Why I Would Support Senator Kerry in '08, Were He to Decide to Run Again

Some DUers have sent very kind and encouraging words to me, regarding my activities relating to Halliburton.

Most people skim this letter that I sent to Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, and ignore the footnotes:

http://www.HALwhistleblowers.org/#byrdletter

http://www.bushbunglesbrigade.org/#byrdletter

Footnote 5 is a must-read.

As I wrote to Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, I very much "regret that I" didn't "share the details" of my conversation with Mr. Clark (Deputy Chief of the Fraud Section of the DOJ's Criminal Division) with the MSM back in 2004. As I wrote to the Senators: "Therein lies a tale unto itself – and one that I would gladly share with you."

And now, as my own personal way to mark the "Ides of October," here are the basics of that back story:
****************************************************************************

1. I received the mis-directed e-mails discussed in my "Byrd letter" shortly before the Christmas holidays of the year in question. I worked for Halliburton/KBR's Government Proposals Group from August 2001 until April 2003.

2. My partner and I rotate where we spend Christmas each year: one year with his family, one year with mine, one year is our "floater" year.

3. That year, we were due in West Virginia (my family). Only a few weeks had passed since I received the mis-directed e-mails, intended for David R. Smith, VP of Tax at Halliburton.

4. As she is wont to do, Mom asked me, "How's work?" Usually, this plays out in a predictable pattern: "Work is work. It's the holidays. The last thing I want to talk about is work. Can we *please* discuss anything other than work?" It's pretty much a set piece, with well-rehearsed lines on both sides. ; )

5. But that particular Christmas, I was still bothered by what had just gone down at work, and was eager to share. So, just to throw her for a loop, I said, "Actually, I have a helluva whaleuva tale to tell you. If you make me a pot of your 'chicken 'n dumplins,' I'll tell it to you."

6. She was duly surprised, stammering out, "I'm not even sure I have all the ingredients." Once I had my pot, I sang for my supper. Mom was incensed when she heard the story, but once she calmed down, she agreed, reluctantly, that I should probably just keep it to myself (I needed to keep my medical insurance; Crohn's). The rest of that holiday visit was relatively uneventful.

7. Fast forward to early July 2004, a couple of years later. I was folding laundry on a Sunday, much like today. I was halfway listening to Mom on the phone. She was bellyaching about a campaign event that she *had* to go to. She hates politics, but enjoys public policy: "I don't care what they label themselves; just do their job." Usually, she tries to beg off from going to these sorts of political events. But, as she explained to me while I folded laundry and halfway listened, "I can't get out of this one. It's the Kerry campaign stop."

8. My stepdad's two best friends in high school were Congressman Nick Joe Rahall and the Mayor of Beckley, WV. My stepdad sits on Beckley City Council. As such, he'd been given "VIP tickets" to the Kerry/Edwards campaign stop in Beckley, which took place at the Raleigh County Memorial Airport.

9. As my mom explained that Sunday, "The one redeeming factor is that Teresa Heinz Kerry is supposed to be there, too. I don't agree with everything she says, but I admire that she speaks her mind, and doesn't play the role of the dutiful politician's wife. She has her own opinions, and isn't shy about sharing them."

10. I put in my time that Sunday, wished her well for her upcoming campaign event, and rang off, pretty much forgetting about it.

11. The campaign event in question took place on July 9, 2004, in Beckley, WV: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=kerry+edwards+beckley+raleigh+county. Mom never mentioned anything about it.

12. On July 22, 2004, I got home from work. My partner and I were celebrating 10 years together that day, so I was in a hurry to change, open my mail, and check my voicemail before he got home, so I'd be ready to go out.

13. On my voicemail system, I had a strange message. The caller introduced himself as Jonathan Winer, and explained that he had served for years as legal counsel to Senator Kerry on The Hill. He said he would like to discuss a conversation that a "member of the Kerry campaign" had recently with my mother; he mispronounced her name.

14. My first reaction, as I was multitasking during this first listen-through, was that one of my college roommates or friends was pulling my leg. Several knew that I had worked for Halliburton for a time. I figured one of them, knowing that a general election always gets me excited, had disguised his voice and was pulling a prank.

15. During my second listen-through, I focused my attention on the caller's voice - trying to figure out which of my college pals was trying to put one over on me. Since I still knew people at Halliburton/KBR who had access to Dick Cheney's signature as a JPEG, I was already plotting on sending my prankster pal a "Report to GITMO" letter, "signed" by the Veep. During this second listen-through, I grew more perplexed. The caller's voice sounded too old to be any of my college pals.

16. During the third listen-through, I stopped everything else, and listened to the content and the voice. Suddenly, that one brain cell in the back of my head screamed, "OH MY GOD! She didn't!!!"

17. Suddenly, the conversation of a couple Sundays prior came back to me: Mom, lamenting the necessity of going to a political event, but finding the silver lining in the prospect of meeting Teresa Heinz Kerry.

18. I saved the voicemail message, hyperventilated for a minute, then picked up the phone to call my mom:

"Hello?"

"Mom, is there something you need to tell me?"

"Um, I don't think so, why?"

(Strike One)

"Did you have a conversation with someone in the Kerry campaign that maybe you ought not to have?"

"Why do you ask?"

(Strike Two)

"Because I (expletive deleted) have a (expletive deleted) voicemail that suggests that maybe you (expletive deleted) did!"

(I hardly ever curse with my mom around.)

"Wellllllllll..." (and for a moment, I swear that she channeled Samantha from Bewitched, when caught doing magic; it sounded just like it)

19. That was all I needed to hear. That tacit admission meant that the voicemail was for real. "Mom, I need you to tell me exactly what happened. Before I even think about calling this guy back, I need to know exactly what went down."

20. As she related it to me: when the Kerry-Edwards campaign arrived, the local VIPs were invited to greet them, in a room at the airport (which is very small). This pre-rally reception lasted for maybe 20 or 30 minutes. Mom said that many of the local women were hanging back, afraid of Teresa Heinz Kerry, or unsure of the protocol.

21. My mom has never met a stranger. She's gregarious. "David, I was afraid she was going to leave, and think we were all local yokels."

22. So, she went up to Mrs. Heinz Kerry, and started chatting her up. Mom asked her whether she was enjoying the campaign, whether she was enjoying seeing parts of the country she might never have otherwise seen, whether her children were enjoying the campaign - and then, as mothers are sometimes wont to do, she segued.

23. Mom started talking about her own three children, about how her oldest went to Harvard and got a degree in Government, and about how he had once worked for Halliburton. "And, oh, by the way..."

24. Leading into the story I had told her, in her kitchen, for what turned out to be the most expensive pot of 'chicken 'n dumplins' I've ever had in my life.

25. Mom recounted the story in front of Mrs. Heinz Kerry's scheduler.

26. Apparently, after the entire event - including the rally out front of the airport building - was over, Mrs. Heinz Kerry and her scheduler repeated the story on the campaign plane.

