary to permit the companies to continue operations while they negotiated with their stakeholders. Neither GM nor Chrysler, the administration concluded, could access the capital markets, both because of their own financial weakness as well as the collapse of financial markets around them in the wake of Lehman's demise. The government, in short, was a true lender of last resort.

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012

Ohio Voter Information

with such hindrances "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio - Status Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff; January 5, 2005

citizens petitioned "Ohio Ballot Issues Address ’04 Election Ills" - The Paragraph; November 6th, 2005

seemed to prompt "Ohio House endorses no-fault absentee voting" BY JIM PROVANCE; Toledo Blade; 2005-10-20

more voting restrictions "How to Vote in Ohio" - The Paragraph; October 4th, 2006

passed a law "Over 200,000 Votes Cast In 2008 By Ohioans Living In Ohio’s Capitol Would Now Be Banned By Kasich’s Election Law" By Tanya Somanader; Think Progress; Jul 25, 2011

petitioned to repeal "SECRETARY OF STATE HUSTED CERTIFIES HB 194 REFERENDUM PETITION SIGNATURES - Petitioners have met requirements to place issue on November 2012 ballot." - Ohio Secretary of State; December 9, 2011

COLUMBUS – Secretary of State Jon Husted today certified that petitioners seeking a referendum on House Bill 194 have collected 307,358 valid signatures, meeting the requirements to place the issue on the 2012 November ballot. Petitioners needed 231,150 signatures, or six percent of the total vote cast for Governor in 2010.

a strong chance "Jon Husted really, really wants to avoid having his elections bill decided by a referendum" By ModernEsquire; Plunderbund; January 25, 2012

repealed their own law "Ohio House votes to repeal controversial election law" By Joe Guillen; The Plain DealerMay 08, 2012

federal judge threw out "Judge overturns Ohio law, restores in-person early voting in 3 days leading to Election Day" By Reginald Fields; The Plain Dealer; August 31, 2012

issued tie-breaking votes "State may set hours for voting - Democrats think GOP managing to tailor voting to county history" By Darrel Rowland; The Columbus Dispatch; August 11, 2012

issued uniform hours "Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted calls for uniform early voting hours" By Reginald Fields; The Plain Dealer; August 15, 2012/p>

Husted issued a ban "Cuyahoga County Council OKs absentee ballot mailing; Husted drops plan to block ballot applications" By Joe Guillen; The Plain Dealer; August 30, 2011

mail them out to all "Absentee ballots arriving in the mail" By BOBBY WARREN; The Daily Record (Wooster); September 7, 2012

Ohio Voter Information: Except for that below, all Voter Information comes from the Ohio Secretary of State's website.

Contribute - Ohio Campaign Finance Current Law - Ohio League of Women Voters

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau "Learn about the Bureau" - CFPB

first enforcement order "Capital One to Pay $210 Million in First CFPB Enforcement" By Carter Dougherty and Dakin Campbell; Bloomberg; Jul 18, 2012

Cordray said that customers were wrongly led to believe they needed to buy the services to activate their cards or that debt protection or credit monitoring was free, while others were left with the impression that the purchase would improve their credit scores. Some customers were simply not eligible, but got billed anyway.

full refund "CFPB probe into Capital One credit card marketing results in $140 million consumer refund" - CFPB

automatically "How will the Capital One order handle refunds?" By Kent Markus; CFPB

If you’re eligible for a refund and you have an open account, the refund will be automatically credited to your account. If you’re eligible but no longer have an account with Capital One, a check will be mailed to you. You should expect to receive your refund later this year. You don’t need to take any action to get your refund.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act "Patient's Bill of Rights" - healthcare.gov

pay out 80% " Value for Your Premium Dollar" - healthcare.gov

getting $1.1B in rebates "Checks come as surprise under 'Obamacare'" - CNN; July 27, 2012

push from President Obama "Obama Picks CFPB Chief Nominee, But it Won’t be Elizabeth Warren" by Elizabeth Ecker; Reverse Mortgage Daily; July 18th, 2011

“Prior to the passage of the Dodd-Frank Act, the President and I fought side by side to make the new agency possible,” Warren said. “And, if we need to, I know we will continue to fight side by side, to keep it strong and independent and to make sure it has the tools it needs to serve the American people.”