27. In the intervening 13 days between July 9, 2004 (the campaign event) and July 22, 2004 (the day I got the voicemail), I have reason to believe that my bona fides were checked out. Harvard? Check. UMWA Scholar? Check. Byrd Scholar? Check. Etc., etc., etc.

28. So, by the time that Mr. Jonathan Winer picked up the phone to leave me a voicemail, I had been vetted to the point of being worth the follow-up.

29. Once Mom filled me in, it was pretty obvious that she'd gotten caught up in the moment, and had maybe even thought better of what she'd done afterwards. Hence, no heads-up from her, and no mention of the event, before I got the voicemail from Winer.

30. At this point, she began expressing concerns over whether this would have a negative impact on me at work. "A little late for that now," I thought, but I reassured her that it would be OK.

31. We rang off. I was one beer in and positively agitated when my partner walked in from work (I'm usually a pretty laid-back, low blood pressure kinda guy). He could tell something was wrong, and - being our anniversary - he assumed it had something to do with that.

32. When I brought him up to speed, he could only laugh. "That's some anniversary present your mom gave us this year, huh?"

33. I didn't think it was funny at all. "What should I do?" I asked him.

34. "Well, you're the one who's always quoting Edmund Burke - all that is necessary, blah, blah, blah, remember?"

35. Boy, did that come back to bite me in the ass. "I know that, but what do you think I should do?"

36. Not to be pinned down, he threw it back on me: "That's not important. What do *you* think you should do?"

37. "Well, I guess there's no harm in at least calling Mr. Winer back, and hearing him out."

38. "Sounds reasonable to me. Why don't we postpone our dinner plans, and you call him?"

39. Draining that beer, I picked up the phone, and listened to the voicemail again, transcribing the callback number (local to DC, I noticed).

40. When we were connected, Mr. Winer was at pains to establish *his* bona fides. As he explained who he was, I muted the phone and Googled him. Everything he told me checked out. Mr. Winer was very adamant that the campaign could not - and would not - get involved in politicizing an ongoing investigation. However, he said, he happened to know the DOJ attorney heading up the Halliburton investigation that related to the mis-directed e-mails, and could - with my permission - give him a call to let him know I was prepared to discuss them. He believed my knowledge of these e-mails and their contents could help the DOJ.

41. During our conversation that evening (Thursday, July 22, 2004), Mr. Winer made several comments to the effect that the DOJ attorney in question, a Mr. Peter Clark, had expressed frustrations over the Halliburton case. I was given to understand that besides the company's stonewalling, Mr. Clark was also feeling pressure from higher up in the DOJ to back off. At no point during our initial phone call did Mr. Winer tell me where Mr. Clark sat in the DOJ hierarchy. When he asked me for my permission to give my name and number to Mr. Clark, I said, "Sure, go ahead."

42. I never imagined that the call would come so soon. The very next morning, Friday, July 23, 2004, my phone rang during the 7 - 8 hour, while I was getting ready for work. Being a coal miner's kid, the phone ringing this early can only mean one thing: bad news. I picked up the phone, heart already racing. "Hello?!?"

43. That conversation is recounted in my letter to Senators Byrd and Rockefeller: http://www.halwhistleblowers.org/#byrdletter

44. As recounted in that letter, I received another call from Mr. Clark later that same day: "He informed me that following the morning phone call, FBI agents showed up in both Arlington, Virginia and Houston, Texas, demanding copies of both my e-mail account’s backups, and the other David Smith’s. At this time, Mr. Clark informed me that his team of investigators had been stymied at almost every turn up until this point – hinting that the obstruction was coming from the Administration itself. He informed me that I was free to share the details of our conversation (and of the FBI activities resulting from those conversations) with anyone I chose – including, he said very pointedly, the media."

45. That afternoon phone call came while I was in a meeting. I had to excuse myself to take it, when I saw the Caller ID. After it was over, I went back into the meeting, said I had received some serious news, and needed to take the rest of the afternoon off. "Be back Monday," I said.

46. By the time my partner got home that Friday, I was three beers in (I'm a lightweight, so I was also three sheets). He took one look at me, grinned, and said, "Long day at the office?"

47. Once I brought him up on the latest developments, I re-visited the very pointed instruction that I was free to run to the media with the story. "It almost seems like they're hoping this will break wide open, and force the higher-ups to back off," I said. "But I don't like the idea of running to the media with my hair on fire, saying, 'Look what I've got!' If they (meaning the campaign and/or the DOJ) want to leak it, they're in a much better position than I to do so. Then, if the media calls me to confirm, I can and will do so. Besides, they're in a better position than I to time this to their maximum benefit. My guess is it could become an October Surprise."

48. So, between July 2004 and October 2004, we lived in perpetual dread that one day, we'd turn on the radio or the TV, to hear or see something about it.

49. When October came and went, I was mystified.

50. On Wednesday, November 3, I have an e-mail to Mr. Winer and to Mrs. Heinz Kerry's scheduler, which reads:

"Just a quick note to say that lots of people out here are very proud of how
the campaign was conducted, and we're very proud that Senator Kerry is
waiting for the votes to be counted in Ohio. Please don't listen to the
armchair quarterbacks who second guess how the campaign was run. You guys
did an incredible job.

Thank you for everything you did to help the Senator and his family on the
trail. I caught Vanessa Kerry on one of the news channels last night, and
she is an amazingly articulate advocate for her father.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is anything at all that I can
do to help, and please continue to urge the Senator to hang in there and let
the counting continue in Ohio. I took the day off from work weeks ago (Gov
Geek that I am, I knew I'd be wiped the day after the election).

Good luck, be safe, get some rest, and above all, thank you!

- Dave"

51. The reply I received from Mrs. Heinz Kerry's scheduler:

"Thank you for all of your efforts david, your spirit was always strong as we must remain. Thank you for all your correspondence. My personal email is
(redacted). And I will now be reachable there. Keep fighting the good fight. Thank you, (redacted)"

And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is why I will support Senator Kerry with every fiber in my being, should he decide to run in 08. As a former prosecutor himself, he took the high road, and chose not to politicize an ongoing investigation that was at a critical phase. For this high-minded approach, Senator Kerry paid a very heavy price.
********************************************************************************

52. Earlier this year, I began receiving threats, right around the time I contacted Halliburton with my allegations:

"Wait until 'Dave' finds out about Smith and Wesson." (April 13, 2006)

"Sonny, you are in way over your head. Chill before you really lose something important." (April 13, 2006)

53. I immediately contacted the DOJ/FBI, as instructed.

"Mr. Smith,

One of us will call you today, along with an FBI agent. Will you be available?

Regards,
(redacted)"

So, there you have it. The back story, which I plan to tell Congress, proudly and with head held high. And I take my hat off to the many Democratic staffers - and a few GOP ones - who have created a safe environment within which Halliburton whistleblowers can tell their stories.

- David A. Smith, Editor of HALwhistleblowers.org and BushBunglesBrigade.org
(not to be confused, ever again, for David R. Smith, VP of Tax at Halliburton)

But if we are doing do-overs, I would much prefer Gore.

... she was one year behind me.

She was in Leverett, I was in Winthrop.

VP Gore was my class's Commencement Day Speaker.

And in one of the strangest inside-the-Beltway moments I've ever experienced in my 8 years here:

It was unseasonably warm on New Year's Day, Y2K. My partner and I frequently walked over into Georgetown, and varied it up, sometimes going all the way up to National Cathedral. We'd noticed the Y2K countdown clock in front of the Naval Observatory (official home of the sitting Veep).

As we walked along one side, my partner noticed a paved trail on the inside perimeter of the fence.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"I dunno. Groundskeeping carts? Maybe for Gore to jog on?"

No sooner had I said that, than here he came, jogging over a rise. A Secret Service detail was running with him inside the fence, and a Secret Service guy on a bicycle was riding along outside. The bike dude glared at us, as I waved and said, "Happy New Year, Mr. Vice President!"

He waved and smiled, huffing as he jogged off.

My partner thought I was going to get us arrested.

: )

I would have just told the Veep that he was my Commencement Day Speaker, and Karenna was one year behind me.

; )

- Dave

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winthrop_House

Elliot Richardson.

David and his roommate lived three floors directly above JFK's preserved rooms, junior year.

I wonder if there is any way of finding out if David ever lived in Elliot Richardson's old rooms?

THAT would explain a lot.

: )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliot_Richardson

Ides

P.S. I'm not touching the Barney Frank or other famous Winthrop House connections with - er, um - a "ten foot pole" isn't what I'm going for here, exactly.

Elliot Richardson was a Winthrop Houser?!?

SWEET!

- Dave

... I could go back to July 2004, and tell it then.

Every time I hear Judge Roberts' or Judge Alito's names, I cringe to think, "What if?"

- Dave

the GOPs didn't buy up control of most major broadcast media in the 80s and 90s for nothing.

It took a category 5 hurricane to blow back at their category 4 spin machine that had been operating for the last ten years.

They successfully impeached a politically talented PRESIDENT, fer chrissakes. Katrina blew them back enough for some truth to be finally heard.

... do they really want to get Byrd's "dander" up over this?

- Dave

.

IMHO it's more like there's a huge vaccume sucking up the copious quantities of dander before the people notice the dander cloud.

I agree with you that David would have been raped in the press at best, and at worst I won't speculate.

-Hoot

news cycle, and if it does, it gets about 30 seconds. A minute if you're lucky and someone doesn't confess to killing JonBenet.

... self-publishing. Rather than being beholden to an editorial calendar, or the vagaries of the news cycle...

- Dave

I'm not suprised that Kerry and his team did well by you. He's gotten my support and my votes for over 20 years now.

I'll be up there this week for my "criminal trespass" hearing - brought by Andy Card's high school buddy, the CEO of State Street: http://www.shareholdersonline.org/pdf/HaveYouSeenThisMan.pdf

http://www.google.com/search?as_q=card+logue+holbrook++white+house+chief+of+staff+high+school&num=10&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=state+street+&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=boston.com&as_rights=&safe=images

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=enron+card+logue+holbrook+halliburton+%22high+school%22+%22margie+burns%22

- Dave

We are definitely blessed in the Senator Dept up here. :)

... and left a registered Republican.

Bill Weld is to blame!

: )

- Dave

Weld is the only rethug I've ever voted for. And that's because his Dem opponent (John Silber) was way too scary to even consider voting for.

... now there's a name I haven't heard in a good long while.

Think he knows where Whitey is hiding out?

; )

- Dave

P.S. My family dealt with my being gay just fine. Coming out as a Republican was the "tough" conversation. They make no excuses for my being gay. "Massachusetts Republicans would be considered Democrats here," or words to that effect, have been overheard as offered excuses for "you know - him being a (hushed voice) Republican".

; )

to partake in the thuggery. I hoped he'd resist it - - but, he gave in mightily to it after Bush stole office in 2001.

What's the indictment against Weld?

I lost track after his mid-life crisis.

- Dave

Weld never seemed that comfortable having to lie through his teeth to that degree.

... I'll have to go back and look (I keep an open mind).

If he joined the ranks of Colin Powell and John MCain, I'd have to say I would have to reconsider my opinion.

Spitzer in a landslide, and why not?

- Dave

I admire Senator Kerry, too, so we have that in common.
Have you received any response from Byrd or Rockfeller?
Also, have you considered contacting Henry Waxman? I
think he's been trying for years to expose the fraud
and abuse.
Just a thought, thanks for keeping us posted, and I
hope you continue to do so.

"I admire Senator Kerry, too, so we have that in common."

I'd live a gypsy's existence for him in 08!

"Have you received any response from Byrd or Rockfeller?"

Protocol dictates that I let them answer that.

"Also, have you considered contacting Henry Waxman?"

Yes. Done, months ago.

"I think he's been trying for years to expose the fraud
and abuse."

I was very impressed with his staff.

"Just a thought, thanks for keeping us posted, and I
hope you continue to do so."

Count on it!

: )

- Dave

Stay safe!

... please say a prayer.

As one of my friends told me, "I told your story to my mother. Now, when she complains that I never tell her anything important about what's going on in my life, I just cite what happened to you."

; )

- Dave

Thanks for sharing your story, and good luck to you.

... made me laugh. Fond memories!

: )

Just don't buy KKKarl's KKKool-Aid, and certainly don't drink it if you do!

- Dave

newsmedia atmosphere he would be considered a hero of the first order. He and Kerry deserved this nation's highest honors for what they did.

Kerry and Winer persevered through death threats and almost complete DC ostracization by even the Dem powerstructure at the time. They were loathed and hated by Republicans and establishment Dems alike.

If we had an honest media, more people and even more Democrats would know that. And we wouldn't have to fight so hard for people to understand what the anti-corruption, open government wing of the Democratic party already knows.

Your post has been a balm to those of us who "get" how hard it is to take on BushInc in any MEANINGFUL way. Which often includes putting your life at risk.

You are a patriot and a citizen in every sense of the word.

Mr. Winer very kindly invited my partner and me to his home in Maryland. His two kids are extraordinarily gifted.

I'm very grateful to Mr. Winer for putting me in contact with the DOJ, and for the integrity he showed.

As I said, I would gladly live a gypsy's existence for Senator Kerry in '08, should he decide to run again.

- Dave

P.S. I can relate to the death threats. Not fun.

of who Jonathan Winer is, his and Kerry's place in effecting real history, and how hard it is for anyone who sticks their neck out for years to oppose the most serious corruption in government.

That makes you about number 20 - - - heh - - pretty sad about that but corpmedia won't discuss what really went down the past twenty years, so most people don't know or understand it, many Dem lawmakers want it to go away, and even though we suffered through 9-11 and this Iraq war because of the roots of BushInc's crimes against the constitution.

... I wish I'd been more persistent in getting clearer signals from the campaign. If I'd known the story hinged on my breaking it, I would've.