repeal both the CFPB "Mitt Romney Beating President Obama Raising Wall Street Cash" by Ben Hallman; The Huffington Post; 2012-02-01

and the PPACA "Ask a Think Tank: Romney’s plan to repeal ‘Obamacare’ on day one" By Allen McDuffee; The Washington Post; 2012-07-02

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012

Ohio Gerrymander #4

Ohio Gerrymander #9

Ohio 1992 & 2002 Congressional Maps

Ohio 2012-2020 Congressional Map - In the Grip of Gerrymanders

• community – keeping counties, townships and cities within one district,
• competitiveness – keeping the lean towards one party in a district to 5% or less,
• representational fairness – keeping the ratio of districts leaning towards a party to that of recent election results, and
• compactness – no leggy, meandering shapes.

Winning map in Ohio congressional redistricting contest by Mike Fortner

UPDATE 2012-08-06 11:30 PM: The Ohio Secretary of State validated enough signatures today, and the anti-gerrymandering issue will go on the November ballot.

said Professor Richard Gunther "Professor: New Ohio Congressional district lines are ‘grotesque’" By Andi Hendrickson; The Lantern; October 3, 2011

Ohio's new congressional district map "Ohio congressional district map 2012: find your district" By Rich Exner; The Plain Dealer; December 15, 2011

75% of the congressional seats "Op Ed: With a little thought, it’s obvious these things make no sense" by Joe Hallett; The Columbus Dispatch; 01/29/2012

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner of West Chester told Politico last week that he thought Republicans had gerrymandered enough congressional districts around the country to retain control of the House through 2020.

Certainly Boehner and fellow GOP map-makers did their part in Ohio. Of the 16 new districts they drew, 12 are so ironclad Republican that even Mo, Larry or Curly could win with an R behind his name. ...

rise of the gerrymander "Ohio GOP made 2002 congressional redistricting work to its advantage through 2010 election" By Rich Exner; The Plain Dealer; November 16, 2010

abusers of power "Let’s just say it: The Republicans are the problem." By Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein; April 27, 2012

... The filibuster, once relegated to a handful of major national issues in a given Congress, became a routine weapon of obstruction, applied even to widely supported bills or presidential nominations. And Republicans in the Senate have abused the confirmation process to block any and every nominee to posts such as the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, solely to keep laws that were legitimately enacted from being implemented.

brink of default "United States of America Long-Term Rating Lowered To 'AA+' Due To Political Risks, Rising Debt Burden; Outlook Negative" - Standard and Poor's; 05-Aug-2011

The political brinksmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed. The statutory debt ceiling and the threat of default have become political bargaining chips in the debate over fiscal policy. Despite this year's wide-ranging debate, in our view, the differences between political parties have proven to be extraordinarily difficult to bridge, and, as we see it, the resulting agreement fell well short of the comprehensive fiscal consolidation program that some proponents had envisaged until quite recently.

citizens' backlash "Redistricting plan will be on ballot for Ohio voters, group says" By Marc Kovac; Record Courier Capital Bureau; July 31, 2012

The issue Summary of the Proposed Amendment - Ohio Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission Amendment

one more map Draw the Line Ohio - Congressional Competition Winners

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By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012

Romney (center) & Bain Cap in the money, 1984.

• The U.S. government's Pension Benefits Guarantee Corporation: a $44M loss to cover base worker pensions.
• Steel workers: a $27M to $120M loss^* on a reneged-upon plant closing contract clause.
• Bain Capital: a $16.5M gain in profit and fees.

• How were GST Steel and its owners able to renege on the plant closing contract clause?
• How did the GST workers' pension fund become underfunded?
• Who warned GST management that the pension fund was underfunded, and why was no corrective action taken?

founded and molded "The Romney Economy" By Benjamin Wallace-Wells; New York Magazine; Oct 23, 2011

... Romney was also a business revolutionary. Our economy went through a remarkable shift during the eighties as Wall Street reclaimed control of American business and sought to remake it in its own image. Romney developed one of the tools that made this possible, pioneering the use of takeovers to change the way a business functioned, remaking it in the name of efficiency. ...

... What emerged from that long decade of change was a system that is more productive, nimble, and efficient than the one it replaced; it is also less equal, less stable, and more brutal. These evolutions were not inevitable. They were the result, in part, of particular innovations developed by a few businessmen beginning a quarter century ago. Now one of them has a good chance of becoming president.