I thought for sure that either the DOJ or the campaign would pull a "Washington leak," and then I'd be asked to confirm my part of the story to the media. When nothing happened in October, I assumed that there was a good reason, and there was, as it turns out: Senator Kerry took the high road.

As a former prosecutor, he understood the importance of not politicizing an ongoing investigation at a critical juncture.

- Dave

such an important case.

DU doesn't get that level of ethics for the most part - some do - some want red meat all the time and don't care for the serious and boring things that require legal standing.

... when you know you've worked on the side of the angels.

: /

- Dave

My partner and I got to kibitz about how to parry the "global test" idiocy that the Bushies tried to raise: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22global+test%22+kerry+bush

The visit to Mr. Winer's house came shortly after that debate.

; )

- Dave

what a heavy load this man had carried?

IranContra and BCCI - the REAL stories - hold all the keys to just about everything happening today - the deliberate terror, war and empire building for certain global fascist figures.

... that the conversation with the Kerry campaign really *did* take place, signifying that the voicemail I had in the archive was *very* real.

By the time I picked up the phone to Mr. Winer, I was relatively calm. As I Googled him, though, I guess you could say I got an electric charge as I realized that this very calm, very patient person on the other end of the line was a "Heavy Hill" sorta guy.

Speaking of BCCI, don't you think James Addison "Jimmy Boy" Baker, III is looking and smelling more and more like the GOP Clark Clifford every passing day?

: )

- Dave

sunk to in a hundred years.

Baker was more part of the dirty dealings of BCCI than Clifford - but Clifford's bank was being used by the likes of Bush and Baker to facilitate their dealings. You don't think BushInc would turn over the documents that showed THEIR guilt, do you?

... that bear it out.

: )

- Dave

... is the real hero.

: )

- Dave

P.S. I never imagined, sitting in her kitchen, that she would ever have - or take - the opportunity to recount the story to the wife of a major party's nominee. Her chicken 'n dumplins are good - but not that good.

I bet your gut told you to tell her ;)

... she owes me many, many pots of those damn chicken 'n dumplins, no "singing for my supper" required!!!

: )

No joke: she's had a very hard life, and remains one of the kindest, most decent people I know.

She is the 16th of 16 kids (!!!). Her dad, a disabled coal miner, died when she was 11. Her mother was a wheelchair-bound invalid (small wonder, after having all those kids) from the time my mom was 9.

My mom was in 8 schools in 8th grade - passed around among her older siblings almost like luggage.

Thanks to one of my aunts, Mom had a stable high school experience. She came back to West Virginia from Nevada during her senior year of high school, to help care for her mother, who'd just had another stroke. She met my dad (3rd of 8), they got married, and - once kids started coming along - they were determined to stop the cycle of poverty.

She is a little bit shy of completing her coursework for her first degree. She not only emphasized education to us, but she practiced what she preached: lifelong education.

- Dave

I know because my dad is also from West Virginia, from a long line of good, solid and (and quite liberal although they wouldn't describe themselves as such) caring people. My dad also had a hard early life, although not as hard as your mom's. :hug:

We're very lucky.

I wouldn't trade growing up "dirt poor" for anything. We had love, we had books, and we had all those woods.

Whereabouts in WV is your dad from?

- Dave

swimming hole at Fish Creek. We visited every summer from an Illinois suburb and it really was like heaven to me.

... steel country.

My folks mined the coal down in the Southern part of the state; folks up your way turned it into steel; folks out Detroit way used to make it into cars.

- Dave

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/09/28/rose.kennedy.papers.ap/index.html

Now ***THAT'S*** funny!

: )

- Dave

:rofl:

edit to add this from your link:
BOSTON, Massachusetts (AP) -- Rose Kennedy, for one brief shining moment the most powerful mother in America, went over President Kennedy's head in 1962 to write directly to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev. For that, she got a playful scolding from her son.

She wrote a letter asking the Russian leader to autograph photographs of his meeting with her son, and Khrushchev complied.

"Would you be sure to let me know in the future any contacts you have with heads of state. ..." John Kennedy wrote to his mother on White House stationery on November 3, 1962, just days after the Cuban missile crisis ended. "Requests of this nature are subject to interpretations and therefore I would like to have you clear them before they are sent."

Unfazed, Rose Kennedy wrote back: "Dear Jack: I am so glad you warned me about contacting heads of state as I was just about to write to Castro."

... I can sorta relate!

: )

"Dear Mother:

In the future, should you find yourself at a function with the wife of a Presidential nominee, please refrain from retelling any stories I've told you about my misadventures inside BushCo.

Your loving son,

- David"

(I can only begin to imagine the response I'd get.)

ROTFLMAO.

- Dave

... to say "spouse" of a Presidential nominee.

She'd find the loophole, and bend Bill's ear when Hillary blew threw town.

: )

- Dave

Boot the squatters. They're intentionally destroying things in order to profit, on a massive scale, and someone has to step up and replace them before they profit massively from disasters they've invoked.

... of the country. Just as the Watergate hearings sparked many important "open government" reforms (e.g., FOIA, sunshine laws, open meetings laws), impeachment hearings can help update some of those tools for the Internet Age.

Besides, done right, it could lead to Speaker Pelosi becoming the first woman President!

: )

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_line_of_succession

- Dave

Kerry has the initials. So who are you proposing to make Kerry consigliere to?

- Dave

I'd say that it would be history's genius to see John Kerry as the AG who made so many things right, going back twenty years and more, before succeeding to the presidency, with unprecedented gravitas, after Al Gore.

A fella can dream, can't he?

... Kerry could keep him straight about those "controlling legal authorities," and such.

; )

- Dave

A gal can dream, can't she?

According to Woodward, Gore told him that a tell-all from him would get 1% more information about what went on than Clinton's book. And Clinton told Woodward that his book told 1%.

You think Gore wants the books opened on BushInc now when he and Clinton helped cover up so much which tainted them as complicit?

The CIA drugrunning story came out during their first term and they downplayed it, and refuted Gary Webb's reporting. Webb was essentially drawn and quartered and smeared as a fantasist, when a couple years later, CIA documents turned up that backed his story up completely.

Gore would have to pledge to open the books on BushInc, then I would have no trouble supporting him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_kerry#Yale_University_.281962.E2.80.931966.29

Pobody's nerfect.

- Dave

He chose to serve out of the same honor and citizenship that compels his everyday life. Wikipedia doesn't even tell 1/2% of what Kerry is about. How many with those connections make the tough, honorable choices Kerry has made his entire adult life?

... they're among the most interestingly-decorated.

And they're right around the corner from JFK's old offices.

: )

- Dave

At 16, I began exhibiting the symptoms of Crohn's. I had to stop playing sports. I lost a lot of weight. My teachers and my parents grew increasingly concerned. I was fortunate not to be a pediatric Crohn's kid: at least I'd done all of my growing.

At 17, my teachers persuaded my parents to take me to Johns Hopkins (everyone was beginning to worry that it was cancer). Just after Thanksgiving 1989, I was diagnosed with Crohn's.

In that pre-Internet day and time, my mom grabbed every single pamphlet she could lay her hands on before we left JHU.

On the six-hour car ride back from Baltimore to Beckley, she proceeded to lob questions over the back seat, comparing the information in the pamphlet to my experiences. My stepdad kept shooting me smiling, sympathetic glances in the rearview mirror, as if to say, "I am driving as fast as I can."

No teenager wants to discuss that sort of thing with their parents; but I'd been so tight-lipped about it, I guess she was just thankful to finally have something concrete to go on.

We pulled up in front of the house, and I shot out of the back seat like a scalded cat. All I wanted to do was to go upstairs, close my door, and absorb the diagnosis privately.

When we walked in, my sister and brother were in the entry way, behaving very "squirrely".

"Guess what came while you were away?" my sister asked. She had something behind her back.

To this day, I still feel guilty, but I grouched at her. Looking hurt that I'd spoiled her surprise, she pulled out from behind her back the sealed envelope that turned out to contain my early admission letter to Harvard.

It couldn't have come at a better time; talk about going from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs.

Because the letter had arrived right after the Thanksgiving holiday (my parents had pulled me out of school for a few days for the trip to JHU), my fears turned out to be true:

A letter had also been sent to the school's guidance counselor, informing her of my admission. My first day back, I made a beeline for her office, to try to keep her from telling any of my teachers.

Too late.

So, that first day back, I had to spend time explaining to each class that "No, I don't have cancer," and "Yes, it's true. I got in."

I didn't want any of my friends, who were facing college applications over Christmas Break, to be discouraged. By the time I made it to Mr. Lilly's Calculus class, I wasn't eager for yet another retelling of my diagnosis and college entry.

"So, David, what wonderful math courses will you be taking at Harvard?"

The devil made me do it.

"None, Mr. Lilly. Not a single one. I never plan to take another math class as long as I live."

What the hell? After first semester of senior year, grades don't count for seniors.

; )

The point: you said that Senator Kerry served. In my Latin class that day, one of my best friends leaned over and whispered, "You know, you'll probably make six figures right out of college. You're set for life."

I was stunned. That's not why I wanted to go to any college, let alone Harvard.

You can always tell those who go for the money, and those who go for the love of learning, and what that can help accomplish, to make a life worthwhile.

I'd agree with you that Senator Kerry is one of the latter.

- Dave

decisions. At one time VP's were folks without power who did the President's bidding and kept quiet about their own concerns. At least it was that way until DICK CHENEY who decided to run the show and got all the help he needed.

... many of the online databases we enjoy today (e.g., the FEC campaign finance disclosures) can trace their roots to his efforts to drag the Federal Government into the Information Age: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=gore+rego

So I'd give him credit for that.

Think he can carry TN in '08?

- Dave

him "at that time" in our Political History...probably says more about Gore's Honor and Integrit than anything else.... (It's such a hard thing to deal with...when your OWN STATE trashes you)..but Gore "moved on." That might say there's hope for him...or others will say he's corrupt.

I'm a Gore supporter..though...so I admit my bias. I don't trust Harold Ford...just have "bad vibes about they guy...but maybe he's better than what he's replacing. :shrug:

Any single Red State in 2000, turned Blue, would have given Gore the Presidency.

Every state has a minimum of 3 Electoral College votes. "History" records a tally of 271 (Bush) to 266 (Gore).

So even the tiniest Red State, flipped, would have changed the recorded tally to 269 (Gore) to 268 (Bush).

If you look back through the 25 elections of the 20th century, check to see how many times WV was solidly Dem. A few are worth calling out:

1980: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election%2C_1980 (WV went for Carter)

1988: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election%2C_1988 (WV went for Dukakis, with one rogue Elector going for Bentsen)

With those 5 Electors, Gore would have had 271 to 266 - the mirror result. The supreme irony is that he lost WV on what should have been his strong suit - the environment. Gore's team took WV for granted ("hell, if they voted for Dukakis..."), and allowed Bush's machine to sow fears that Gore's "extreme" form of environmentalism would decimate the state's still-important coal and timber industries.

If he can't hold on to a border state like that, does he really have a chance deeper into the Old South? Is there a poll out there where TN voters have expressed a strong surge of newfound love for their native son?

If not, Kerry's camp is likely going to make hay out of the facts that: (1) at least Kerry carried his home state; and (2) assuming Kerry throws his hat back in the ring in '08, that he didn't need 8 years to go nurse his ego back to health.

Just a very long-range handicap, for what it's worth.

: )

- Dave

in all the Focus on FLA...that shenanigans that went on with voters in Tennesee...sort of went by the wayside...giving Repugs the "extra out" that ...WELL! if Gore couldn't even win his homestate...then it PROVES the "Hanging Chads" in Florida mean that clueless/idiot Dems just couldn't figure out how to vote. Therefore the "Supremes" did the RIGHT THING by allowing Bush to be "Installed" because even TENNESEE couldn't vote for their own "Homestate Boy?"

That's the way I see it...sorry...it's just the way I see it. :shrug:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election%2C_2000#Close_states

Besides, until a foolproof, tamper-proof way of counting votes is adopted, human nature runs the spectrum from good to evil on both sides:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_J._Daley#Democratic_machine_politics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammany_Hall

- Dave

If one wanted to have a "back up" for Florida. Gore couldn't even WIN HIS HOME STATE! FALL OVER AND SUCK THAT UP! Great job against Dems contestign what went on...isn't it. ? :eyes:

Al Gore was the Democratic Co-Chair of the William Randolph Hearst United States Senate Youth Program in 1990, my senior year of high school: http://hearstfdn.org/ussyp/home.html

I was one of two delegates from my state.

When he came to speak to us, he spoke on a wobbly riser, placed in a ballroom of the Mayflower Hotel (where we delegates were staying, gratis the Hearst Family).

He grabbed a cushioned hotel chair out of the first row, turned it to face us, and then began talking to us about emissions in the 18th through 20th centuries. To illustrate his point, he used one hand to show the upward slope in emissions and greenhouse gases. When he got to a key uptick in emissions in the 20th century, he jumped up on that wobbly chair, on that wobbly riser - scaring his guards, and delighting us high school seniors.

He was anything but dull.

In the 2000 general election, I think they should have lined the first 5 rows of every single campaign event with high school students and college students. He seems to feed off that youthful enthusiasm, and shakes off his monotone.

The Democratic Party has two "prophets in the wilderness" candidates to offer in 08. One or the other is going to have to bow out.

- Dave

P.S. The encounter with him jogging at the Naval Observatory on New Year's Day, Y2K, was surreal.

Illinois Girls State, 1976.

"Baby" nothing!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article_Two_of_the_United_States_Constitution#Clause_5:_Qualifications_for_office

LOL (trust me, any Harvard Government concentrator worth his/her salt knows the year s/he is eligible for the House, Senate, and Presidency)

Mountaineer Boys' State, June 11-16, 1989

: )

- Dave

she'll be a helluva President one day.