When Bill Bain asked Romney to run the new spinoff, in 1983, the idea made sense from the perspective of Bain & Company. The senior partners were awash in cash that they were looking to invest; its more junior partners needed something to do.

Finding outside investors wasn’t as easy. ... Romney finally found some takers from Latin America, most important the enormously wealthy Poma family, and by 1984, he and six consultants he’d picked were staging a photo shoot for the brochure accompanying their first fund; grinning and geeky, they posed for an outtake with dollar bills stuffed in their mouths, their sleeves, their collars.

... Within a decade, ordinary businesses were giving large stock and option packages to CEOs. Executive compensation soared. “These Bain Capital guys,” says Neil Fligstein, an economics-sociology professor at the University of California, Berkeley, “were agents of the shareholder value revolution.” By the mid-nineties, The Business Roundtable had changed its definition of the role of a company, winnowing a broad set of responsibilities down to a single one: increasing shareholder value.

its run with GST Steel "Special report: Romney's steel skeleton in the Bain closet" By Andy Sullivan and Greg Roumeliotis; Reuters; KANSAS CITY, Missouri; Jan 6, 2012

Less than a decade later, the mill was padlocked and some 750 people lost their jobs. Workers were denied the severance pay and health insurance they'd been promised, and their pension benefits were cut by as much as $400 a month.

What's more, a federal government insurance agency had to pony up $44 million to bail out the company's underfunded pension plan. Nevertheless, Bain profited on the deal, receiving $12 million on its $8 million initial investment and at least $4.5 million in consulting fees.

His supporters say the pension gap at the Kansas City mill was an unforeseen consequence of a falling stock market and adverse market conditions. But records show that the mill's Bain-backed management was confronted several times about the fund's shortfall, which, in the end, required an infusion of funds from the federal Pension Benefits Guarantee Corp.

Nevertheless, Bain and its partners decided to buy the mill for $75 million. Bain put up about $8 million to gain majority control of the company, renamed GS Technologies Inc. GE Capital, former Armco executives and Leggett & Platt, a major customer for the mill's wire rods, chipped in the rest of the equity.

As part of the deal, Armco agreed to cover employee pension obligations if the plant closed within five years -- a $120 million liability, according to the Kansas City Business Journal.

GS announced plans for a $98 million plant modernization and Kansas City officials agreed to a tax break worth about $3 million, according to press accounts.

In 1995 Bain merged GS with another wire rod maker in Georgetown, South Carolina, to form one of the largest mini-mill steel producers in the U.S. The new company issued another $125 million in bonds to pay for the merger. Bain doubled down, reinvesting $16.5 million of its earlier dividend.

In 1997, with Armco's pension guarantees set to expire in one year, the United Steelworkers local at the Kansas City plant was worried that GS was not setting aside enough money to cover pension obligations and other benefits in the event of a shutdown.

...

After 10 weeks, the two sides reached a deal that boosted pensions and ensured that workers would get health and life insurance in the event of a shutdown.

GS Industries declared bankruptcy on February 7, 2001, and said it would shut down the Kansas City plant, eliminating 750 jobs. In a press release, the company said the bankruptcy was triggered in part by "the critical need to restructure the company's liabilities."

Workers soon found out what that meant. In April, GS said it was shedding the guarantees it had promised its workers in the event of a plant closure - the severance pay, health insurance, life insurance and pension supplements that had been negotiated during the 1997 strike.

The U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, which insures company retirement plans, determined in 2002 that GS had underfunded its pension by $44 million. The federal agency, funded by corporate levies, stepped in to cover the basic pension payments, but not the supplement the union had negotiated as a hedge against the plant's closure.

breaking a pension contract "Where the Money Lives" By Nicholas Shaxson; Vanity Fair; August 2012 issue

a roughly 27M to 120M loss:
The $27M includes the supplemental pension loss only, estimated as: $300 per month average loss per worker x 12 mos x 10 yrs x 750 workers.
The $120M is the cost of the prior contract's plant closing benefits as estimated by the Kansas City Business Journal.

By Quinn Hungeski, TheParagraph.com, Copyright (CC BY-ND) 2012