22 years 'til she hits the age req, though.

... I imagine she's mastered the "Executive Order" by now?

LOL.

My condolences. Any other teens?

- Dave

for Bosses Day.

The "other", a 10 y/o copperheaded Amazon, will be a super AG. Maybe So'S.

btw, if you need some snap on your team when you inevitably run, pm me. I'm in.

Although, with my mom being 16th of 16, and my dad being 3rd of 8, I've got a pretty solid ground operation!

I'm hearing good things, too, especially from Ohio.

- Dave

she turns 7.

The US can only have one dictatortot at a time - and Bush got there first.

Wait until there's a "palace coup," assuming you plan to have more!

: )

- Dave

Oddly, though, I'm from a family of 12 kids, myself - working class Irish Catholic. Poor version of the Kennedys. heh

... to how the Kennedy's managed all that bootleggin'?

An old Coast Guard Captain told us that they used to run it up and down the East Coast in the Coast Guard ships (and paid those men handsomely, in cash, and "in kind").

My family moonshined on the WV/KY border: maybe if it hadn't been landlocked, they coulda done it on a grander scale?

; )

- Dave

He was a horrid person - total slime.

the real Gore - civil servant.

It's the DC establishment crowd that keeps him from steppin up to the plate to unmask the layers of corruption that he is quite familiar with as an 8yr VP.

... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_gore#Early_life

I mean, when you grow up swimming in the Senate swimming pool, you're bound to become familiar with the sharks!

- Dave

involving BushInc and their crimes against the constitution.

This country can't move on honestly, because most people have no idea about the actual roots to terrorism and all other policies that have been blowing back on this nation since the first WTC bombing....even before...with the Marine base bombing in Lebanon.

... is a Government-backed monopoly that more Americans should understand, for sure.

Iran-Contra was small potatoes.

- Dave

or two that have come up for me while digesting all this?

First, why DU? Perhaps you're posting and discussing in more than one place, but I'm curious about why you chose DU as a forum.

Second, why the game format in footnote 5 to the senators?

Thanks.

"First, why DU?"

That's easy. Do you think the RNC is about to look into this? The RPC?

http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/

Not likely.

While there *have* been some GOPers who have responded with interest, they're few and far between.

"Perhaps you're posting and discussing in more than one place, but I'm curious about why you chose DU as a forum."

I am, indeed, discussing in other forums, including but not limited to: http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?company=smith+david+allen&CIK=&filenum=&State=&SIC=&owner=include&action=getcompany

"Second, why the game format in footnote 5 to the senators?"

I figure if nothing else, it will give Senator Byrd a chuckle. He could use one, after the year he's had.

- Dave

I also would have no problem supporting Senator Kerry should he run again though I don't have anything as interesting and important to share.

... it seems.

Ever been to his simple gravesite at Arlington, just over the slope from JFK's?

The reason I mention this is that he really followed up on JFK's promise to help lift Appalachia out of poverty. One of his last campaign events was coming back through West Virginia - which defied the pundits and supported JFK in the 1960 primaries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election%2C_1960

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=west+virginia+catholic+kennedy+1960+primary

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22robert+f.+kennedy%22+%22west+virginia%22+1968

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachian_Regional_Commission

Today's JFK - Kerry - failed to connect in these areas, as did Gore (WV's 5 electoral votes could have pushed the 2000 Electoral College vote the other way, and WV went for the Dem much more often than not in the 20th century).

It takes more than a contrived photo opp like this one: http://images.google.com/images?q=kerry+hunting&hl=en

If Kerry had been hunting since the age of 12, his best way of connecting with avid hunters and Second Amendment voters would have been to have put out an ad, showing any and all pictures of him doing so - from age 12 on. That sort of imagery would have rung as authentic, and would have connected in the gut of every hunter who remembers their first (and other memorable) hunting trips.

And pheasants?!? No, no, no, no, no!

Squirrels, even if he admits it's his first time: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=squirrel+hunting+ohio

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=squirrel+hunting+%22west+virginia%22

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=squirrel+hunting+kentucky

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=squirrel+hunting+virginia

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=squirrel+hunting+tennessee

And the triumphant hunter says as follows: "I done brought you a mess o' squirrels. Will you make me some gravy?"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=squirrel+gravy

If he poked a little fun at himself, he'd connect better in those areas.

- Dave

in your thread about building bridges (post 302).

I think it was the pamphlet campaign that was carpet bombed throughout areas that have a high percentage of weekly church-goers ... not just WV.

When my mom got one on her doorstep, she was fit to be tied.

: )

Of course, she was the one who would come home from Sunday service, sit us down, and say something like: "The pastor preached A, B, C, D, and E. I personally only believe A and D. As you get older, you will have to decide for yourselves what you believe."

Critical Thinking 101 - license to challenge orthodoxy; Mom trumps Pentecostal Pastor every time!

- Dave

but didn't hear anything inside the campaign about it. So I was unaware it was a pamphlet type of accusation.

... it was the first thing she showed me, once I got settled, the first visit I made after she got it.

She was angry and hurt that the Rovites thought that West Virginians were so easily manipulated.

I can only imagine what she's going to say when she reads, "Tempting Faith".

- Dave

:)

What will today bring us?

... and great joy, with any wee bit o' luck.

: )

- Dave

Butt'McToots.

thinking about running in 2008 will emerge out of the woodwork. But we must not let down our guard, not for a minute, because we know this regime is up to no good as usual.

... Mark Warner's bowing out.

However, I did notice that he didn't bar the door to a VP run (which is a much shorter sprint than slogging all the way through the primaries).

John Kerry could do a lot worse, both in terms of good counsel, and in terms of Electoral College math.

Your point is well-taken though: first things first. Which Congressional District are you writing from?

- Dave

I feel sorry for the guy.

- Dave

Although I have some criticisms about how Kerry ran his campaign in 2004, I think that he would be the best candidate (so far) that has announced or hinted at plans to run in 2008 on the Democratic ticket. If you believe the election results (and why would we?), Kerry only lost by a small 2% margin even AFTER the negative media coverage, "Swift Boat Veterans for the Truth" attacks, terror alerts, and even the Osama "I endorse Kerry" Bin Laden videotape. IF the election results were accurate (and why they be?), I surmise that Bush was able to "eke" out a small victory only because of 9/11 and the issue of terrorism and Bush's highly touted (but factually inaccurate and dishonest) record of responding to it AFTER 9/11/01. People already seem to be souring on Bush and the Republicans because of their bungling in Iraq and New Orleans so, hopefully by 2008, people might be more receptive to Kerry's more "nuanced" messages and ideas. Also, I don't think that there really would be much else negative that the press could dig up on Kerry. Ditto for Gore should he decide to run. My dream ticket would actually be Kerry/Gore or Gore/Kerry since one of them SHOULD have rightfully been President sometime whithin the last 6 hellish years instead of Bush/Cheney. However, I will ultimately support and vote for WHOEVER wins the Democratic nomination because we need somebody in the White House who will bring sanity and compassion back to the executive branch. Hopefully, having a Democrat in the White House again will also help encourage Republicans to support efforts to strip the executive branch of all of its unnecessary and extra-constitutional powers that have built up during the Bush Presidency assuming that Bush and the Republicans don't let all of the power that they have accumulated since 2001 go to their heads and actually finish the transformation of our democracy into a dictatorship/empire. :scared:

I'd rather see a governor in one berth (Mark Warner of Virginia didn't rule out the Veep spot).

- Dave

Frankly, I really don't care who runs in 2008 as long as they have a "D" attached to them! Winning back one or both houses of Congress in 2006 will be helpful but without having the White House, we will not really be able to accomplish much. Besides, there is little doubt that both Gore & Kerry would have won their respective elections had there not been any "voting irregularities".

... that Senators have never governed anything except the fiefdoms of their Senate offices.

I believe there is *some* credence to the idea that a state governor brings something special to bear for any given ticket. My personal vote would be for Mark Warner of Virginia to be offered the Veep spot by the eventual nominee.

- Dave

very, very hard to follow your writing.

There is a large volume of text in your anecdote above with a lot of detail, and maybe it's just me, but I have to go through it time and time again to try and figure out what exactly it is you're saying, what exactly the story was that you are releasing, or should have released, to the media, or that you, or your mother, told THK.

I don't think I'm an unintelligent guy, you might disagree, but could you consider CONDENSING this lengthy anecdote to make it more clear what exactly is happening, what is the story being released?


http://www.halwhistleblowers.org/092006senateinvestigationrequest.pdf

In the letter to Sen. Byrd, what, exactly, is being alleged about Halliburton?

According to you, they were being investigated about something re: their business in Nigeria. You received emails meant for a veep, showing "circling of the wagons". Businesses do that stuff regardless whether they've done anything wrong. Now the implication of contacting the VP office to squelch investigation or call in favors is a worthy nugget, but do you think you could perhaps focused on stuff like that instead of all this autobiographical stuff about how you went to Harvard, what you think of George Allen and the "bushbunglesbrigade" stuff that makes up half your letter?

It just doesn't seem consistent with what I'd expect of the content of a letter meant to instigate an investigation or any serious action.

Especially a letter that goes to the Senate as they are getting out of session and heading into a bitterly contested election.

Maybe it's just me, but I find it VERY hard to follow the thread of what you're saying, either in your anecdote above or in the letter linked in this post.

... I think I see the "failure to communicate" here.

CGA was a humanities guy.

Mayberry Machiavelli was a science guy. (Chemistry, right?)

CGA's narrative can be distilled down into this easy-to-remember scientific formula:

E-mc2 (can't do superscript)

E-mails 'Carcerate Cheney

Ides

P.S. That would even fit on a bumper sticker.

thread is composed of CorpGov and Ides posts so I don't have a sense whether any other DUers have the same issues I do reading these verbose posts and trying to figure out what you (Ides/Corp or whoever else you got in the sock drawer) is trying to say.

It was a sincere question. I spent some time reading at the shareholdersonline site and it's not all that clear to me what the mission and message is.

Send me a list of your questions and issues, privately.

I'll do my best to answer them, briefly and concisely.

I doubt that Ides intended to be "snarky," and I suspect the intent was to get you to chuckle. You have to give him credit for trying to take a complex, politically-charged story, and adopt a spoofed scientific formula to try to boil it down to its essence.

As Catherine the Great said, "I praise in public; I criticize in private."

- Dave

clarity. If you choose to answer privately or not at all that's okay.

It's not at all obvious to me what you are actually asking the Senate to investigate with Halliburton. You got the emails by mistake. According to you there is circling the wagons, but are you alleging you are in possession of evidence of obstruction of justice? Fraud? What?

I meant what I said about the letter to Byrd. The majority of it is filled with autobiographical details about your life, the fact that you went to Harvard and were a Byrd scholar and all that, and the whole last page consists of info that doesn't seem germane to the topic, namely malfeasance at Halliburton. Your opinion of Sen. Allen, the web page and computer game you are involved with, is extra "noise" that in no way addresses the validity of your claims or request for an investigation, and in no way bolsters your credibility, IMHO.

Doesn't it seem that if you are saying "hey, Senators, investigate here" you should make a clear charge in your letter that "I have evidence of X type of wrongdoing" if you expect action? Bribery? Tax evasion? Obstruction of justice? Why should a senator take you seriously if you just say you have a bunch of emails from Halliburton that are fishy, give me a call and we'll talk?

The other issue I have is that, even when you post a very long original post to a thread, it constantly makes reference to all kinds of other information that you have to go to other links or past threads to reference instead of providing some kind of summary, as if anyone reading your thread has to have completed "David Allen Smith 101" to be familiar with the details of your personal saga. Even looking back at some of this source material I don't find that it spells out very clearly what is supposed to be happening between you, Halliburton, State Street and whatever.

"I think the various threads are lacking in clarity. If you choose to answer privately or not at all that's okay."

Here's fine.

"It's not at all obvious to me what you are actually asking the Senate to investigate with Halliburton."

OK.

"You got the emails by mistake."

Correct.

"According to you there is circling the wagons,"

The face of the e-mails made clear it was much more than that. I understand that any company - learning of a Federal investigation - would naturally "circle the wagons," as you put it. But there is a bright line between strategizing on how to respond and cooperate, and laying out a gameplan for how to obstruct justice.

"... but are you alleging you are in possession of evidence of obstruction of justice? Fraud? What?"

What inference do you draw from the fact that: on the morning of July 23, 2004, I spoke with Mr. Clark about the e-mails, and that same afternoon, he called back to report that the FBI had shown up in Arlington, VA and Houston, TX to demand copies of the backup tapes for David R. Smith's e-mail account, and mine?

Please don't take this the wrong way, but the scientific method *does* allow for the use of inferential data. Even before we could directly observe many scientific phenomena, we could infer their existence.

"I meant what I said about the letter to Byrd."

May I ask where you're from? Maybe the "cultural handshakes" where I come from don't work for you. Fine. But for evidence that these sorts of "cultural handshakes" really do matter, I refer you to the Electoral College results in 2000 and 2004.

"The majority of it is filled with autobiographical details about your life, the fact that you went to Harvard and were a Byrd scholar and all that, and the whole last page consists of info that doesn't seem germane to the topic, namely malfeasance at Halliburton."

The intended primary audience were the Senators from West Virginia. You may find them superfluous, and you may not be alone. But you are not the primary audience.

"Your opinion of Sen. Allen, the web page and computer game you are involved with, is extra 'noise' that in no way addresses the validity of your claims or request for an investigation, and in no way bolsters your credibility, IMHO."

I appreciate your unvarnished opinion.

"Doesn't it seem that if you are saying 'hey, Senators, investigate here' you should make a clear charge in your letter that 'I have evidence of X type of wrongdoing' if you expect action? Bribery? Tax evasion? Obstruction of justice?"

That very much depends on the hoped-for outcome. How you would define an "effective" or "successful" letter may differ from how I would.

"Why should a senator take you seriously if you just say you have a bunch of emails from Halliburton that are fishy, give me a call and we'll talk?"

Well, I think you answered your own question earlier. Because of all that autobiographical information, the Senators' staff can do a quick check, and discover how many times I've been up to The Hill in the past with credible information.

"The other issue I have is that, even when you post a very long original post to a thread, it constantly makes reference to all kinds of other information that you have to go to other links or past threads to reference instead of providing some kind of summary,"

Actually, the links are either: (1) primary source material; or (2) supplemental material that is not stuff that has to be followed - but is there for those who wish to do the extra reading. Remember how some syllabi had a section of "recommended reading," that wasn't crucial to the coursework, but which could provide additional grounding in certain aspects of the coursework? Please think of the links like that.

"...as if anyone reading your thread has to have completed 'David Allen Smith 101' to be familiar with the details of your personal saga."

Forget the "saga," and just focus on this simple fact: because of the difference in our middle initials, I received mis-directed e-mails intended for David R. Smith, the head of Halliburton's Tax group. Based on my understanding of public policy and law, with my degree in Government from our alma mater, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that what I read is worth any Senator's time and oversight.

"Even looking back at some of this source material I don't find that it spells out very clearly what is supposed to be happening between you, Halliburton, State Street and whatever."

I will try to be more clear. Thank you for your critique.

- Dave

... so few journalists (outside chemistry industry trade publications) have degrees in Chemistry, since even the MSM seemed to "get it."

http://www.google.com/search?q=halliburton+nigeria+bribery+%22david+a.+smith%22&hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&filter=0

Ides

http://www.bushbunglesbrigade.org/092006senateinvestigationrequest.pdf

This is a great story, and indicative of Kerry's character.

... couldn't have shown more integrity, poise, or graciousness.

- Dave

Give in to mediaspin instead of fighting them. That's real citizenship.

As if General Jesus Christ the former Gov. of South Carolina would be untouchable.

... part the Red State Sea?

: )

OK, wrong Testament.

"As if General Jesus Christ the former Gov. of South Carolina would be untouchable."

The soda shot right up my nose. Thanks!

; )

- Dave

What do you want in a President, anyway?

Someone who can pronounce "nuclear" correctly?

; )

- Dave

I'll support any Democrat in the GE, but I'll keep voting for John Kerry as long as he continues to run for the Office. I think he recognizes the extent that the criminal enterprise, know as the RNC, has corrupted and damaged our country. I want justice for AL, John, the innocents on 9/11, and the innocents who have died in this administration's criminal acquisition of Iraq's oil.

... why "old and in the way"?

The "old and in the way" crowd have much to teach. Summers on my grandparents' farm were wondrous for many reasons - not the least of which is that my grandparents had much to teach about how the UMWA stood up to the GOP/coal operator cabal of their day:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=west+virginia+mine+wars

Most Americans have never even heard of the Battle of Blair Mountain, when Federal troops bombed American citizens:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=battle+of+blair+mountain+bomb

President William Gamaliel Harding - the original Diebold Republican:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President_Harding

- Dave

As far as my screen name, at the time of my initial sign-up, I happened to be listening to the great bluegrass band, Old and In the Way, playing their namesake song, "Old and In the Way". I think the words tell the story...

Old And In The Way
Lyrics: David Grisman
Music: David Grisman


Chorus
Old and in the way, that's what I heard them say
They used to heed the words he said, but that was yesterday
Gold will turn to gray and youth will fade away
They'll never care about you, call you old and in the way

Once I hear tell, he was happy
He had his share of friends and good times
Now, those friends have all passed on
He don't have a place called home
Looking back to a better day, feeling old and in the way

When just a boy, he left his home
Thought he'd have the world on a string
Now the years have come and gone
Through the streets he walks alone
Like the old dog gone astray, he's just old and in the way

... my XM Radio seems to like Bluegrass, too, for some reason!

But then again, I could sleep on the couch of a different family member in Pike County, KY (Hatfield and McCoy country, just over the Tug Fork River from WV), and never sleep on the same couch twice for a year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pike_County%2C_Kentucky

My mom's side of the family came from Logan County, WV (site of the Battle of Blair Mountain): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan_County%2C_West_Virginia

... and moved to McDowell County (routinely listed as among the poorest in the Union): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDowell_County%2C_West_Virginia

That's where my dad's family had settled, moving back east from Pike County to follow the coal mining jobs.

It may interest you to know that a team of British musicology professors from (Oxford? Cambridge?) visited the Appalachian Highlands in the early 1900s. Their mission? They'd heard a rumor that old Scottish ballads for which the melodies had been lost in the UK were still being sung there.

As it turned out, they were able to find many of these being sung, and set them down to music again.

That story (along with how the Irish priests helped save much knowledge after Rome fell) always reminds me that all it takes to rekindle a flame of knowledge is one carefully-guarded ember.

There's a story in there for this generation of Americans, I think.

- Dave

for him again. I'm keeping my campaigning local and grass roots.

... a productive way to channel what sounds like Kerry disenchantment.

What cooled you on Kerry?

- Dave

attacks leveled against him. While I think he is a FINE (better than) senator, it is my opinion that now is the time for turning another page, looking anew at our potential candidate lists and taking a fresh shot.

And, unfortunately for I cried that day-knowing we had been duped, I will never believe his excuse for his IWR vote. I knew, my neighbors knew, my family knew what Bush would do with that vote. If he had up and apologized for participating in good old fashioned Washington politics I'd have respected him more.

... "I blew it - big time," I think most people would respect that.

- Dave

from the world, and because his sense of public service is so keen, he gives back what has been given to him. Brains plus generosity is a potent combination in a leader.

The man has my vote.

... though he needs a "local guide" in some areas of the country (or a better Veep pick this go-around).

- Dave

read on DU of Congressional races in which Democrats are doing very well, and I realize I don't have those races on my radar.

I'm going to do some serious cramming this week to try and catch up with the blue tide gang here on DU. This place is a terrific source of info (and motivation!).

In particular I need to read up on the Christine Jennings/Vern Buchanan race for Katherine Harris' old seat, and also the race for IN-08 -- Hostettler vs. Ellsworth.

Do you read Rasmussen?

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/politics.htm

Leaving aside the full House, one-third of the Senate, and all those Governors' races, there are also important state AG and Treasurer races, and a handful of state legislatures hanging in the balance.

That's why I always take the Wednesday after an election off. I'm luggage by 4 a.m., up by about 7 a.m., and have all the papers, TV, and Internet tools going. By about 2 p.m. that Wednesday, I'm ready for a nap.

; )

- Dave

I'll get caught up here in the next few days.

I'm ready for a big blue night on Nov. 7th.

... will be blue or purple.

: )

- Dave

:toast: :dem:

... with blue and purple beer, a la St. Patrick's Day.

: )

- Dave

never even considered that any other candidate has the resume and drive that he does to take this country forward. We alway felt he was in the race for the right reasons.